| Wuhan is open and infections are down, but China's coronavirus numbers can't be trusted Posted: 10 Apr 2020 12:14 PM PDT  China this week reopened Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected, claiming that new infections were in the single digits. But in recent days Beijing has been accused of reporting inaccurate counts of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
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| The woman leading COVID-19 vaccine trials is 'not your average pocket-protector scientist' Posted: 12 Apr 2020 06:13 AM PDT  "A lot of people are banking on us, or feel that we have a product that could, at least, be part of the answer this world needs," Corbett said.
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| Boy from isolated Amazon tribe dies after being infected with coronavirus Posted: 10 Apr 2020 07:32 PM PDT  BrasÃlia (AFP) - A Yanomami indigenous boy has died after contracting the coronavirus, authorities in Brazil said Friday, raising fears for the Amazon tribe, which is known for its vulnerability to disease. The 15-year-old boy, the first Yanomami to be diagnosed with the virus, was hospitalized a week ago at an intensive care unit in Boa Vista, the capital of the northern state of Roraima, officials said. Isolated indigenous peoples in the Amazon rainforest are particularly vulnerable to diseases brought in from the outside world, and a Yanomami rights group said the boy had come in to contact with "many" other indigenous people after he began showing symptoms.
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| New Law Helps You Delay Mortgage Payments and Prevent Foreclosure Posted: 10 Apr 2020 11:17 AM PDT  If you're having trouble making mortgage payments, there is help available.
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| White House slams Voice of America, VOA fights back Posted: 10 Apr 2020 02:20 PM PDT  The White House on Friday launched an unusual attack on the congressionally funded Voice of America, the U.S. broadcaster that for decades has provided independent news reporting around the world. In a broadside directed against VOA's coverage of the pandemic and China on Friday, an official White House publication accused it of using taxpayer money "to speak for authoritarian regimes" because it covered the lifting of the lockdown in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus first emerged. VOA promptly fired back, defending its coverage.
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| 50 years after Apollo 13, Commander James Lovell sees the mission's failure as a triumph Posted: 12 Apr 2020 09:20 AM PDT  Aboard Apollo 13, James Lovell was supposed to be the fifth person to walk on the moon. It was not to be.
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| Dr. Fauci hopes America could return to some 'degree of normality' by November presidential election Posted: 11 Apr 2020 08:59 AM PDT  Fauci declined to say whether Americans would have to cast their ballots by mail but said he hoped for some "degree of normality" by November.
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| African nations, U.S. condemn racism against blacks in China Posted: 11 Apr 2020 09:09 AM PDT  African officials are condemning China publicly and in private over the mistreatment of Africans in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, and the U.S. says African-Americans have been targeted too.
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| 'Cannonball' coast-to-coast drive record set amid virus shutdown Posted: 11 Apr 2020 06:11 PM PDT  The team is said to have used a late model Audi A8 L to make the run in 26 hours, 38 minutes, beating a record of 27 hours, 25 minutes set late last year.
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| 'You think you're free, then it comes back': Doctors and patients explain what the coronavirus 'second-week crash' feels like Posted: 12 Apr 2020 07:50 AM PDT  Doctors and patients are noticing that mild COVID-19 symptoms quickly become more severe as they approach their second week of illness.
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| Florida church fills the pews on Easter weekend – with photos of members staying at home Posted: 12 Apr 2020 08:36 AM PDT  Faith leaders find new ways to connect with their congregation during a time of social distancing to stop the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| SNL’s Trump Celebrates America: ‘Number One in the World for Coronavirus’ Posted: 11 Apr 2020 09:39 PM PDT  Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump did not make his typical appearance in Saturday Night Live's cold open from home this week. But he did do a Fox & Friends-style call-in during which he repeatedly attacked anchor Colin Jost and Michael Che for asking "nasty questions" about his coronavirus response. "I'm happy to report, Colin, that America is now number one in the world for coronavirus," Trump said. When Jost said he seemed "almost excited about it," the president added, "Well, my approval rating is up, my TV ratings are through the roof and every night at 7 p.m. all of New York claps and cheers for the great job I'm doing." "Yeah, I don't know if that's for you, man," Che replied before asking Trump what his latest advice for Americans is, "because it seems to be changing every 24 hours." "That's a nasty question, you're very nasty," Trump said. "I've been consistent all along. I've always said it was a giant hoax that we should take seriously. Even though it was invented by the Democrats. Impeachment part two. Everyone needs to wash their hands, or not." He then advised Americans to listen to the "experts": Sean Hannity, Jared Kushner and the MyPillow guy. Tom Hanks Returns to Host SNL at Home After Coronavirus RecoveryAsked why he has stopped calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus," Trump explained, "I had to turn down the ethnic slurs after I discovered that everything we need to survive the virus is made in China." Finally, Trump delivered this inspiring message to the nation: "In times like this, we need to come together as one nation because no matter our differences, all Americans can agree on one thing. Carole Baskin definitely fed her husband to those tigers." He signed off by saying, "All the absentee ballots are covered in coronavirus. Happy Easter, everybody!"For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast. 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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| Saudi Arabia extends coronavirus curfew, UAE warns on worker repatriation Posted: 11 Apr 2020 03:51 PM PDT  Saudi Arabia extended a nationwide curfew until further notice due to the coronavirus, the interior ministry said on Sunday, after the kingdom reported more than 300 new infections on each of the last five days. Elsewhere in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates warned of possible action against countries refusing to allow migrant workers to be repatriated. Saudi Arabia placed its capital Riyadh and other big cities under a 24-hour curfew last week, locking down much of the population.
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| Push-ups to fake guests: Curious African coronavirus moments Posted: 11 Apr 2020 04:52 PM PDT  Free buses, a mock wedding, hands-free taps and round-robin poetry are part of life under lockdown.
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| NYC mayor says schools will stay closed rest of year, Cuomo says not so fast Posted: 11 Apr 2020 10:39 AM PDT  "He didn't close them, and he can't reopen," Cuomo said of the the vast school district that serves over 1.1 million students in 1,800 schools.
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| Virus cases, deaths rise in India's biggest slum Posted: 12 Apr 2020 06:27 AM PDT  Coronavirus cases in Mumbai's densely populated Dharavi slum -- one of Asia's biggest -- have risen to 43 including four deaths, officials said Sunday, as they ramp up testing in a race to contain its spread. Since the first virus death in early April, Indian authorities have stepped up measures to close off areas where cases have emerged in Dharavi, which is home to around a million people. Testing sites have also been set up in recent days to pick up asymptomatic carriers of the virus, Khabale-Patil said, adding that "as a result more positive cases have emerged".
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| 20,000: US death toll overtakes Italy's as Midwest braces Posted: 10 Apr 2020 10:09 PM PDT  The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed Italy's for the highest in the world Saturday, surpassing 20,000, as Chicago and other cities across the Midwest braced for a potential surge in victims and moved to snuff out smoldering hot spots of contagion before they erupt. Chicago's Cook County has set up a temporary morgue that can take more than 2,000 bodies.
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| Mexican health workers protested a lack of protective gear. Now they are getting COVID-19 Posted: 10 Apr 2020 06:11 PM PDT  Across Mexico, medical worker have protested a lack of protective gear
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| Trump calls timing on when to reopen the country 'biggest decision I've ever had to make' Posted: 10 Apr 2020 01:44 PM PDT  At the coronavirus task force press briefing on Friday, President Trump said the timing on when to reopen the country and relax stay-at-home guidelines was the "biggest decision I've ever had to make."
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| Yearning for Obama? Ex-president could soon be back to bat for Biden Posted: 12 Apr 2020 12:00 AM PDT  Trump's handling of the coronavirus has meant Obama's absence is keenly felt – but an endorsement of his one-time running mate may be imminentMiss me now? Barack Obama's absence has probably never been felt so keenly by his millions of supporters.They feel sure the former US president would have taken a very different approach, and struck a very different tone, from Donald Trump in handling the once-in-a-century crisis of the coronavirus pandemic.But while for now Obama is hunkered down at home with few tools beyond Twitter, a return to the political stage could be imminent. With his former vice-president, Joe Biden, this week in effect confirmed as the Democratic candidate in this year's presidential election, Obama's endorsement is eagerly awaited."There's no doubt the majority of Americans are yearning for Barack Obama's leadership right now," said Moe Vela, a former senior adviser to Biden at the White House. "It's palpable. You can feel that around the country. He led us through the financial crisis, Ebola and several other crises. For eight years he stood at the podium and said, 'I take responsibility.' Now we have the antithesis of that."Obama inherited an epic trauma of his own, the 2008-09 financial meltdown, which, supporters claim, would have developed into a Great Depression but for the actions of his administration. He also had to deal with an outbreak of swine flu, which killed an estimated 12,469 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ebola in west Africa in 2014-16 raised further alarm but only 11 people were treated for the virus in the US. Obama's White House Ebola "czar", Ron Klain, is now a regular TV and podcast critic of Trump's disorganized response to the coronavirus. On Wednesday, Klain tweeted a video of Obama in 2014 warning of the need to be ready for the next pandemic.Obama's former national security adviser Susan Rice told the Washington Post that Trump's failures "cost tens of thousands of American lives".The ex-president himself, however, declines to speak out directly against his successor. But he has tweeted more frequently than usual: 33 posts in the past month, many of which offer advice on stopping the virus spread, pay tribute to healthcare and other essential workers or share inspiring stories.Democrats watching the catastrophe unfold can only imagine what might have been. Vela, who sat on the White House emergency preparedness and continuity of government working group, said: "I'm sure President Obama is champing at the bit. He knows what should be happening. That's why you hear such frustration in the voices of those who worked for him."> Can you ever remember Obama speaking gibberish?> > Larry SabatoObama's admirers say he was often at his best in the face of tragedy. He spoke movingly and wept after the killing of 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Honoring nine African Americans shot dead at church in Charleston, South Carolina, the president burst into a rendition of Amazing Grace.Trump not been seen crying in public. His daily coronavirus taskforce briefings seldom dwell on the monumental loss of life and human tragedy at the heart of the pandemic. But he does constantly praise his administration's response – "I'm a cheerleader," he said this week – and his own TV ratings.Vela, a board director at TransparentBusiness, commented: "This is a man who hasn't expressed one iota of empathy or compassion to the people who have lost loved ones in this pandemic. He is obsessed with Obama, he blames everything on Obama, and it's obvious where it comes from: he can't even shine Barack Obama's shoes."The two presidents have always been polar opposites. Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, added: "Trump's narcissism is overpowering: everything is about him. Obama was a very controlled person. He would have given you the facts and nothing more. He would have been perfect for this."Remember the school shooting in Connecticut. Obama did cry, as any human being would after children were killed, but he was still able to speak carefully and in complete sentences. Trump's briefings are one-third true, one-third misleading and one-third complete gibberish. Can you ever remember Obama speaking gibberish?"Typically in national emergencies, presidents make contact with their predecessors. John F Kennedy briefed and consulted with Dwight Eisenhower during the Cuban missile crisis. All five living former presidents came together to raise funds for hurricane relief in 2017 . Trump, however, has made clear he has no intention of speaking to Obama about the virus because "I don't think I'm going to learn much".But he has frequently sought to blame Obama for the leaving the country unprepared, even though it was Trump who disbanded the national security council's pandemic preparedness unit. And this week, when Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the Democratic primary, he speculated on when Obama will endorse Biden."I don't know why President Obama hasn't supported Joe Biden a long time ago," Trump told reporters. "There is something he feels is wrong. I'm sure he's got to come out at some point because he certainly doesn't want to see me for four more years. We're not – we think a little bit differently."Few would disagree with that assertion. Trump is not alone in wondering why Obama has not already endorsed Biden. But it is not the first time: in 2015, Obama reportedly decided Hillary Clinton should be his successor and helped steer Biden away from running.Sabato said: "It's about time, whenever he does it. I know there were many people close to Joe Biden who were miffed but they didn't say anything because the last thing they wanted to do was to antagonize the Obamas."Obama kept his powder dry during a grueling primary contest that involved 28 candidates and may make Biden wait a while longer.Sabato added: "If Obama endorsed Biden now, it would disappear into the pandemic black hole. So why would he waste that card?"The endorsement would presumably come before the Democratic national convention in Milwaukee, which has been postponed from July to August because of the virus. If it does go ahead, Obama and his wife, Michelle, would have a crucial role to play in making Biden's case, especially to many younger voters who flocked to Sanders in the primary.David Litt, a former Obama speechwriter and author of the upcoming Democracy in One Book or Less, said: "Barack Obama is a very good person to introduce Joe Biden to younger voters. There's an old Bill Clinton saying: sometimes you need someone else to brag on you. Obama is the perfect person to brag on Biden. He can speak to Biden's abilities as a politician and is more trusted than anyone in the country right now."
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| Iran's death toll from coronavirus rises by 117 to 4,474: ministry Posted: 12 Apr 2020 03:39 AM PDT  The Islamic Republic has recorded 71,686 cases of the new coronavirus which causes the disease, Jahanpur said. Iran has been the country hardest hit by the pandemic in the Middle East. Ten thousand graves have been dug in a new section of the sprawling Behesht-e Zahra cemetery south of Tehran to deal with coronavirus deaths, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.
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| Tips and tricks for grocery shopping online during the coronavirus pandemic Posted: 10 Apr 2020 12:19 PM PDT  With a high demand for online grocery delivery services it's getting difficult to book a delivery slot. Here are some tips to help you get one.
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| Cuba, U.S. dispute embargo's role in blocking coronavirus supplies Posted: 11 Apr 2020 07:27 AM PDT  The embargo is "the main obstacle to purchase the medicines, equipment and material required to confront the pandemic," Cuba's Foreign Minister tweeted.
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| Cuomo: Coronavirus deaths are stabilizing at a "horrific rate" Posted: 11 Apr 2020 11:20 AM PDT  "I'm sure everyone's living with the same question: Every time you wake up you say, 'When does this nightmare end?'" Cuomo said.
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| Sri Lanka Catholic church 'forgives' 2019 Easter suicide bombers Posted: 12 Apr 2020 12:50 AM PDT  Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic Church said Sunday it had forgiven the suicide bombers behind the attacks that killed at least 279 people last Easter. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told an Easter mass -- broadcast from a TV studio because of the coronavirus pandemic -- that "we offered love to the enemies who tried to destroy us". The April 21 Easter Sunday bombers targeted three churches and three luxury hotels, killing at least 279 people and wounding 593.
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| An ER nurse in New Orleans, a growing coronavirus hotspot, used to see 1 patient die per month. Now it's 2 per week. Posted: 12 Apr 2020 02:30 AM PDT  Eduardo Bilbao, 29, is an emergency room nurse at Oschner Health in New Orleans, which has becoming one of the cities hit hardest by the virus.
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| The Secret Weapon Giving Mexico Power in the Oil-Price War Posted: 11 Apr 2020 02:22 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- As Mexico and Saudi Arabia fight over a deal to bring the oil-price war to an end, Mexico has a powerful defense: a massive Wall Street hedge shielding it from low prices.With talks well into their third day, the Mexican sovereign oil hedge, which insures the Latin American country against low prices and is considered a state secret, is a factor that may make the country less inclined to accept the OPEC+ agreement.For the last two decades, Mexico has bought so-called Asian style put options from a small group of investment banks and oil companies, in what's considered Wall Street's largest -- and most closely guarded -- annual oil deal.The options give Mexico the right to sell its oil at a predetermined price. They are the equivalent of an insurance policy: the country banks all gains from higher prices but enjoys the security of a minimum floor. So if oil prices remain weak or plunge even further, Mexico will still book higher prices.The hedge isn't the only reason Mexico is holding out. But it strengthens the country's hand and makes it less desperate for a deal than countries whose budgets have been ravaged by the collapse in oil prices since the start of the year -- first because of the coronavirus and then because of the price war launched by Saudi Arabia.The main reason driving President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a left-wing populist, to resist the deal is his pledge to revive oil production via state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos. Slashing 400,000 barrels a day to comply with the OPEC+ deal, rather than the 100,000 barrels a day that Mexico has counter-offered to Saudi Arabia, would put on hold his ambitious plan to return Pemex to its former glory.The hedge has shielded Mexico in every downturn over the last 20 years: it made $5.1 billion when prices crashed in 2009 during the global financial crisis, and it received $6.4 billion in 2015 and another $2.7 billion in 2016 after Saudi Arabia waged another price war.The operation comes at a cost. In recent years, Mexico has spent about $1 billion annually buying the options."The insurance policy isn't cheap," Mexican Finance Minister Arturo Herrera told broadcaster Televisa on March 10. "But it's insurance for times like now. Our fiscal budget isn't going to be hit."Pemex, the state-owned company, has its own separate, smaller oil hedge. This year, Pemex hedged 234,000 barrels a day at an average of $49 a barrel.State SecretMexico has disclosed very few details about its insurance for 2020 after it declared the sovereign hedge a state secret. However, based on limited public information, alongside historical data about previous years, it's possible to make a rough estimate of the potential payout if prices remain low.The government told lawmakers it has guaranteed revenues to support the assumptions for oil prices made in the country's budget -- of $49 a barrel for the Mexican oil export basket, equivalent to about $60-$65 a barrel for Brent crude.It locks in that revenue via two elements: the hedge, and the country's oil stabilization fund. The fund historically has only provided $2-$5 a barrel, so it's realistic to assume that Mexico hedged at $45 a barrel at least for its crude. In the past, Mexico has hedged around 250 million barrels, equal to nearly all its net oil exports in an operation that runs from Dec. 1 to Nov. 30.Using all those elements, a rough calculation suggests that if the Mexican oil export basket were to remain at current levels, the country would receive a multi-billion dollar payout. Since December, the Mexican oil basket has averaged $42 a barrel.If current low prices for Mexican oil continue until the end of November, the average would drop to just above $20 a barrel, and the hedge would pay out close to $6 billion, according to Bloomberg News calculations.Representatives of the Finance Ministry and Energy Ministry declined to comment.(Updates tenth paragraph with Pemex hedge volume and final paragraph with Finance Ministry and Energy Ministry comments.)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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| Democrats Fear Trump’s New 2020 Strategy Is Working Posted: 11 Apr 2020 01:23 PM PDT  President Donald Trump and his allies are leaning heavily into a new 2020 strategy tying Democrats and their presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden not just to China but to its role in spreading the coronavirus.Democrats are increasingly worried that the strategy will work.The Trump re-election campaign released a new ad this week going after Biden over his opposition to restrictions on travel from China designed to control the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. That was followed with a fundraising solicitation on Saturday that hammered home the point: "I am TOUGH ON CHINA and Sleepy Joe Biden is WEAK ON CHINA," it declared.There's a Huge Hole in Biden's Coronavirus PlanInside the campaign, the strategy is simple: make China the villain of a global pandemic that has complicated well-laid electoral plans and sparked growing criticism of the president."[China's] among many weaknesses, but when people learn about Biden's attack on the president's China travel ban, his other weak positions on China, and his conflict with Hunter Biden's business deal with China, voters are horrified," John McLaughlin, a Trump pollster, told The Daily Beast on Friday. Other Trump 2020 officials said that the campaign had always intended to hammer Biden on China until the election in November, and the coronavirus "angle" was merely another way to go after the Bidens and China simultaneously.In one sense it's simply an extension of Team Trump's months-long strategy to tie Biden to a country increasingly viewed with suspicion by American voters. The campaign and the Republican National Committee have been hammering Biden for months over his youngest son Hunter's past business dealings in China.But the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has made the country a far more potent political villain. And the massive disruptions in daily life caused by the virus virtually guarantee that China will remain in the headlines—and on the minds of American voters—for months as election day approaches. Polls already indicate that Americans of both parties overwhelmingly blame China for the virus' initial spread.For a Trump campaign that's a potential political goldmine. "China was an effective wedge issue for Trump in 2016," said one Republican strategist close to the campaign. "Now that it's at the top of everyone's mind, and Biden has a long record of being weak on China, just imagine how much more effective it will be in 2020."They Said They Were Bernie or Bust. Then They Talked Themselves Into Biden.The new tactic from Trump has not gone unnoticed by Democrats who fear that it may be the type of opening that a cynical president could effectively use—even one who has made a point of going soft on China's leader, Xi Jinping, whom Trump routinely praises as an "incredible guy" who's doing a great job handling the virus. Navigator Research, a progressive polling outlet that has taken the lead for the party in public opinion surveying around the virus, included an alarm bell nugget in its Friday dispatch. "Warning" the item read, "Trump's China rhetoric may be resonating and gaining traction." As evidence, the firm noted that 43 percent of respondents in its survey said "China bears more responsibility than the federal government for the way coronavirus has spread in the U.S.""A lot of times people on the left tend to have a knee-jerk reaction to Trump's racism and xenophobia that disallows them from taking it as seriously as a messaging tactic as it is," said Ian Sams, a top official at Navigator. "The public is pretty anti-China right now. And I think there is validity to the idea that they've been less than transparent and hid information on this virus. And Trump is seizing on that… We can't just let Trump's lies be the only thing out there." To that point, Democrats have largely stopped pushing back against Trump's anti-China push on grounds that it's xenophobic and adopted the posture that it's all a big lie, pointing to, among other things, the fact that his administration sent China medical supplies as it was battling coronavirus, only to then have a shortage of them when it hit the U.S. Democratic National Committee talking points, obtained by The Daily Beast, say that Trump's claim to have "acted early with his China travel restrictions," was in reality "too little too late." The Democratic Party's top think tank, Center for American Progress, put together a memo that encouraged officials not to "concede a thing on Trump's travel ban.""The reality is, Trump was slow in instituting the ban," it reads. "And the ban was so leaky that 40,000 more people entered from China after the ban was in place."But Sams conceded that it likely would not be good enough to merely call Trump a liar on China. The case needed to be made, he said, that the president had coddled Beijing at a time when the country should have been warning the U.S. about the seriousness of COVID-19. Top Democratic officials said that they were gearing up to more proactively make that point in the days ahead. And Biden's campaign, for its part, seems to be there already. Trump's Sick Reality Show Is Built on Coronavirus Corpses"Despite repeated warnings from the U.S. intelligence community—and public warnings from Joe Biden—that he shouldn't take China's word about containment of the outbreak, Donald Trump praised China's response for weeks while downplaying the threat to us," said Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman. "Now we have the most coronavirus cases in the world and we're losing millions of jobs. Any time Donald Trump says the word 'China,' he accomplishes one thing: reminding the American people of his historic failure to prepare our nation for the worst public health crisis in generations."Indeed, this comes at a time when Trump's poll numbers on his handling of the coronavirus crisis have seen significant dips in recent days. In late March, major public polls showed a spike in how the American people judged the president's response to the pandemic and collapsing economy. White House officials were delighted that they were able to print out and slip into Trump's reading materials some favorable coverage, including this Fox News article titled, "60 percent of Americans approve of Trump's handling of coronavirus: Gallup poll," said a senior administration official.White House staff knew how much this would please the president and were confident he would incorporate the news into his daily messaging. However, as Trump's poll numbers on the virus slumped, these aides quickly stopped including the newer data in the president's daily batches of articles and reading material, for fear it would "upset him," the official added.Some Trump allies, though, are convinced that they can both ding Democrats' presidential nominee and boost their own public profiles—and standing with the president himself—by invoking China's role in the coronavirus' spread. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) even went so far as to buy television ads in Ohio ahead of that state's Democratic presidential primary attacking Biden on the China issue.Cotton and other Senate Republican China hawks, such as Missouri's Josh Hawley and Texas' Ted Cruz, have found China-bashing to be an effective strategy in its own right. All three have taken out Facebook ads criticizing the country for its role in the spread of the coronavirus.Outside advocacy groups have gotten in on the action as well. Stand Up to China, a new dark money outfit, has spent about $36,000 on Facebook ads hammering Beijing on issues from the coronavirus to its mass internment of Uyghur Muslims. It's not clear who, exactly, is behind the group, which has targeted the vast majority of its anti-China ads at Facebook users in Florida.Perhaps the most dramatic China-themed advertising, though, has come from Kathaleen Wall, a Republican House candidate in Texas. In a video ad that began airing last week, she dubs China a "criminal enterprise masquerading as a sovereign nation," which "has poisoned our people.""President Trump has the courage to call it what it is," the 30-second spot says, with a clip of Trump referring to "the Chinese virus." The ad promises, "Kathaleen Wall has his back." 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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| Latest on the spread of the coronavirus around the world Posted: 11 Apr 2020 02:39 AM PDT  * British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is making very good progress in his recovery from COVID-19, his office said on Saturday, as his health minister said the peak of the outbreak in Britain had not yet been reached. * The number of coronavirus deaths in Spain fell for a third consecutive day, with 510 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours -- the smallest overnight increase since March 23. * Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte extended a nationwide lockdown until May 3, though he said a few types of shops would be allowed to re-open next week.
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| Chicago mayor defends hairstylist visit amid coronavirus outbreak Posted: 11 Apr 2020 07:26 AM PDT  "I'm the public face of this city. I'm on national media and I'm out in the public eye," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.
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| Did US Supreme Court vote remotely to deny Wisconsin voters the right to vote remotely? Posted: 10 Apr 2020 11:13 AM PDT  Did the U.S. Supreme Court vote remotely to "deny Wisconsin voters their right to vote remotely"? Yes and no.
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| Pope marks 'Easter of solitude' in virus lockdown Posted: 12 Apr 2020 10:07 AM PDT  Pope Francis prayed for coronavirus victims in an unprecedented livestream Easter Sunday message delivered from a hauntingly empty Vatican to a world under lockdown. The 83-year-old pontiff spoke softly at a solemn ceremony attended by just a handful of priests and a small choir that was spaced out across the expansive marble floor of Saint Peter's Basilica. The pandemic raging outside the Vatican's locked gates has killed more than 110,000 people and left billions confined to their homes.
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| Bangladesh executes killer of country's independence leader Posted: 11 Apr 2020 11:15 AM PDT |
| Scott Gottlieb: Coronavirus Would Have Been ‘Far More Deadly than Spanish Flu’ If It Appeared in 1918 Posted: 10 Apr 2020 02:31 PM PDT  Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb on Friday warned that the coronavirus would have been more deadly than the Spanish flu if it had appeared in 1918."I think [that] given the profile of this virus, it's likely it would have been far more deadly than the Spanish flu" if the coronavirus had originated in 1918 with the medical capacities of that time, Gottlieb said in an interview on National Review's The Editors podcast."I think it's reasonable to surmise that anyone who gets admitted to a prolonged I.C.U. stay with COVID-19 who ends up getting intubated, [or] ends up getting prolonged critical care-that's probably someone who would have died from the Spanish flu," Gottlieb continued. "And if you do accept that assumption…if you say, some large proportion of people who are surviving COVID-19…would have died from Spanish flu, then COVID-19 not only looks like Spanish flu in terms of its distribution across the age range, but looks far more fearsome."The coronavirus has spread from Wuhan, China, to infect over 1,600,000 people and kill over 101,000 as of Friday. U.S. officials and lawmakers have criticized China for initially covering up the extent of the outbreak in Wuhan, as well as for failing to contain the outbreak when it first appeared."China was not being forthcoming with information that could have helped us prepare," Gottlieb said. "This virus has changed the course of history…The gravity of what this virus is going to mean to society for the next two years can't be overstated, in my view, and this is the consequence of something that came out of China."Gottlieb went on, "Had China been more aggressive sometime in November, and certainly in December, in trying to contain the spread of this…then they might have been able to fully contain this."
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| This Pandemic Will Lead to Social Revolutions Posted: 10 Apr 2020 10:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- The most misleading cliche about the coronavirus is that it treats us all the same. It doesn't, neither medically nor economically, socially or psychologically. In particular, Covid-19 exacerbates preexisting conditions of inequality wherever it arrives. Before long, this will cause social turmoil, up to and including uprisings and revolutions.Social unrest had already been increasing around the world before SARS-CoV-2 began its journey. According to one count, there have been about 100 large anti-government protests since 2017, from the gilets jaunes riots in a rich country like France to demonstrations against strongmen in poor countries such as Sudan and Bolivia. About 20 of these uprisings toppled leaders, while several were suppressed by brutal crackdowns and many others went back to simmering until the next outbreak.The immediate effect of Covid-19 is to dampen most forms of unrest, as both democratic and authoritarian governments force their populations into lockdowns, which keep people from taking to the streets or gathering in groups. But behind the doors of quarantined households, in the lengthening lines of soup kitchens, in prisons and slums and refugee camps — wherever people were hungry, sick and worried even before the outbreak — tragedy and trauma are building up. One way or another, these pressures will erupt.The coronavirus has thus put a magnifying glass on inequality both between and within countries. In the U.S., there's been a move by some of the very wealthy to "self-isolate" on their Hamptons estates or swanky yachts — one Hollywood mogul swiftly deleted an Instagram picture of his $590 million boat after a public outcry. Even the merely well-heeled can feel pretty safe working from home via Zoom and Slack.But countless other Americans don't have that option. Indeed, the less money you make, the less likely you are to be able to work remotely (see the chart below). Lacking savings and health insurance, these workers in precarious employment have to keep their gigs or blue-collar jobs, if they're lucky enough still to have any, just to make ends meet. As they do, they risk getting infected and bringing the virus home to their families, which, like poor people everywhere, are already more likely to be sick and less able to navigate complex health-care mazes. And so the coronavirus is coursing fastest through neighborhoods that are cramped, stressful and bleak. Above all, it disproportionately kills black people.Even in countries without long histories of racial segregation, the virus prefers some zip codes over others. That's because everything conspires to make each neighborhood its own sociological and epidemiological petri dish — from average incomes and education to apartment size and population density, from nutritional habits to patterns of domestic abuse. In the euro zone, for example, high-income households have on average almost double the living space as those in the bottom decile: 72 square meters (775 square feet) against only 38.The differences between nations are even bigger. To those living in a shantytown in India or South Africa, there's no such thing as "social distancing," because the whole family sleeps in one room. There's no discussion about whether to wear masks because there aren't any. More hand-washing is good advice, unless there's no running water.And so it goes, wherever SARS-CoV-2 shows up. The International Labor Organization has warned that it will destroy 195 million jobs worldwide, and drastically cut the income of another 1.25 billion people. Most of them were already poor. As their suffering worsens, so do other scourges, from alcoholism and drug addiction to domestic violence and child abuse, leaving whole populations traumatized, perhaps permanently.In this context, it would be naive to think that, once this medical emergency is over, either individual countries or the world can carry on as before. Anger and bitterness will find new outlets. Early harbingers include millions of Brazilians banging pots and pans from their windows to protest against their government, or Lebanese prisoners rioting in their overcrowded jails.In time, these passions could become new populist or radical movements, intent on sweeping aside whatever ancien regime they define as the enemy. The great pandemic of 2020 is therefore an ultimatum to those of us who reject populism. It demands that we think harder and more boldly, but still pragmatically, about the underlying problems we confront, including inequality. It's a wake-up call to all who hope not just to survive the coronavirus, but to survive in a world worth living in.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andreas Kluth is a member of Bloomberg's editorial board. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump reportedly said he would reject a bailout package if it included aid to keep the US Postal Service functioning Posted: 11 Apr 2020 12:33 PM PDT  USPS has asked Congress for a $50 billion bailout and $25 billion in loans from the Treasury Department to make up for losses.
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| Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Reportedly Fathered Two Kids While Holed Up in Embassy Fighting Extradition Posted: 11 Apr 2020 02:53 PM PDT  Wikileaks founder Julian Assange fathered two children with a lawyer who was helping him fight extradition to the U.S. while he was holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, according to The Daily Mail. The lawyer, Stella Morris, told the Mail that she had decided to come forward about the relationship now because she fears for his life as long as he is in the high-security Belmarsh prison. Assange has been at the prison in London since last spring, when he was sentenced to 50 weeks. The Mail also cited court records regarding the United States' attempted extradition of Assange that mentioned the two young children.Assange reportedly began a relationship with Morris in 2015, and the couple has been engaged since 2017. Their first child, Gabriel, was born in 2017, and their second, Max, was born in February 2019, his birth filmed with a GoPro and the footage sent to Assange, according to the Mail. Both sons have reportedly visited him in prison."I have lived quietly and privately, raising Gabriel and Max on my own and longing for the day we could be together as a family," she told the Mail. Morris believes intelligence officers and embassy security plotted to steal the babies' DNA via their discarded diapers in early 2018. She took care never to arrive together with her sons at the embassy when visiting Assange, the Mail reported.The actor Tracy Ward and the rapper M.I.A. are the children's godmothers, according to the Mail.Assange and Morris plan to marry while he is in prison if he does not get released, she said. Morris fears Assange's life is in danger in the prison where he is being held as the new coronavirus spreads among inmates there. "Julian's poor physical health puts him at serious risk, like many other vulnerable people, and I don't believe he will survive infection with coronavirus," she said.Assange spent seven years in the embassy while evading extradition to the United States on charges of violating the Espionage Act by obtaining and disseminating hundreds of thousands of classified documents provided by former intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010. Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election uncovered evidence that Assange and Wikileaks had worked with Russian agents to obtain and release emails sent by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Assange has denied the cooperation.The couple initially met in 2011 when one of Assange's lawyers introduced him to Morris, who was born in Sweden, to help the Wikileaks founder fight sexual assault charges in the Scandanavian nation. The charges were dropped, and Assange has maintained his innocence. A fluent Spanish speaker, Morris also helped Assange seek asylum in South America. She reportedly changed her name from Sara Gonzalez Devant to attract less attention when filing legal documents on his behalf. "There's nothing I regret—but I want my boys to have their father back," Morris told the Mail.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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| Remdesivir shows promise in preliminary coronavirus trial Posted: 10 Apr 2020 06:59 PM PDT  A preliminary report on patients infected with the coronavirus suggests the drug remdesivir may lower the risk of death in those with severe cases of COVID-19.
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| Check your balance: Coronavirus stimulus money starts to flow into bank accounts Posted: 11 Apr 2020 03:26 PM PDT  The IRS tweeted Saturday that payments to qualifying Americans with direct deposit accounts set up had begun to receive their coronavirus relief payment.
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| Largest Arctic ozone hole ever recorded opens up over the North Pole Posted: 11 Apr 2020 01:09 PM PDT  A hole in the ozone opens up every year above Antarctica — but scientists were surprised to find one on the other side of the planet.
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