| Trump says the measure of his success against coronavirus will be the final death toll. How's he doing? Posted: 21 Apr 2020 01:41 PM PDT  For the past several weeks, a fixture of President Trump's daily coronavirus task force press briefings has been his insistence that the ultimate measure of his administration's handling of the pandemic will be the number of Americans killed by COVID-19.
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| ICRC donates vital medical equipment to Gaza in coronavirus crisis Posted: 23 Apr 2020 05:59 AM PDT  The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday donated vital intensive care equipment to Gaza hospitals but said they remain underequipped for any wider outbreak of the new coronavirus in the territory. With passage through Gaza's borders tightly controlled by neighbouring Israel and Egypt, only 17 people have tested positive in the Palestinian territory for the novel coronavirus. "The prospect of an outbreak of COVID-19 in Gaza is frightening, given the weakness of the health infrastructure and the dense population of the Gaza Strip," said Daniel Duvillard, head of the ICRC Delegation in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
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| Gov. Cuomo says Bloomberg will fund a $10 million tri-state area contact tracing network with Johns Hopkins Posted: 22 Apr 2020 09:59 AM PDT  With New York State strapped for cash, the former New York City mayor and Johns Hopkins are stepping into the breach to ramp up testing and tracing.
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| Child sex trafficking survivor supported by Kim Kardashian West freed from jail Posted: 22 Apr 2020 11:57 AM PDT  "She will be sent to an appropriate group home and she will be under supervision for an extensive period of time," Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.
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| Virus-hit Iran demands US be held to account for 'cruel' sanctions Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:57 AM PDT  Iran called Thursday for the US to be held accountable for "cruel" sanctions that have hampered its efforts to fight a coronavirus outbreak that it said claimed another 90 lives. It accuses its arch enemy the United States of making the crisis worse through sanctions imposed unilaterally since Washington pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. The latest fatalities given by the health ministry for the past 24 hours took the overall death toll in Iran from the coronavirus to 5,481.
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| NKorea silence on Kim's health raises succession speculation Posted: 22 Apr 2020 03:50 AM PDT  With North Korea saying nothing so far about outside media reports that leader Kim Jong Un may be unwell, there's renewed worry about who's next in line to run a nuclear-armed country that's been ruled by the same family for seven decades. Questions about Kim's health flared after he skipped an April 15 commemoration of the 108th birthday of his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. It's North Korea's most important event, and Kim, 36, hadn't missed it since inheriting power from his father in late 2011.
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| Spain Extends Lockdown as Virus Cases Rise Again in Europe Posted: 22 Apr 2020 12:37 PM PDT |
| Trump disagrees with Redfield, Fauci on return of coronavirus next fall Posted: 22 Apr 2020 07:17 PM PDT  The coronavirus would be reduced to easily extinguished "embers" by the time next fall's influenza season strikes, President Trump said at Wednesday's briefing of the White House task force, even as his top health experts continued to offer a decidedly more guarded outlook.
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| U.S. senators urge cybersecurity officials to defend health sector Posted: 21 Apr 2020 10:10 AM PDT  A handful of U.S. senators have called on top cybersecurity officials to aggressively protect health and research organizations from potential hacking and other attacks as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter sent on Monday, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, Republican Senator Tom Cotton and three other senators asked the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Cyber Command to consider action against hackers who threatened the healthcare sector. "We urge you to take all necessary measures to protect these institutions during the coronavirus pandemic," they wrote in the letter to Christopher Krebs, the director of DHS' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and General Paul Nakasone, director of the Department of Defense's National Security Agency and head of the U.S. military's Cyber Command.
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| Speeding car filmed flying from road and crashing into side of family home in California Posted: 21 Apr 2020 10:48 AM PDT  Shocking CCTV footage has shown the dramatic moment a speeding car crashed through the wall of a family's home in California.In the video, a Toyota Camry soars from the pavement into the side of a house, and two men can be seen running away from the crash moments later.
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| 'Mission Dharavi': Virus battleground in India's biggest slum Posted: 22 Apr 2020 09:54 PM PDT  The 125,000 slum-dwellers living under a lockdown so strict that drones monitor their moves and alert police if they attempt to leave home are at the heart of India's push to contain coronavirus. Dharavi is home to an estimated one million people, who eke out a living as factory workers or maids and chauffeurs to the financial capital Mumbai's well-heeled residents. The severe lockdown imposed in five virus hotspots in the slum since the first cases were reported in early April is a key part of that undertaking.
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| Without a single COVID-19 death, Vietnam starts easing its coronavirus lockdown Posted: 23 Apr 2020 07:03 AM PDT  With fewer than 300 infections and no deaths, the communist-ruled nation offers an unusual model for containing the coronavirus.
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| Coronavirus: Australia urges G20 action on wildlife wet markets Posted: 22 Apr 2020 09:32 PM PDT  It's thought the Coid-19 outbreak may have begun in a Chinese market that sold wildlife alongside food.
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| Defiant Louisiana pastor arrested over COVID-19 protest Posted: 21 Apr 2020 03:59 PM PDT  Louisiana authorities arrested a pastor on an assault charge on Tuesday after he admitted that he drove his church bus toward a man who has been protesting his decision to hold mass gatherings in defiance of public health orders during the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Turkey in ‘Losing Battle’ Over Lira After Surprise Rate Cut Posted: 22 Apr 2020 11:10 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Turkey lowered interest rates more than forecast by most economists, forcing state banks to defend the lira to keep it from breaching a key threshold against the dollar.Government-owned lenders sold at least $600 million to support the Turkish currency after the rate decision, according to two traders with knowledge of the matter. The Monetary Policy Committee on Wednesday reduced its benchmark for an eighth time in less than a year, lowering it to 8.75% from 9.75%. Only two of 28 economists in a Bloomberg poll correctly predicted the move, with the rest seeing a smaller cut or a hold.The central bank has looked past the lira's steep depreciation in 2020, focusing on spurring credit to mitigate the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. The lira has weakened nearly 15% against the U.S. currency since the beginning of the year and is edging closer to the psychologically important 7-per-dollar mark. It briefly breached that level and slipped as much as 0.3% after the rate announcement, before paring losses. It traded at 6.9779 per dollar as of 8:40 a.m. in Istanbul on Thursday."The Turkish central bank has been fighting like crazy to keep the dollar-lira pair below 7, which often seems like a losing battle," said Brad Bechtel, global head of foreign exchange at Jefferies LLC in New York. "They continue to fight but the market continues to push against them and it feels only a matter of time before they are forced to capitulate."The easing cycle is leaving the lira exposed to a global selloff, with Turkey's inflation-adjusted rates now among the lowest in the world. Undaunted by the currency's slide, Governor Murat Uysal is pushing real borrowing costs further below zero after last month's emergency cut of a full percentage point. Meanwhile, the country's international reserves are running low because of state lenders' interventions to prop up the lira.Turkey's state banks don't comment on interventions in the foreign-exchange market. In January, Uysal said they have been carrying out transactions in line with regulatory limits and may continue to be active in the currency market.The MPC said in its statement that risks to its year-end inflation forecasts are "on the downside" after declines in commodity prices and despite the lira's depreciation.The rate cut reflected the central bank's "aim to support growth as much as possible," Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists Murat Unur and Clemens Grafe said in a report. "We see risks of emergency hikes to fend off further lira depreciation."Turkish inflation in March slowed for the first time since October, reaching an annual 11.9%, as the drop in oil prices offset some of the increases that a depreciating lira would have caused.Declines in commodity prices and domestic demand amid the global pandemic are putting downward pressure on inflation, Uysal said on Sunday. The central bank may update its year-end inflation projection -- currently at 8.2% -- when it issues its next quarterly report on April 30.Economic activity has suffered due to the measures taken to check the contagion. Exports dropped almost 18% in March from a year earlier and a gauge of confidence among Turkish manufacturers fell by the most since the 2008 global financial crisis.The weighted-average cost of central bank funding is already below the benchmark at around 9%.The central bank's net reserves -- which strip out liabilities including local lenders' reserve requirements -- fell to $26.3 billion in the week through April 10. Of that, $25.9 billion was borrowed through short-term swaps, the bulk of which had a maturity of one month or less, according to the latest data through the end of February."Yet another substantial rate cut is a clear indication that the priority is to support the economy that faces the prospect of a recession," said Piotr Matys, a strategist at Rabobank in London. "But it also implies that the lira is even less attractive, which means that the central bank may have to spend even more on FX interventions."(Updates lira's performance in third paragraph, economist comment in eighth)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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| When will schools reopen? Not soon, education leaders say, despite Trump's declarations Posted: 21 Apr 2020 01:10 PM PDT  With little guidance from the federal government on reopening schools, state leaders are debating when to end closures. Their answer so far: not soon
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| McConnell says he favors state bankruptcy over more federal aid Posted: 22 Apr 2020 10:09 AM PDT  U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday opened the door to allowing U.S. states to file for bankruptcy to deal with economic losses stemming from the coronavirus outbreak that are punching big holes in their budgets. McConnell said in a radio interview that Republicans would not support giving state and local governments more money in future coronavirus aid legislation, saying those funds could end up being used to bail out state pensions. Speaking on Hugh Hewitt's syndicated conservative talk radio show, McConnell said he instead "would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route."
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| The CEO of Ryanair, one of the world's biggest airlines, says it won't fly if middle seats have to stay empty for 'idiotic' social-distancing rules Posted: 23 Apr 2020 03:14 AM PDT  Not having passengers in the middle seat is not profitable, and passengers would still be too close anyway, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said.
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| The Old Confederate-Flag Canard Posted: 22 Apr 2020 03:13 PM PDT  It feels like 2009 redux, with spontaneous anti-government protests, once again, getting smeared.Of course, the proximate cause of the protests this time is the coronavirus lockdowns rather than Obamacare, although the feel of the demonstrations — expressing populist anger at government overreach — is the same, and so is the reaction of the critics.The line of attack is the familiar one of using a few isolated idiots or kooks to tar the entire enterprise. To this end, if there's one thing Democrats (and the media) want you to know about the anti-lockdown protest at the Michigan state capitol in Lansing last week, it's that people were flying Confederate flags."What happened yesterday was inexcusable," Representative Debbie Dingell (D., Mich.) said. "People did not have masks. They didn't have gloves. They did not distance themselves. They had Confederate flags, swastikas."Governor Gretchen Whitmer scolded, "When people are flying the Confederate flag and untold numbers who gassed up on the way here or grabbed a bite on the way home — we know that this rally endangered people."The idea that they "had swastikas," as Dingell said, is meant to mislead. A few protesters, in particular a widely photographed woman with a "Heil Witmer" (sic) sign, used swastikas to depict the governor as a fascist (obviously, a ridiculously over-the-top charge), not to identify themselves as Nazis.More broadly, any political protest will draw its share of nuts and fringe types. But that a couple of zealots displayed Confederate flags at this event involving as many as 4,000 people isn't the first, second, or third thing to know about the protest, which can be more accurately described as lavishly star-spangled.You can watch long stretches of footage of the protests and see only a panorama of American flags — people flying them from their cars, waving them, draping themselves in them, displaying them on their wheelchairs. Many of the protesters are decked out in red-white-and-blue regalia.This long-form local news report doesn't capture any Confederate flags at all.This drone footage is from an altitude that makes it difficult to see anything in detail, but gives an idea of the scale of the protest. Only the stars-and-stripes and "Don't Tread On Me" yellow are readily evident.This long video of someone from their car also captures no Confederate flags.This nearly hourlong video from the Detroit Free Press is dotted with American flags throughout, from beginning to end.Trump flags and "Don't Tread On Me" flags are also notable.Near the beginning, the Detroit Free Press video does show one Confederate flag, a man with the Stars-and-Bars emblazoned with a rifle and the words "come and get it." That's it. One idiot. Despite the video capturing hundreds of people in their cars and on the street and capitol grounds at the height of the protest.All of this suggests that you could have spent hours at this protest and have seen no Confederate flags whatsoever.What you would see is myriad signs saying things like "Land of the free," "Proud health care worker / Social distancing? Yes / Tyranny? No," "Balance the risk!," "Give us back our freedom" (displayed on the back of a wheelchair), "Free Michigan," "My rights are essential," and in a big banner planted in the ground outside the capitol building, "Security without freedom is prison."In interviews with protesters, you'll hear some crackpot theories, but largely people saying we've got to get back to work.This woman holding a "Small business is essential" sign at 30:40 expresses the basic point of view quite well:Yet the Confederate flag featured prominently in news coverage. "Fox News host defended anti-lockdown protesters carrying Confederate flags and falsely accused Michigan's governor of calling them Nazis" read a (misleading) headline in Business Insider.The subhead of a Times of Israel article was "Some compare Gretchen Whitmer to Hitler, wave Confederate flags; governor accuses protesters of endangering themselves and the community." (The word "some" is doing a lot of work there.)"They flew Confederate flags hundreds of miles north of the Mason-Dixon," complained The Independent.An NBC News report put it most precisely: "At least two Confederate flags were spotted."I'd amend that to say at least two and a half Confederate flags, maybe three and a half, were spotted.This Michigan reporter noted photos of two more Confederate flags, one displayed out on a green pick-up truck, another a hybrid American / "Don't Tread on Me"/ Confederate flag.> Multiple people waving Confederate flags at OperationGridlock outside Michigan Capitol. pic.twitter.com/M5nAWBflxD> > -- Malachi Barrett (@PolarBarrett) April 15, 2020 There also is a fleeting glimpse of a Confederate flag that looks different from the others behind the NBC News reporter in the video at the top of this report.Perhaps there were more, and perhaps you can find more that I missed. The point, though, is you have to go out of your way to scour the record in painstaking detail to find them amid a vast sea of American flags.It's entirely legitimate, obviously, to disagree with the anti-lockdown protests and to think they are wrong to want to open up now. But, please, don't depict them all as a bunch of neo-Confederates. It's tiresome, and not true.
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| Anti-Vaxxers and Lockdown Protesters Form an Unholy Alliance Posted: 22 Apr 2020 01:42 AM PDT  Protests against social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines in states across the country have become fertile ground for anti-vaccine activists, foreshadowing future showdowns over government-led efforts to help bring an end to the coronavirus pandemic.Del Bigtree, a notorious anti-vaccination activist before the emergence of COVID-19, attended a reopening rally in Austin last weekend to find out why the protesters were showing up. Bigtree told The Daily Beast that he saw a lot of overlap between anti-vaccine activists who distrust vaccines and the rally-goers, who were complaining that the public health policies put in place by state governments are unconstitutional and draconian relative to the health crisis at hand."I think the science is falling apart," Bigtree said, citing models he called "a disaster." On April 17, Bigtree featured Wendy Darling, founder of anti-stay-at-home-order group "Michigan United for Liberty" and an attendee of one of the Michigan protests, on his online show The High Wire, which usually dedicates programming to questioning health professionals and settled science. Asked by Bigtree whether the demonstrations showed that at least some Michiganders "are not afraid of dying from the coronavirus," Darling said: "In our group, in particular, we've got thousands of people in Michigan United for Liberty and the consensus there is, you know, we are not. We're more afraid of the government than we are of the virus at this point." Trump Calls Rule-Breaking Coronavirus Protesters 'Very Responsible People'Bigtree isn't the only drawing connections between the anti-vaccine movement—which advocates for the fallacious notion that vaccines cause autism or other ailments—and the movements against the stay-at-home orders. Anti-vaccine activists have pushed a hashtag calling for President Donald Trump to fire the government's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci—a message that evolved into a "Fire Fauci" chant at the Texas rally Bigtree attended. Some participants in the reopening rallies have also adopted "I Do Not Consent" as their go-to sign formulation, which is the same language that's become a popular phrase for anti-vaccination activists. "That's one of their biggest slogans," said Amy Pisani, the executive director of pro-vaccine group Vaccinate Your Family. The predominantly right-wing activists calling for states to reopen businesses amid the pandemic have also criticized vaccines in their online communities. On "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine," a Facebook group with more than 350,000 members that has become a hotbed for anti-social distancing protests in the state, thousands of members said they wouldn't take any future vaccine. Some posters pushed conspiracy theories that the vaccine would be the "mark of the Beast" or a tracking device used by billionaire Bill Gates. A user in "Reopen Missouri," another Facebook group devoted to rapidly reopening businesses, made a popular post that included a vow to never take any future coronavirus vaccine. "I refuse to receive said vaccine to make others feel more safe," it read. "I won't set myself—or my children—on fire to keep you warm."Facebook Axed Pro-Vaccine Ads, Let Anti-Vaxxer Conspiracies Slip ThroughThe possibility of anti-vaccine advocates gaining a foothold in the protests against public safety laws could portend even dicier problems for government agencies ahead. Health officials have said that a vaccine for coronavirus is one of, if not the, surest ways to emerge through the crisis and return to a semblance of social normalcy. But that depends on wide-scale cultural acceptance of the vaccination—which optimistically could be 18 months away from production—and the coronavirus pandemic has drawn more online interest to anti-vaccine causes. Jackie Schlegal, the founder of well-funded anti-vaccine group Texans for Vaccine Choice, claims that her group has received an "overwhelming influx of support" and a load of traffic from people concerned about coronavirus vaccine exemptions. The anti-vaccine language used by the reopening activists marks the latest confluence between anti-vaccine activists and anti-government groups, who have teamed up in the past to fight vaccine mandates, according to Pisani. "It's not new that these libertarians and ultra-anti-government individuals have been working together with anti-vaccine activists in recent years," she said. Much of the rhetoric at the reopening rallies mirrors the language of anti-vaccine activists, according to Professor Jennifer Reich, a University of Colorado Denver sociologist who has studied why parents don't vaccinate their children. According to Reich's research, the rise in non-vaccinations among children has come as a result of two trends: pressure on parents to research every detail of the choices available to their children; and the idea that individuals, not public health experts or doctors, are best positioned to handle their own health decisions. "We've perfectly set the stage for parents not to trust vaccines," Reich said. Now those same trends are coming into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Reich. Just as anti-vaccine parents claim they can best handle the decision to vaccinate their children, anti-social distancing protesters have vowed to judge the risks of walking around in public, not wearing masks, or not taking any vaccine themselves. "A lot of their rhetoric is really about individual self management, and that they want to be in control of mitigating their own risk," Reich said of the rally goers. Reich fears that the demands for public health officials to move expeditiously in finding a solution to coronavirus could only feed skepticism of vaccines, as the skeptics will point to shortened clinical trials to cast doubt about its safety or efficacy. Already anti-vaccine activists like Bigtree are questioning the coronavirus vaccine process. "It's going to affirm the worst fears of those who already distrust the vaccine system," Reich said. For Pisani, the head of the pro-vaccine group, the coronavirus pandemic represents a crucial point for the ongoing fight pitting pro-vaccine forces and health experts against anti-vaccine groups. The pandemic could ramp up skepticism about government health advice, giving anti-vaccine activists a broader platform. But at the same time, the general public has never been so interested in vaccines and virology in recent memory, or more desperate for a vaccine. "I just can't understand if they had an elderly family member and there was a vaccine — they wouldn't want to give the vaccine to that person?" Pisani said. "It's unbelievable."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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| Argentina doesn't make payment, starting default countdown Posted: 22 Apr 2020 04:52 PM PDT  Argentina said it didn't make $500 million in debt payments due Wednesday, starting a 30-day countdown to a possible default unless the government and bondholders can reach a deal on restructuring its massive foreign debt. The failure to pay came a week after the government of President Alberto Fernández presented a proposal to restructure roughly $70 billion in debt involving the suspension of its debt obligations for three years and a 62% reduction for interest payments. Argentina will use the period to seek creditor acceptance of its proposal, which it has said will remain in force until May 8 and aims at "restoring the sustainability of public debt in foreign currency."
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| Coronavirus: WHO developing guidance on wet markets Posted: 21 Apr 2020 11:28 AM PDT  The World Health Organization calls for stricter safety and hygiene when wet markets reopen.
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| Cruise passengers finally disembark after 15 weeks stuck at sea Posted: 23 Apr 2020 06:57 AM PDT 
They were stuck at sea for 15 weeks. But on Wednesday (April 22) thousands of passengers on board the luxury cruise ship, Costa Deliziosa, finally disembarked in Genoa, Italy. They had set off from Venice on a four-month around the world trip in January, before much of the world went into lockdown...leaving them stranded at sea with no ports willing to let them dock. While other cruise ships suffered major outbreaks, such as the Diamond Princess, which had more than 700 cases among passengers and crew, the Costa Deliziosa is understood to have remained a ''virus-free bubble.'' Costa Crociere, who runs the vessel, said they expected some 1600 passengers and over 900 crew to disembark in Genoa... Some passengers already disembarked in Barcelona on Tuesday (April 21).
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| Wife of pastor arrested for nearly hitting protester with church bus flashes wads of cash as she bails him out Posted: 22 Apr 2020 03:39 PM PDT  The Apostle Paul was jailed in Rome for preaching that Jesus Christ was God. Some 2,000 years later, another evangelist - Louisiana Pastor Tony Spell - was jailed for trying to hit a protester with a bus.While legend holds that Paul was eventually beheaded by Emperor Nero, Mr Spell will have to suffer no such fate; his wife, Shaye, flashed $5,000 at the local jail, made bail, and brought her husband home.
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| Trump signs immigration order sharply different from what he said he planned Posted: 22 Apr 2020 05:00 PM PDT  The order restricts some new entrants but does not include a broad restriction on new green cards as Trump had indicated a day earlier.
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| New York to launch tri-state virus tracing program with Michael Bloomberg's help Posted: 22 Apr 2020 09:10 AM PDT  The ambitious effort to investigate cases in the state at the epicenter of the U.S. crisis will be led by Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City and former presidential candidate, Cuomo told a daily briefing. Bloomberg would make a financial contribution of "upward of $10 million," Cuomo's aide Melissa DeRosa said. With coronavirus-related hospitalizations trending lower in New York, Cuomo has in the last few days turned his attention to the challenge of widespread testing and tracing, both of which he has said are key to getting New Yorkers back to work.
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| Cruise Ship Infamous for Triggering Virus Surge Leaves Australia Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:43 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- A coronavirus-stricken cruise ship that's been linked to hundreds of cases and at least 20 deaths in Australia, leading to a criminal investigation, has began its departure from the country.The Princess Cruises-operated Ruby Princess left Port Kembla in New South Wales state on Thursday and is expected to sail to the Philippines where it will offload its crew, weeks after its passengers were allowed to disembark in Sydney before test results were known.After docking in Sydney on March 19, some 2,647 passengers left the ship even as 13 individuals on board suffered flu-like symptoms. With the first infections confirmed the next day, state and federal leaders blamed each other for the lapse, and health authorities raced to track down and isolate the thousands who had left the boat and dispersed across Australia.The health department of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, assessed Ruby Princess as "low risk" when she berthed. The medics on board couldn't test for the virus themselves and passengers were allowed off pending official results. The state later announced it was conducting a criminal probe into the debacle.Many countries have become increasingly reluctant to grant entry to cruise ships after the infection of more than 700 people on the Carnival Corp.'s Diamond Princess berthed off Japan in February showed how quickly the virus could spread.On Tuesday, Carnival Corp.'s Costa Deliziosa, reached Italy, becoming the operator's last vessel to reach port.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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| Americans overwhelmingly disagree with restarting the economy at the expense of public health Posted: 22 Apr 2020 11:49 AM PDT  Some people are protesting ongoing social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most Americans aren't on board.Just 14 percent of Americans believe the country "should stop social distancing to stimulate the economy even if it means increasing the spread of coronavirus," a Morning Consult/Politico poll released Wednesday found. A massive 76 percent meanwhile say social distancing should continue "even if it means continued damage to the economy," the poll taken just days ago found.Protesters have gathered in state capitols and, with prodding from President Trump, demanded businesses reopen and social distancing requirements be lifted even though medical experts warn against it. This poll reflects how small that movement is, despite its continued news coverage and the fact that it seems to have prompted some governors to buck federal guidelines and move to let businesses reopen before the pandemic has even peaked. The Morning Consult poll mirrors a recent survey from Pew Research, which found 66 percent of Americans were more concerned that social distancing guidelines would be lifted too soon than last too long.Morning Consult/Politico surveyed 1991 registered voters online from April 18-19, and the poll had a two percent margin of error.More stories from theweek.com Childhood vaccination rates plunge amid coronavirus, likely setting up another health crisis Trump says he's 'never heard of' official leading U.S. coronavirus vaccine effort until abrupt demotion Trump is throwing Georgia under the bus
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| Renters still left out in the cold despite temporary coronavirus protection Posted: 23 Apr 2020 05:10 AM PDT  Emergency relief for renters across America may protect them from the threat of eviction during the coronavirus crisis – but it won't last for long.The economic shutdown necessitated by COVID-19 has undermined the ability of millions of families and individuals to pay their landlords. But current measures to alleviate their hardship will not last through the summer, leaving the country at risk of a surge of evictions and homelessness within months.The current crisis also hits landlords, small ones especially, who may now struggle to meet mortgage payments, property taxes and other essential expenses. Again, the measures offered by Congress provide only limited relief.As scholars of housing policy, we know that for any measure to have real impact, it will need to address problems facing both tenants and landlords. Such a solution may already exist in the Housing Choice Voucher program, a 40-year-old program which enables low-income households to afford rental housing in the private market. Rental crisisThe coronavirus worsens an already severe housing affordability crisis. The most recent data shows that 10.7 million households, one-quarter of all renters, spend more than half of their income on rent, including 56% of all renters earning less than US$30,000 per year. More than 2.3 million renters are evicted annually. On any given night, more than 500,000 people are homeless, and nearly three times as many went homeless during the course of a single year.More than 20 million people have filed for unemployment benefits since the shutdown began, and this number is likely to climb higher in the weeks ahead.The people most at risk of losing their jobs are those who work in low-paying service industries such as restaurants, hotels, personal services and the retail sector. They are also disproportionately likely to rent their homes.Many of these workers will struggle to pay landlords in the coming months. As of 2019, the Federal Reserve reported that about 40% of all households could not cover an unexpected $400 expense without borrowing funds or selling a possession. In an effort to provide relief to families and business hit by the economic meltdown, President Trump signed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act on March 27. Stay of evictionThe legislation provides considerable support to homeowners but much less to renters. Homeowners with government-supported mortgages such as those that are guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, accounting for 70% of all outstanding mortgages, can skip mortgage payments for up to 12 months without risk of foreclosure. Missed payments will instead by added to their mortgage balances.Renters are afforded some protection. The legislation forbids private and public owners of rental housing financed with government assistance – about 28% of all rentals – from evicting tenants for nonpayment of rent over a period of six months. In addition to the CARES Act, 15 states and 24 cities have temporarily suspended evictions for nearly all renters in their jurisdictions.The CARES Act also provides relief in the shape of expanded unemployment benefits as well as a one-off payment of $1,200 to eligible adults and an extra $500 per child.But rental protection is unlikely to last more than a few months – less if stays on eviction are not enforced, as has been the case in a number of states.Moreover, when renters skip their rent, they still owe it – it will need to be repaid at a later date.These emergency measures do little to help landlords cover their expenses. It does prohibit lenders from foreclosing on landlords with federally backed mortgages, should they fail to make payment. But it does nothing to help them pay employees, utility bills or their property taxes. And when landlords cannot pay property taxes, it becomes even more difficult for hard-pressed cities, towns and school districts to provide essential services. Room for improvement?One alternative would be for the government to pay landlords directly to cover the loss of rental income. Rep. Ilhan Omar, for example, is proposing that all renters have their rents canceled, with landlords applying for compensation from the federal government. A downside of this approach is the potential for providing assistance to landlords and tenants who do not need it. It would also require a new apparatus to administer the program, which could delay implementation.Advocates and policymakers have suggested other ways government could address the looming rental housing crisis.The approach partially adopted by the CARES Act is to compensate displaced workers for their loss of income. This could be expanded through repeated cash payments to households. Alternatively, unemployment benefits could be increased. But there is also no guarantee that recipients will use the funds for housing or that funds would be targeted at low-income households that require assistance.The government could pay employers to keep workers on their payroll and hire back those they have let go. It has already adopted this approach to an extent, but not anywhere close to the scale that would be necessary. Scaling up these efforts would probably take months and may not be politically feasible. Vouchers for successWe believe a more viable option would be expanding the government's Housing Choice Voucher program. Established in 1974, it enables low-income households to rent housing in the private market, paying no more than 30% of their income on rent, with the government paying the rest. It is available to all low-income households and currently serves 2.2 million households – although as many as 10 million were eligible for the program before the COVID crisis.The program already has the administrative apparatus needed to handle an increase in participants: a nationwide network of over 3,300 housing authorities with decades of experience. Many have already demonstrated their capacity to dramatically expand operations to accommodate new households in the event of natural disasters, such as hurricanes and floods.If expanded to meet the demands of the current crisis, the Housing Choice Voucher program could act as a shock absorber for the rental housing market. For tenants, it would provide some stability where there now is uncertainty and reduce the risk of displacement, eviction and homelessness. For landlords, it would provide a steady stream of income to help pay the mortgage, property taxes and other expenses.[Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]
Este artículo se vuelve a publicar de The Conversation, un medio digital sin fines de lucro dedicado a la diseminación de la experticia académica. Lee mas:
Kirk McClure receives funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He is affiliated with HUD through the Multi-Disciplinary Research Team that works with HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research. Alex Schwartz has received research funding from John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He is a public member of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board. Alex Schwartz is related to an employee of The Conversation US.
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| 'We need to listen to the experts': Climate activist Greta Thunberg says coronavirus has proven the dependence society has on scientific data Posted: 22 Apr 2020 10:31 PM PDT  Thunberg spoke with earth systems scientist Johan Rockström in a digital conversation to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
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| Las Vegas Not-So-Politely Declines Mayor’s Bonkers Offer to Become Virus ‘Control Group’ Posted: 22 Apr 2020 08:07 PM PDT  Las Vegans on Wednesday trashed Mayor Carolyn Goodman's suggestion that city residents would love to be a "control group" to see how ending Nevada's coronavirus lockdown would affect the spread of the new coronavirus."We would love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against," she said during a wild interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday."We're not going to have our workers, and frankly the guests they serve, be a petri dish," D. Taylor, president of national union UNITE HERE, which includes the Culinary Workers's Union in Las Vegas, told The Daily Beast. The union represents 60,000 housekeepers, restaurant, and bar workers, and other staff that keep the Las Vegas Strip running."I think it's outrageous to have a scenario where people would have to choose between a job and their life," he added. "Of course we want people to get back to work, of course we want people to look after themselves, but we're not going to set up a situation where someone risks their life just to go to work. I thought we passed that era back in the Industrial Age but I guess not for the mayor."Las Vegas Mayor Embarrasses Herself During Absolutely Batshit Coronavirus CNN InterviewGoodman, an 81-year-old third-term independent mayor, said earlier this week that the state's lockdown is "total insanity" and has advocated for removing closures and restrictions on casinos, restaurants, and other businesses.The Vegas Culinary Union has already lost 11 members to the novel coronavirus. Across Nevada, there have been at least 4,081 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 187 deaths, state health officials said on Wednesday. There were nine deaths on Tuesday alone.Nevada businessman Stephen Cloobeck, founder of timeshare company Diamond Resorts, asked Goodman: "Madam, who do you choose to die?""Obviously you think Nevadans have a price on their life," he posted on Twitter. "I thought life was priceless."SEIU Local 1107, a union representing health-care workers in Nevada including 9,000 nurses and hospital staff, blasted Goodman's suggestion. "To suggest that we should endanger more lives by treating Las Vegas like a guinea pig in some wild experiment betrays a profound level of ignorance of the current situation," a spokesperson told The Daily Beast.After Attacking Blue States on Lockdown, Trump Goes After a Red State for ReopeningGoodman, wife of former mayor and mob lawyer Oscar Goodman, does not have the power to reopen the casinos, clubs, restaurants, and entertainment venues that line the Las Vegas Strip because the thoroughfare falls outside city limits. And she did not seem too enthused about participating in her own Darwinian experiment, either. When asked on CNN if she'd head to the casinos every night to "put your money where your mouth is," Goodman initially dodged the question, then said it was a ridiculous suggestion. "First of all, I have a family," she said, adding that she didn't gamble anymore and she was very busy, too.She said the city's statistician also turned down her offer to make Las Vegas a control group.State and city officials who oversee the Strip also shut down her suggestion. Justin Jones, a member of the Clark County Commission, which oversees the Strip, called Goodman "an embarrassment" while Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), whose district encompasses the Strip, urged constituents to follow the advice of scientists, the Associated Press reported.Nevada's Democratic governor, Steve Sisolak, said on Wednesday night that the vast majority of residents were desperate return to work but supported the stringent statewide lockdown on all non-essential businesses."We are clearly not ready to reopen," he said. "I will not allow the citizens of Nevada to be used as a control group, as a placebo, whatever she wants to call it."Several states, including Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas, have announced plans to allow some businesses and venues to reopen this week in a limited capacity.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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| Home of 'person of interest' searched in Kristin Smart's 1996 disappearance Posted: 23 Apr 2020 06:42 AM PDT  Smart, 19, vanished in May 1996 while returning to her dorm at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
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| Iran Guard commander threatens US Navy after Trump tweet Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:33 AM PDT  The leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard warned Thursday he ordered his forces to potentially target the U.S. Navy after President Donald Trump's tweet a day earlier threatening to sink Iranian vessels. Iran separately summoned the Swiss ambassador, who looks out for America's interests in the country, to complain about Trump's threat coming amid months of escalating attacks between the two countries. While the coronavirus pandemic temporarily paused those tensions, Iran has since begun pushing back against the Trump administration's maximum pressure policy both militarily and diplomatically.
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| Coronavirus to accelerate Social Security, Medicare depletion dates, U.S. officials say Posted: 22 Apr 2020 12:35 PM PDT  Job and revenue losses prompted by the coronavirus will likely accelerate the depletion of Social Security and Medicare reserves, U.S. officials said on Wednesday as they released reports showing little change in the federal benefit programs' pre-pandemic finances. The 2020 Social Security and Medicare trustees reports released on Wednesday did not reflect projections from the coronavirus pandemic but showed continued long-term funding shortfalls for retirement, disability and seniors' healthcare benefits. Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund can pay scheduled in-patient hospital expenses until 2026, also the same as in last year's report.
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| India Opens Bridge in Himalayas Setting Stage for China Face-Off Posted: 23 Apr 2020 02:40 AM PDT |
| Mexico has moved to 'Phase 3' — its most serious level of coronavirus alert — and faces a looming outbreak. Here's how it got to this point. Posted: 22 Apr 2020 11:05 PM PDT  As of April 23, Mexico had 10,554 confirmed cases of COVID-19. But Reuters reported the government estimated there were actually about 55,951 cases.
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| Brothers Who Hoarded 17,700 Hand Sanitizer Bottles Avoid Fine After Donating Supplies Posted: 23 Apr 2020 05:26 AM PDT  Two Tennessee brothers who stockpiled 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer have avoided prosecution and a fine, but will not recoup the thousands of dollars they spent on the supplies under the terms of a price-gouging settlement that the state attorney general announced this week.The brothers, Matt Colvin and Noah Colvin, donated the supplies last month to people in Tennessee and Kentucky, which the authorities said Tuesday was acceptable as restitution and was a factor in the settlement terms in the highly publicized case.The siblings, who live outside Chattanooga, were widely vilified after Matt Colvin 36, told The New York Times last month that he and his brother, who is 21, had canvassed dollar stores and other retailers across Tennessee and Kentucky for hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.Colvin said at the time that he had sold 300 bottles of hand sanitizer on Amazon for $8 to $70 each, multiple times higher than what he had paid. The next day, Amazon pulled the additional items that he had listed from its retail platform, along with those of thousands of other sellers."Disrupting necessary supplies during an unprecedented pandemic is a serious offense," Herbert H. Slatery III, Tennessee's attorney general, said in a statement Tuesday. "It became clear during our investigation that the Colvins realized this, and their prompt cooperation and donation led to an outcome that actually benefited some consumers."Clay T. Lee, a lawyer for the brothers, said in an email Wednesday that his clients had agreed to donate all the supplies to their church for distribution to local emergency responders before the state began its investigation. He said the brothers appreciated the swift resolution of the matter.Matt Colvin, a former Air Force technical sergeant, said last month that he had received hate mail and death threats after The Times published an article about the stockpile.In Tennessee, a state price-gouging law prohibits individuals or businesses from charging "unreasonable" prices for essential goods or services in direct response to a disaster, whether it occurs in the state or elsewhere.Under the settlement terms, the brothers agreed not to engage in any further price gouging during the coronavirus health crisis.A week after the brothers first made headlines, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directed the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute cases of price gouging and hoarding of critical supplies that included face masks and sanitizing products.Last month, a Brooklyn man was charged with lying to federal agents about price gouging. The authorities said the man, Baruch Feldheim, 43, had stockpiled 192,000 N95 respirators, 130,000 surgical masks and nearly 600,000 medical-grade gloves, which were redirected to medical workers in New York and New Jersey.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| HHS chief Alex Azar chose a former labradoodle breeder with minimal public health experience to lead the department's coronavirus response Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:10 AM PDT  Alex Azar picked Brian Harrison to lead the HHS day-to-day coronavirus response. Harrison previously spent six years as a labradoodle breeder.
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| New coronavirus cases halved in Israeli ultra-Orthodox city after military lockdown Posted: 23 Apr 2020 01:31 AM PDT  The community rejects much of modern technology — including television and social media — which had left many uninformed about the pandemic.
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| Andrew Cuomo Learns the One Simple Trick to Get Donald Trump to Do the Right Thing: Bend the Knee Posted: 21 Apr 2020 05:10 PM PDT  In a time when everyone is holding Zoom meetings, why did the governor of New York schlep to Washington, DC, on Tuesday? For the same reason WIllie Sutton robbed banks. Because that's where the money is (and what's needed for the COVID-19 tests). To put it simply: It was part of the hostage deal. Cuomo wanted help with COVID-19 testing, so he had to bend the knee. And it probably worked. Ironically, the fact that he had to do this sort of proves Cuomo's point: that New York, in fact, needed help from the federal government. Despite all the talk of tests being widely available, Cuomo explained that the main problem has been getting reagents, the chemicals without which the kits are useless. Cuomo Praises Trump Target on His Way to Oval Office Meeting"The problem with testing has been the national manufacturers of the equipment who make the testing kits they have to send to the state labs," Cuomo said Friday evening, at a press conference after meeting Trump and returning to New York where he seemed to be carefully parsing his words to thank the president, while not providing him with any more clips that Trump could use in a campaign spots. "That is where the federal government can help. States cannot do international supply chains."Having the states handle the tests while the feds help with his supplies, Cuomo said, "is an intelligent division of labor in my opinion: let each level of government do what it does best, and it ends this back and forth, what do the states do, what does Washington do, who's responsible, etcetera."It seems that, by taking the trip, New York's odds of obtaining the chemicals it needs for testing dramatically improved. During Tuesday's briefing, Trump described Cuomo as "terrific to work with." He noted that New York was "the epicenter of the outbreak," that the two men have "a very good understanding, and that it was "a very good meeting." What a difference a couple of days makes. The other day, I noted that Cuomo had bested Trump when the two tough guys from Queens traded barbs about why New York asked for so many more ventilators than it ended up needing. Cuomo was right on the merits. But when it comes to coronavirus testing, Trump controls the means of production. Cuomo said later on Friday that he'd also told Trump that "you know the state governments are broke, to use a very blunt term. You know the state governments are now responsible for the reopening, the governors are going to do the reopening and we have no funds to do it." And, Cuomo said, before fuming about how Congress keeps breaking promises to give money to the states whose budgets have been hit because that isn't as "politically sexy" as writing checks to individuals, "the president said that he understands the issue."It's always good when people can meet face-to-face and hash out their problems. Still, it's hard not to see this at least partly as a way for Trump to demonstrate dominance over another Alpha dog. As a developer, the Donald knows the adage: location, location, location. To be sure, insisting on a home-field advantage is not uniquely a Trumpian play. It stands to reason that powerful leaders would prefer to summon others to their home field. What is more, the adage that you get more flies with honey than vinegar is not a new one. But few leaders are as petty when it comes to demonstrating symbolic displays of power. This is a guy who gets an extra scoop of ice cream during meetings, for heaven's sake. It's almost like he watched Jack Donaghy's "Negotiate to WIN!" VHS tape (see rule 3) and is playing it out in real life. This is straight out of the Trump playbook. Remember that time Reince Priebus left his RNC headquarters, and traveled to Trump Tower in order to obtain a signature (Trump's non-binding pledge not to run a third-party campaign)? It was almost a Neville Chamberlain-esque maneuver. Why would the chairman of the RNC go groveling to New York?I still don't get it. It's much more understandable why Cuomo would make the trip to DC to see the president. Priebus, stupidly, gave away leverage. Cuomo, for the sake of his constituents, had to pay homage. At the end of the day, Cuomo had to be nice to Trump. That's part of the deal. And yes, it stinks. Yes, it's petty. Yes, it's disturbing. But it's a small price to pay if, by humbling himself, it helps the people of New York to survive this pandemic. As they say, no man stands so tall as when he stoops to kiss an ass. 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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| 'Something's going wrong': UK virus response under fire Posted: 21 Apr 2020 10:46 PM PDT  The British government came under sustained pressure over its coronavirus response on Wednesday when members of parliament got their first major opportunity in a month to hold it to account. With the latest hospital death toll from the virus rising to 18,100 in the United Kingdom and persistent reports of a lack of protective equipment for staff in hospitals and care homes, stand-in leader Dominic Raab faced a barrage of tough questions. "Something's going wrong," new opposition leader Keir Starmer said during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions session, where Raab was deputising for Boris Johnson who is recovering from COVID-19 at his country residence.
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| 26 Cheap, Neutral Rugs That Actually Look Good Posted: 21 Apr 2020 10:10 AM PDT |
| Several children with COVID-19 hospitalized in Boston Posted: 23 Apr 2020 07:42 AM PDT  Over 20 children with coronavirus have been hospitalized in Boston, Massachusetts amid a surge in cases; Molly Line reports.
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