| Trump demands appreciation from governors for coronavirus response Posted: 27 Mar 2020 04:31 PM PDT  President Trump used his daily coronavirus to attack Democratic governors who in his estimation had shown insufficient gratitude for his administration's response to the pandemic.
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| Americans stranded in India fear for their safety and wonder when they can return home Posted: 27 Mar 2020 09:04 AM PDT  A California couple waiting to adopt a child in India was days away from completion when the country's coronavirus lockdown brought the process to a halt.
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| A Wuhan seafood vendor believed to be one of the first coronavirus patients says 'a lot fewer people would have died' if the Chinese government acted sooner Posted: 28 Mar 2020 04:45 AM PDT  Wei Guixian, a 57-year-old seafood vendor in Wuhan, China, was among the first 27 people to be diagnosed with the coronavirus.
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| Alabama girl, 4, missing for nearly two days, found safe Posted: 27 Mar 2020 03:43 PM PDT  Evelyn Vadie Sides and her dog have been reunited with worried loved ones.
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| Fact check: Could your December cough actually have been coronavirus? Experts say more research is needed Posted: 27 Mar 2020 06:56 AM PDT  A handful of widely circulated Facebook posts have asserted that people in the United States contracted the coronavirus as early as last fall.
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| Iran urges U.S. to free Iranian prisoners amid coronavirus Posted: 27 Mar 2020 02:56 AM PDT  The Tehran government urged the United States on Friday to release Iranians held in U.S. jails on sanctions-related issues due to fears about the coronavirus epidemic. The death toll in Iran, one of the countries worst hit by the disease, meanwhile rose to 2,378 on Friday, a jump of 144, while its number of cases rose to 32,332, according to Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the United States of holding a number of Iranians in its prisons and said that under the circumstances they should be set free.
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| Stay In the Lines With These Neat Science Coloring Pages Posted: 28 Mar 2020 06:00 AM PDT |
| Rhode Island Governor Announces National Guard Will Go 'Door-to-Door' to Identify New Yorkers to Slow COVID-19 Spread Posted: 28 Mar 2020 02:15 PM PDT  Rhode Island officials will order anyone coming from New York into quarantine
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| New Yahoo News/YouGov coronavirus poll: 59 percent of Americans say Trump's Easter timeline is 'too soon' to restart economy Posted: 27 Mar 2020 08:58 AM PDT  A large majority of Americans disagree with President Trump that the nation's battle against the coronavirus is winding down and that normal economic activity should resume sooner rather than later, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
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| Virus Onslaught Deepens Gulf Disquiet Over Saudi Oil-Price War Posted: 26 Mar 2020 08:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia's oil-price war with fellow exporting giant Russia bewildered the kingdom's Gulf allies, unexpectedly shattering their fiscal defenses just when they're most needed to combat the coronavirus.The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, along with smaller neighbors, want a return to talks among the OPEC+ cabal of oil powers but the central protagonists, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, are digging in.As the pandemic shuts down major chunks of the global economy, that posture is helping to drive oil even lower, to below $10 in the physical market, sharply curtailing fire-power in Gulf economies still struggling to recover from the last oil price plunge in 2014.Three officials with a deep knowledge of oil policy in the region, as well as industry insiders, described the Saudi decision early this month to cut prices and lift production as Saudi-driven and unnerving for its partners, who felt compelled to fall in line and have had to push the issue to one side as they focus on the wider problems posed by the virus.The longer the standoff between Saudi Arabia and Russia persists, however, the more strain it could put on the Gulf's broader foreign policy efforts that come with their own, sometimes hefty, costs. Saudi Arabia and its Arab neighbors have closely linked strategies toward containing fellow OPEC member Iran -- encouraged by Washington."This was a Saudi-first, Saudi-only move," said Barbara Leaf, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.A.E., describing the dispute as highly disruptive to other Gulf producers. "The Emiratis have aligned themselves with Riyadh and topped up the volume -- they closed ranks. But I can't imagine they think an open-ended price war with Moscow is the best course of action."Turning Up VolumesThe U.A.E., which prides itself on being a stable, predictable oil supplier, is especially concerned about the disorder the price war brought to the market, but tends to refrain from airing disagreement with its larger partner in public. An Abu-Dhabi based diplomat said the U.A.E. would not divert from its energy partnership with Saudi Arabia. Even so, U.A.E Energy Minister Souhail Al Mazrouei struck a more conciliatory tone than Saudi Arabia after the breakdown of oil talks in Vienna."We are hoping that our friends from Russia need more time to think about it and maybe come back and meet anytime, we could meet anytime," he said on March 6.Abu Dhabi worked hard behind the scenes in the immediate aftermath of the meeting to bridge the gap between Riyadh and Moscow and restore stability, according to people familiar with the matter. It is "maximizing efforts to try to drive everybody back to the table", said Leaf. So far, there's little indication its pressure will bring rapid results.Under its de facto leader Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia says it's comfortable with oil around $30 a barrel, and has indicated it will seek to maximize the financial pain felt in the Kremlin -- despite already having had to slash this year's planned spending by $13 billion. That's feeding oil market suspicions that that the kingdom has embarked on a policy to structurally weaken competitors as the climate crisis forces an energy revolution.Russia and Saudi Arabia were the architects of a cooperation deal in 2016 to end a slump in oil prices, and it met with initial success. Over time, the alliance became increasingly unbalanced as the Saudis took on a greater share of output curbs and Russia flouted its obligations. Tensions came to a head as Moscow refused Saudi requests for greater production cuts to prop up oil prices during the virus pandemic.Government officials weren't immediately available to publicly comment in the U.A.E. and Kuwait for this story. U.A.E. Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said in a tweet that his country believes that a "new agreement is essential to support a balanced and less volatile market."The impact of sharply lower crude will be felt hardest in countries like Bahrain and OPEC's No. 2 producer Iraq, where governments have smaller financial reserves, and in the case of Baghdad, a massive reconstruction bill following the war with Islamic State. But even more affluent countries in the U.S-allied region are having to find resources to plot their way through an economic storm that was ill-timed and largely avoidable.The U.A.E. and Kuwait need an oil price of $70 and $54.7 a barrel respectively to break even fiscally in 2020, according to International Monetary Fund projections. Together with neighbors they are now unleashing stimulus worth billions of dollars for economies that never truly recovered from 2014's slump in oil prices.The United Arab Emirates has unveiled a stimulus package worth some $34 billion to fend off the economic impact of coronavirus but its position as both a major crude exporter and a global trade and travel hub means its economy is particularly vulnerable to airline and shipping disruptions wrought by the coronavirus. Non-oil growth in 2019 is expected to have grown just 1.1.% last year, down from 1.3.% a year earlier, and concerns were already growing that malls and real estate in Dubai were becoming oversupplied.Saturated MarketsIt's unlikely other Gulf OPEC members can make up for lost revenue by selling more oil, said Kamel Harami, an independent oil analyst and former executive of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp. "The market is already saturated. And Saudi will grab any available opportunities to send additional crude at the expense of OPEC countries," he said.The kingdom's bid to win market share could end up angering allies further afield. In the U.S., where shale oil producers championed by President Donald Trump are especially vulnerable to cheap oil, nine senators called for an investigation into what they described as the "excessive dumping" of crude into the market by Russia and Saudi Arabia. Trump spoke with Prince Mohammed by phone before the Saudi leader escalated the price war, according to the White House, although it wasn't clear if the two discussed Saudi plans.This week, the U.S. made its most direct intervention yet in the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, with Secretary of State Michael Pompeo urging Prince Mohammed to "rise to the occasion and reassure" energy markets at a time of economic uncertainty.The Saudi move will likely reignite concern among some in the U.S. Congress who have attacked the Saudi prince over the killing of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the kingdom's war in Yemen."I don't think anyone expected the Saudis to respond quite like this," said Matthew Reed, vice president of Washington-based consulting firm Foreign Reports, which focuses on how developments in the Middle East affect oil markets. "The longer this drags on, however, the more relations will be strained."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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| Africa lockdowns begin as coronavirus cases rise above 1,000 Posted: 27 Mar 2020 06:08 AM PDT  Uganda, Eritrea and Angola announced their first cases, meaning 42 of Africa's 54 countries are now affected.
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| 'Extraordinary' recovery: 101-year-old Italian man with COVID-19 was released from the hospital Posted: 27 Mar 2020 10:53 AM PDT  "Mr. P." was born during the Spanish flu pandemic. His recovery from COVID-19 gives Italy "hope for the future," Rimini's deputy mayor said.
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| Germany looks at tracking patients to rein in coronavirus - reports Posted: 27 Mar 2020 02:21 AM PDT  Germany has proposed using big data and location tracking to isolate people with coronavirus once social distancing measures now in force have slowed its spread, media reported on Friday. The Interior Ministry's strategy paper recommends following South Korea in aggressively testing for COVID-19 and using smartphone location data to help trace people who have come into contact with those infected with the flu-like disease. Surveillance is a sensitive topic in Germany, where memories of the dreaded East German Stasi secret police and its extensive network of informants are still fresh in the minds of many.
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| South Korea virus test-kit makers approved to export to US Posted: 28 Mar 2020 08:07 AM PDT  The companies won pre-approval under emergency use authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration that allows for the products to be sold in America, South Korea's foreign ministry said, without naming the firms. The US has more confirmed cases of the coronavirus than anywhere else in the world. South Korean President Moon Jae-in said earlier this week that his US counterpart Donald Trump had asked for test kits, although the White House has not confirmed the request.
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| Neanderthals didn't just hunt mammoths. They actually knew how to fish, researchers discover. Posted: 27 Mar 2020 07:29 AM PDT  A new study suggests that Neanderthals were skilled fishermen and that seafood was a key ingredient in their diets.
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| In reversal, Trump uses Defense Production Act to force GM to make ventilators Posted: 27 Mar 2020 02:41 PM PDT  Trump ends vacillating and uses government powers to force GM to make ventilators
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| Want to Escape a Lockdown? Try Sweden Posted: 27 Mar 2020 12:09 AM PDT |
| Hubei, the center of China's coronavirus outbreak, has emerged from a months-long coronavirus lockdown. Photos show the province slowly coming back to life. Posted: 28 Mar 2020 03:48 AM PDT  Experts, and people who live in Hubei, are still fearful that the loosening of restrictions will help the coronavirus reappear.
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| Can I walk outside? Is the virus on my shoes? Q&A with experts Posted: 26 Mar 2020 11:46 PM PDT  "CBS This Morning" assembled a panel of experts to answer questions from viewers who want to know how the coronavirus and its economic impact affects them.
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| 4 passengers dead aboard cruise ship anchored off Panama coast Posted: 27 Mar 2020 03:59 PM PDT  Four passengers have died aboard a cruise ship now anchored off the coast of Panama and two people aboard the ship have tested positive for the coronavirus, the cruise line said Friday, with hundreds of passengers unsure how long they will remain at sea.
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| ‘Much Respect!’: Trump Praises China’s ‘Understanding’ of Coronavirus, Pledges to Coordinate U.S. Response With Xi Posted: 27 Mar 2020 05:59 AM PDT  President Trump tweeted early Friday morning that he had "a very good" phone call about coronavirus with Chinese President Xi Jinping, signaling a more conciliatory tone between the two countries despite heightened tensions arising from competing accusations of culpability for the onset of the virus."China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!" the president said.> Just finished a very good conversation with President Xi of China. Discussed in great detail the CoronaVirus that is ravaging large parts of our Planet. China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020The Trump administration has been outspoken about China being the epicenter of coronavirus after the outbreak originated in Wuhan, and reportedly pushed the U.N. Security Council to call attention to the Chinese origins of the virus in a joint declaration that stalled this week.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser Robert O'Brien have also criticized Beijing for its role in suppressing information about the coronavirus early on, and Trump himself has defended labeling the coronavirus the "Chinese virus," which critics have claimed is racist and xenophobic.But the president has recently backed away from the term, saying in a press conference Thursday that while the virus did come from China, "I don't have to say it, if they feel so strongly about it."Chinese state media, which has pushed a propaganda campaign claiming the virus originated in the U.S., said that Xi told Trump that the virus was an international threat that disregarded national borders and races, and called for global cooperation to beat the virus.China announced Thursday that it was shutting down its borders to all foreigners to slow any reemergence of coronavirus, and sent mostly faulty coronavirus test kits to Spain and the Czech Republic, according to European media reports.
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| 'Each day we get news of another brother or sister who has fallen': United Auto Workers announce death of fourth Fiat Chrysler employee due to the coronavirus Posted: 27 Mar 2020 08:23 AM PDT  The fourth FCA death comes as some plants among the Detroit Big Three, whose workers are unionized with the UAW, prepare to come back online.
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| American Airlines flight attendant dies of coronavirus, elevating fears in the industry Posted: 27 Mar 2020 11:21 AM PDT  Paul Frishkorn, a Philadelphia-based flight attendant, has died from coronavirus, fueling fears in a profession on the front lines of the pandemic.
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| Sanders is still running, and he may not stop anytime soon Posted: 28 Mar 2020 11:10 AM PDT  The Vermont independent faces long odds of winning the Democratic nomination, but in the pandemic, allies see a moment for his message.
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| Asia virus latest: People return to China epicentre, security talks off Posted: 28 Mar 2020 08:31 AM PDT  Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged last year, partly reopened on Saturday after more than two months of near total isolation for its population of 11 million. A top Asian security conference that gathers defence ministers -- including from the US and China -- and senior military officials was cancelled due to the pandemic. Thousands of migrant workers in India, left jobless and penniless by the full shutdown of the country, are walking long distances back to their home villages after all transport was stopped except for essential services.
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| China sends medical aid to Pakistan to combat virus outbreak Posted: 28 Mar 2020 02:51 AM PDT  China sent a plane loaded with medical personnel and supplies Saturday to help Pakistan fight the spread of the coronavirus in one of the world's most populous nations. In Iran, which is battling the worst outbreak in the region, state TV said Saturday another 139 people had died from the virus. China has sought to portray itself as a global leader in the fight against the outbreak, which began a few months ago in its Wuhan province.
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| Ex-Venezuelan spy chief Carvajal discussing surrender with U.S. authorities: sources Posted: 28 Mar 2020 10:28 AM PDT  CARACAS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former head of Venezuela's military intelligence unit, Hugo Carvajal, is discussing his possible surrender with U.S. authorities, three people familiar with the matter said on Saturday, after prosecutors charged him this week with drug trafficking alongside Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Carvajal, a former general and ally of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, has been in hiding since a Spanish court in November approved his extradition to the United States.
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| A US aircraft carrier could be stuck in port for almost a month for coronavirus testing, but the Navy is trying to cut that time down Posted: 27 Mar 2020 12:03 PM PDT  At the current pace, testing the entire crew could leave the carrier stuck in port for nearly a month.
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| Trump tweets blame in all directions over ventilators for coronavirus, except at himself Posted: 27 Mar 2020 10:37 AM PDT  Hours after a Fox News interview in which he downplayed a national shortage of hospital ventilators to treat patients infected with the coronavirus, President Trump fired off a number of tweets Friday blaming General Motors and its CEO, Mary Barra, for not manufacturing more of them.
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| 'You Must Wash Properly.' Newspaper Ads From the 1918 Flu Pandemic Show Some Things Never Change Posted: 27 Mar 2020 08:35 AM PDT  Medicine has advanced, but the core messages from a century ago are similar to today
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| As coronavirus pandemic strains hospitals, many medical school grads can’t get jobs Posted: 27 Mar 2020 12:34 PM PDT  As the need for physicians has increased, each year — and this year is no exception — many qualified medical school seniors fail to acquire a residency position in a hospital, a requirement for beginning a practice.
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| Deadliest Day in Italy, Spain Shows Worst of Virus Not Over Posted: 27 Mar 2020 12:45 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Italy and Spain suffered their deadliest days yet from the coronavirus outbreak. The government in Madrid warned citizens that the situation will get worse.Italy reported 969 deaths in 24 hours, and Spain 769. Italy now has 86,498 total cases, roughly the same number as the U.S. and more than China, where the disease's first outbreak occurred. A slowdown in new cases in Italy was the one silver lining.Both countries are in almost complete lockdown, with their governments counting on limited social interactions to help contain the spread of the disease. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez convened an emergency cabinet meeting to try to chart a way out of the crisis rapidly engulfing the nation."We may be entering a phase of stabilization, but we haven't reached the peak yet," Health Minister Salvador Illa said at a news conference in Madrid.With Italy and Spain now reporting the most deaths worldwide, Europe's outbreak is stretching health-care systems and in some cases forcing doctors to choose who should live or die. The head of the World Health Organization tried to rally support for the battle against the disease on Friday, even as some world leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump question the need for extreme measures.U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was criticized for being slow to react to the epidemic, became the first world leader to say he has tested positive and is self-isolating in his Downing Street offices with "mild symptoms." Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, also has the virus.U.K. infections are doubling every three to four days, Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said. Some 14,543 people in Britain have now tested positive for coronavirus, a 2,885 increase on Thursday's tally. Apart from Johnson, Health Secretary Matt Hancock also tested positive and the government's chief medical officer Chris Whitty said he had symptoms and would self-isolate for a week.aIn France, cases rose to 32,964 from 29,155, with a total of 1,696 deaths.European Union leaders have largely recognized the danger but struggled to agree at a virtual summit Thursday on a joint strategy to limit the economic impact. They left key details to be hammered out in the weeks ahead.Italian President Sergio Mattarella said in a video statement that while the ECB and the European Commission have taken "important and positive financial and economic decisions" to counter the coronavirus crisis, heads of state so far have failed to act collectively.'Extraordinary Crisis'In the absence of a shared EU response, national governments have been going it alone. In Germany, the upper house of parliament gave the final green light Friday to a package totaling more than 750 billion euros ($826 billion).While the death toll is still mounting, Italy's health authorities sounded cautiously optimistic in recent days as new cases appear to be slowing. That was confirmed Friday, as new infections in the country slowed to 5,959, compared with 6,153 the previous day, civil protection authorities said at their daily news conference in Rome.Lombardy Governor Attilio Fontana, who heads the region with the worst outbreak, said before Friday's death toll was released that a decline in cases may come in days.Even as the spread seems to be slowing, evidence of its impact on the economy is starting to emerge. Confidence among Italian businesses crashed this month across all sectors. Consumer sentiment also deteriorated.Alitalia, Italy's bankrupt state airline, announced it will lay off almost 7,000 workers, while Arcelor Mittal's Taranto steel mill, Europe's largest by capacity, asked to temporarily suspend its whole staff, more than 8,000 people.Italy's gross domestic product may shrink by 6.5% in 2020, according to research group Prometeia. The government has pledged to launch a second stimulus package worth at least 25 billion euros in April, after approving a similar amount this month.(Updates with French figures in eighth paragraph.)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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| Why the Strategic National Stockpile isn't meant to solve a crisis like coronavirus Posted: 28 Mar 2020 03:11 AM PDT  The country's largest repository of drugs and medical equipment is designed to be used as a stopgap — not a solution — during emergencies.
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| Indian authorities send buses to take unemployed to villages Posted: 28 Mar 2020 02:16 AM PDT  Authorities sent a fleet of buses to the outskirts of India's capital on Saturday to meet an exodus of migrant workers desperately trying to reach their home villages during the world's largest coronavirus lockdown. Thousands of people, mostly young male day laborers but also families, fled their New Delhi homes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown that began on Wednesday and effectively put millions of Indians who live off daily earnings out of work. Modi said the extreme measure was needed to halt the spread of the coronavirus in India, which has confirmed 775 cases and 19 deaths, and where millions live in cramped conditions without regular access to clean water.
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| China's Wuhan, where the coronavirus emerged, begins to lift its lockdown Posted: 28 Mar 2020 02:25 AM PDT  The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged, began lifting a two-month lockdown on Saturday by restarting some metro services and reopening borders, allowing some semblance of normality to return and families to reunite. After being cut-off from the rest of the country for two months, the reopening of Wuhan, where the epidemic first erupted in late December, marks a turning point in China's fight against the virus, though the contagion has since spread to over 200 countries. Among those on the first high-speed trains allowed into the city on Saturday morning was Guo Liangkai, a 19-year-old student whose one-month work stint in Shanghai stretched to three months due to the clamp down on movement.
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| The US's coronavirus death rate is currently 1.6% — one of the lowest of any hard-hit country. Here's how it compares to places like China and Italy. Posted: 27 Mar 2020 05:00 PM PDT  The US is one of the hardest-hit countries in the world by the coronavirus pandemic. But its death rate from the COVID-19 illness is low: 1.6%.
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| Coronavirus: 3 migrant children in US custody in New York test positive Posted: 26 Mar 2020 09:50 PM PDT  Three migrant children in U.S. government custody in New York test positive for coronavirus, officials said.
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| The mistakes that turned New York into an epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic Posted: 27 Mar 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Caught between a mayor's indecision and a president's inattention, the nation's largest city was left dangerously exposed to the coronavirus pandemic.
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| QAnon Mom Charged With Kidnapping Her Kids Posted: 28 Mar 2020 02:01 AM PDT  A QAnon conspiracy theorist, fascinated with the crackpot legal theories of the anti-government "sovereign citizen" movement, allegedly kidnapped her two daughters last week. It is just the latest example of the growing and increasingly dangerous overlap between right-wing conspiracy theories and real-life violent crime.QAnon believers have been charged in the past with two murders, a terrorist incident near the Hoover Dam, and an incidence of church vandalism, all of which appear to have been motivated by their bizarre beliefs. Kentucky resident Neely Blanchard, whose two daughters are legally in their grandmother's sole custody, allegedly took the children from their grandmother's house in Logan County, Ky., on March 20, according to police. An amber alert sent out after the alleged abduction warned that Blanchard was armed with a handgun. Blanchard was eventually arrested early Thursday morning, and her two daughters were recovered unharmed. Blanchard now faces two kidnapping charges and two charges of custodial interference, according to Logan County Sheriff Stephen Stratton, who said that law enforcement officials traced her cellphone location to the home of a group of anti-government extremists known as sovereign citizens. What Is QAnon? The Craziest Theory of the Trump Era, ExplainedSovereign citizens believe in an elaborate set of legal theories that holds that American citizens can unilaterally use certain code phrases to proclaim that the United States government has no jurisdiction over them — and thus get out of hot water with the justice system. While these ideas have no actual force in law, a series of Facebook groups and YouTube personalities have promoted sovereign citizen theories to parents desperate to regain custody of their children, drawing them into the fringe movement. The FBI considers sovereign citizens a potential source of domestic terrorism. A 2018 Southern Poverty Law Center report found that sovereign citizens had killed six law enforcement officials since 2005. Blanchard, for example, is the moderator of a Facebook group called "E-Clause"—a hotbed for sovereign citizen legal discussion—and drives a car with an "ECLAUSE" license plate. While Blanchard avoided police, other sovereign citizen E-Clause supporters posted encouragingly on her Facebook page. E-Clause founder Kirk Pendergrass did not respond to a request for comment. While on the run with her children, Blanchard posted a "non-consent" statement on Facebook that appeared to be a reference to sovereign citizen ideas. "I do not consent, I do not contract, I do not acquiesce nor trade, or allow access or enquiry to my nor my children's Cestui que vie trust," Blanchard's strange statement read. "All deemed authorities are now notified & therefore have no legal jurisdiction against me, I am now not 'deemed dead lost at sea.'"The letter appears to be a sovereign citizen tactic meant to help Blanchard regain custody of her children and avoid kidnapping charges. Copies of the letter were also delivered to baffled legal officials around Logan County, according to Stratton. "She is claiming that she's a sovereign citizen, and she had actually sent letters to myself and the county attorney here stating those things," Stratton told The Daily Beast. According to her Facebook posts, Blanchard is also an ardent promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a pro-Trump fringe movement that believes Trump is engaged in a shadowy war with a global cabal of pedophiles in the Democratic Party who eat children. Blanchard's Facebook account includes a number of QAnon-related memes, as well as pictures of her at Trump rallies wearing QAnon shirts referencing the QAnon idea that John F. Kennedy Jr. faked his death to help Trump defeat the deep state. QAnon is popular on the sovereign citizen child custody groups, in part because its believers claim that the government and child protective agencies are abusing the children they take from their parents' custody—an idea referenced in Blanchard's sovereign citizen letter. This isn't the first time a child custody dispute has had the potential to turn violent over QAnon. In January, the FBI arrested QAnon believer Cynthia Abcug in Montana for allegedly plotting to kidnap her son, who was not in her custody, with the help of another armed QAnon supporter. Abcug allegedly discussed people "dying" in a "raid" on the home where her son lived. Abcug had been on the run before her arrest, and became a cause célèbre on the same sort of sovereign citizen child custody Facebook groups that Blanchard belonged to. The hunt for Blanchard and her children was complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Stratton. When officers arrived at the sovereign citizen home where Blanchard was allegedly hiding out with her daughters, several people in the house claimed to have fevers, in an apparent attempt to scare off law enforcement.Teen-Texting QAnon Creep Quits Campaign"From what we've been reading, they've been using the coronavirus epidemic as a government conspiracy theory type thing," Stratton said. Blanchard had previously tried to take another one of her children out of custody in 2013, after allegedly paying a friend 20 Xanax tablets to make a false abuse report. After Blanchard's arrest in Kentucky, a woman claiming to be one of her friends posted on her Facebook account describing the arrest. The woman complained that the sheriff's deputies ignored Blanchard's sovereign citizen legal document and arrested her anyway—a predictable outcome, given that sovereign citizen arguments have no relation to actual laws."We gave them the non-consent paper, showed it to them, it didn't matter," the woman said. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Fauci said he's 'willing to bet anything' that people who recover from the new coronavirus are 'really protected from reinfection' Posted: 28 Mar 2020 08:45 AM PDT  "It's never 100%, but I'd be willing to bet anything that people who recover are really protected against reinfection," Fauci said in an interview.
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| Merkel Pleads With Germans for Patience on Lockdown Measures Posted: 27 Mar 2020 02:57 AM PDT |
| Stimulus checks are coming — here's how to make sure you get yours quickly Posted: 27 Mar 2020 06:34 AM PDT  Spoiler alert: If you haven't filed your taxes since 2017, now is a good time to get that done.
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