| Cuomo says after U.S. blunders on coronavirus tests, New York will do its own Posted: 11 Mar 2020 01:18 PM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed his frustration Wednesday with the Trump administration's failure to provide adequate testing for the coronavirus and said his state would begin contracting with private labs.
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| Cough? Fever? Coronavirus symptoms are not enough, Americans find, as strict rules limit who gets tested Posted: 11 Mar 2020 11:47 AM PDT  McNamara told Yahoo News he doesn't intend to keep pushing health officials to be tested for COVID-19.
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| Doomsday Mom Lori Vallow Tries to Get Judge Booted From Case Posted: 12 Mar 2020 09:28 AM PDT  Doomsday mom Lori Vallow is trying to get an Idaho judge booted from her case while she sits in jail, unable to raise enough money to bail out.It's not clear why Vallow—who has refused to cooperate with the investigation into her missing children—wants Madison County Magistrate Judge Faren Eddins disqualified; her lawyer's filing didn't give a reason.She appeared before Eddins last week, requesting that her $5 million bail be lowered to $10,000. Eddins lowered it to $1 million, but Vallow hasn't been able to secure a bond.Bizarre Email Is Latest Clue in Saga of Doomsday Couple With Missing KidsA number of bondsmen have been in touch with Vallow, but none have been willing to take her on."It's not about the money. I told her I don't want to write the bond. I'd rather just have this go away if she would provide where the kids are located," Danielle Kingston told East Idaho News this week."If she could provide that assurance and proof of life, this goes away. But she has rights—including her right to bail."Vallow's 17-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old son J.J. have not been seen since September, and when police started making inquiries, she and husband Chad Daybell picked up and moved to Hawaii.She was ordered to return to Idaho and produce the kids. When she didn't, she was arrested on charges of child desertion, contempt of court, and promoting a criminal act and extradited from Hawaii.In addition to hunting for the kids—who police have said are in danger—authorities are also investigating the death of Vallow's last husband, Charles, who was shot dead by her brother, Alex Cox, who has also since died under mysterious circumstances.They are also looking into the death of Daybell's last wife, Tammy, whose body has been exhumed for an autopsy. Daybell, the author of novels about near-death experiences and the apocalypse, and Vallow, who is also obsessed with doomsday scenarios, got married weeks after Tammy's death from unknown causes.Vallow was supposed to make another court appearance next week, but both her attorney and the prosecutor have asked to postpone it until May because they are gathering more evidence.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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| Iran’s Khamenei Says Virus Outbreak May Be ‘Biological Attack’ Posted: 12 Mar 2020 10:53 AM PDT |
| Sanders wins delegate-rich California, NBC News projects Posted: 12 Mar 2020 12:52 PM PDT  California, which voted on Super Tuesday, has 415 delegates at stake.
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| Republican senator: It's time to hold China 'accountable' for the coronavirus Posted: 12 Mar 2020 11:31 AM PDT  Sen. Tom Cotton has suggested the US investigate the highly unlikely theory coronavirus was developed in a Chinese "superlaboratory."
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| National security adviser O'Brien blames China for coronavirus spread Posted: 11 Mar 2020 12:18 PM PDT  National security adviser Robert O'Brien defended President Trump's response to the coronavirus and blamed the Chinese government for covering up the initial outbreak of an illness the World Health Organization declared Wednesday is now a pandemic.
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| Sister of executed man to governor: 'You killed my brother' Posted: 12 Mar 2020 03:12 PM PDT  The sister of an executed inmate, whose case drew national scrutiny because he was not the gunman, confronted Alabama's governor on Thursday for not stopping the lethal injection. The sister of Nathaniel Woods approached Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey as she spoke with reporters about the U.S. Census, WSFA reported. Woods was put to death March 5 by lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court and the governor both declined to intervene.
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| India reports first coronavirus death amid new restrictions Posted: 12 Mar 2020 11:59 AM PDT  India on Thursday reported its first coronavirus death as authorities ordered schools, theatres and cinemas closed in New Delhi for the rest of the month in a bid to keep the pandemic at bay. India with its 1.3 billion population and proximity to China has so far come through the global virus crisis, that has killed more than 4,600 people, relatively unscathed. The death was announced, however, only hours after India suspended all visas for incoming tourists from Friday and ordered the closure of most border points with neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar.
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| Satellite images show Iran has built mass graves amid coronavirus outbreak Posted: 12 Mar 2020 02:52 PM PDT  Trenches in city of Qom confirm worst fears about extent of the epidemic and the government's subsequent cover-upSatellite images of mass graves in the city of Qom suggest Iran's coronavirus epidemic is even more serious than the authorities are admitting.The pictures, first published by the New York Times, show the excavation of a new section in a cemetery on the northern fringe of Iran's holy city in late February, and two long trenches dug, of a total length of 100 yards, by the end of the month.They confirm the worst fears about the extent of the epidemic and the government's subsequent cover-up. On 24 February, at the time the trenches were being dug, a legislator from Qom, 75 miles (120 km) south of Tehran, accused the health ministry of lying about the scale of the outbreak, saying there had already been 50 deaths in the city, at a time when the ministry was claiming only 12 people had died from the virus nationwide.The deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, held a press conference to "categorically deny" the allegations, but he was clearly sweating and coughing as he did so. The next day, Harirchi confirmed that he had tested positive for the Covid-19 virus.Since then, members of Iranian parliament, the Majlis, a former diplomat and a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, have died. Another Khamenei adviser and one of the most powerful voices in Iranian foreign policy, Ali Akbar Velayati, was reported on Thursday to have been infected. The top ranks of Iran's clerical leadership are particularly vulnerable because of their advanced age.According to the latest health ministry figures, more than 10,000 Iranians have fallen ill from the virus and 429 have died.Amir Afkhami, who has written a history of Iran's experience of cholera epidemics, A Modern Contagion, said the mass graves add weight to suspicions the real mortality figures are much higher and are still being covered by the leadership."It doesn't surprise me that they are now trying to create mass graves and trying to hide the actual extent of the impact of the disease," Dr Afkhami, an associate professor at George Washington University, said.He added that the close trading partnership between Iran and China, and the government's fear of disrupting that partnership had contributed to the early and rapid spread of the disease."Because of China's status as the country's principal commercial partner, the Iranian government took inadequate cautionary measures to restrict and monitor travelers from China," Dr Afkhami said. "Then, later on, Tehran's lack of transparency and unwillingness to take robust measures such as social distancing and quarantine, particularly at the epicenter of the outbreak, helped spread the virus."
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| Clyburn calls for Democrats to 'shut this primary down' if Biden has big night Posted: 10 Mar 2020 08:04 PM PDT  The South Carolina congressman spoke as six states were voting with 352 delegates up for grabs.
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| Bernie Sanders supporter ‘put in headlock’ after confronting MSNBC anchor over coverage Posted: 11 Mar 2020 06:51 AM PDT  A podcaster and radio host who supports Bernie Sanders says he intends to press charges after a filmed confrontation with an MSNBC anchor, during which he claims he was put in a headlock.Jack Allison, who co-hosts morning show JackAM and pop culture podcast Struggle Session, approached journalist Chris Jansing on 10 March while filming on his phone, asking her: "Why did your network not find it newsworthy to report on an anti-semitic attack at the Jewish candidate's rally on Friday?"
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| Photos show one of the first drive-through coronavirus testing stations in the US, where people with a doctor's note get tested for free Posted: 12 Mar 2020 11:53 AM PDT  Free coronavirus testing is available to patients with a doctor's note at Colorado's first drive-through virus test station in Denver.
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| Senator says Trump administration mulling use of oil reserve to help crude producers Posted: 11 Mar 2020 11:27 AM PDT  Sen. John Thune said on Wednesday he believes the Trump administration is evaluating use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and other measures, to help oil producers deal with the plunge in crude prices due to the coronavirus and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
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| Russian President Vladimir Putin's bid to stay in office until 2036 quickly backed by lawmakers Posted: 11 Mar 2020 12:23 PM PDT  Kremlin critics denounced the move for Vladimir Putin to stay in office until 2036 as cynical manipulation and called for protests on March 21.
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| Hannity: Might ‘Be True’ That ‘Deep State’ Is Using Coronavirus to Hurt Economy Posted: 11 Mar 2020 02:32 PM PDT  Fox News host Sean Hannity took to his radio show Wednesday to once again downplay concerns over the coronavirus outbreak, this time citing a Twitter crank to credulously claim that it might "be true" that the "deep state" is using the pandemic to hurt the economy and push "mandated medicines."Hannity, who also serves as an informal adviser to President Donald Trump and is sometimes referred to as the White House chief of staff, first pointed to a far-right blog to insist that the American public is approving of the president's response to the coronavirus."Gateway Pundit points out that, as of yesterday, that the president's approval rating is fine, and he's getting pretty good grades on everything else," Hannity boasted during his afternoon radio program, as first spotlighted by Media Matters.A Quinnipiac poll released earlier this week, however, shows Trump's approval rating has dropped to 41 percent amid fears of the coronavirus crisis worsening. A plurality of respondents also disapproves of the president's response to the outbreak, compared to just 43 percent who approve.Trump Campaign Spox Grilled by Fox Host on Refusal to Cancel Rallies"There's an MIT guy I noticed on Twitter, and you know he's saying pretty much the same thing he does research nearly every single day on immune systems he said quote 'coronavirus fear-mongering by the deep state will go down in history as one of the biggest frauds to manipulate economies, suppress dissent, and push mandated medicines,'" Hannity said, adding, "May be true."The person whom the pro-Trump host cited, Shiva Ayyadurai, is a right-wing provocateur who has promoted the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon. He also ran for the Senate in 2018 against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and repeatedly called her a "Fake Indian," "fascist," and "scumbag" during his disastrous campaign.With COVID-19 having now resulted in dozens of American deaths, tanking stock markets and causing mass cancellations across the nation, Hannity has continued to minimize and downplay the dangers of the disease. The nation's top expert on infectious disease, however, pointed out to Hannity's viewers on Tuesday night that he's "gotta make sure" they understand that coronavirus is at least 10 times as lethal as the seasonal flu, which Hannity and Trump have regularly compared this outbreak to.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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| Italy death toll jumps past 1,000 as Milan bourse nosedives Posted: 12 Mar 2020 08:15 AM PDT  Italy's death toll from the coronavirus epidemic shot past 1,000 on Thursday as the economic impact worsened, with much of the country at a standstill and the Milan bourse posting its largest ever one-day fall. Looking to halt the spread of the disease, the government introduced yet more restrictions on Italians, ordering the blanket, nationwide closure of restaurants, bars and almost all shops except for food stores and chemists. Most Italians were stoical in the face of the unprecedented disruption.
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| IMF Urges Sudan to Embrace Wide Reforms After Economy Contracts Posted: 11 Mar 2020 01:40 AM PDT |
| U.S. strikes back at militia group after 2 American troops killed in Iraq Posted: 12 Mar 2020 03:50 PM PDT  The strikes come just hours after Pentagon leaders warned that the United States would respond to the deadly attack, which they said was launched by Iranian-backed Shia militia groups in Iraq.
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| U.S. probe into Mexican drug cartel yields 750 arrests Posted: 11 Mar 2020 09:59 PM PDT  Agents also seized more than 20 kilograms of drugs and $20 million in cash from the cartel, the Justice Department said.
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| Biden unveils plan to combat coronavirus Posted: 12 Mar 2020 11:37 AM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden criticized President Trump's response to the coronavirus, and announced his own plan to deal with the pandemic.
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| Iran asks for billions in loans as virus death toll climbs Posted: 12 Mar 2020 02:14 AM PDT  Iran said Thursday it asked the International Monetary Fund for a $5 billion loan to fight the coronavirus, the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that it has sought such assistance, in a staggering admission of how fragile its economy has become amid the epidemic and punishing U.S. sanctions. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the Washington-based IMF should "stand on right side of history & act responsibly" by releasing the funds. Iran's Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati said he asked for the $5 billion loan last week in a letter to IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva.
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| Democratic debate loses moderator, moves locations over coronavirus Posted: 12 Mar 2020 10:39 AM PDT  The next Democratic debate is getting a location change, and losing a moderator, because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Democratic National Committee said on Thursday it would move this Sunday's presidential debate from Phoenix to CNN's studio in Washington, D.C. "out of an abundance of caution and in order to reduce cross-country travel," NBC News reports. Additionally, Univision's Jorge Ramos, who was set to moderate the debate, will no longer do so because he "was in proximity with someone who was in direct contact with a person that tested positive for coronavirus," per The New York Times. Ramos has been cleared by medical professionals, according to NBC. Ilia Calderón is set to take Ramos' place in the debate. The DNC previously announced that the debate, which will be a face-off between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), will happen without a live audience. More stories from theweek.com The entire country of Norway is 'shutting down' California governor issues order allowing state to commandeer hotels if needed to treat coronavirus patients Disneyland has only closed unexpectedly 3 times. Now it's closing for the rest of the month.
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| National security adviser says China "covered up" coronavirus Posted: 10 Mar 2020 09:42 PM PDT  National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said China's failure to sound the alarm about the coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, "cost the world community two months to respond."
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| Fox News guest and pro-Trump leader claims coronavirus is 'actually hard to get' by pointing to himself Posted: 11 Mar 2020 12:59 PM PDT  "People become near hysterical when they feel like they could get this virus very easily," the GOP operative said on Fox News.
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| What Aggressive Coronavirus Lockdown Might Look Like in the U.S. Posted: 12 Mar 2020 01:43 AM PDT  As residents of Washington and New York battled the two largest clusters of the 2019 novel coronavirus in the United States, new restrictions on public assembly meant to ease the deadly crisis raised the question: Just how aggressive might authorities get?U.S. cases of the new coronavirus had, as of Wednesday, topped 1,000, while Republicans in Congress have been briefed on the likelihood that most Americans will eventually be exposed to the infection, and the World Health Organization finally declared the outbreak a global pandemic. President Trump on Wednesday also used a 9 p.m. Oval Office address to announce a confused, partial travel ban between the United States and Europe, along with a variety of measures geared at steadying the economy.But on Thursday, specifically in the Seattle area and in a suburb of New York City, life was about to get considerably more eerie.Gov. Jay Inslee announced Wednesday that he would use emergency powers to prohibit large-scale public gatherings of 250 people or more in three counties through March in Washington state, where at least 29 people have died from the disease. Such events include social, spiritual, recreational, and work activities. Seattle's public schools will also close.King County Executive Dow Constantine added that for his jurisdiction, authorities have ordered that even gatherings of fewer than 250 people "should not happen unless very clear public health steps are taken" beforehand.'First World Problems': Google Employees Endure Coronavirus DamnationNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the coronavirus had infected at least 121 people in suburban New Rochelle alone by Wednesday evening, putting the nation's second-largest cluster of the virus about 20 miles north of New York, America's largest city. Cuomo called in National Guard troops to enact a one-mile containment zone in New Rochelle, which was set to go into effect on Thursday and remain in place for two weeks, through March 25. Troops would assist in distributing food and cleaning public spaces, Cuomo explained. Experts told The Daily Beast that it was too early to consider an Italy-style lockdown in the United States. New York and Washington haven't imposed restrictions on movement so much as assembly, and the federal government has publicly and controversially struggled to even test enough Americans for the virus. But given the current trajectory, officials may end up pushing people close to their limit."The U.S. is not China, and our people would not tolerate the kind of social control and intrusive surveillance that we saw in China," said Lawrence Gostin, who directs the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University and the World Health Organization's Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. He called such a plan on American soil "both legally flawed and unethical."Gostin added that he believed a mass quarantine wouldn't even be constitutional in the United States. But he said he could envision the U.S. limiting movement in or out of, say, large apartments or dormitories."We certainly did do that with the cruise ship, which was a debacle, so we would have to be far more prepared to protect the people that were quarantined," said Gostin, referring to the Diamond Princess, where hundreds were infected in Japan last month, ultimately leading to at least six deaths. "I would hate to see that repeated in a university dormitory or public housing. It would be very, very troubling."Dr. William Haseltine, president of the global health think tank ACCESS Health International who recently chaired the U.S.-China Health Summit in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak originated, said he believed the United States was "close to" authorities implementing such lockdowns."Once you do something like in New Rochelle and stop people attending gatherings, I think it's a real possibility," he told The Daily Beast. "If the infection really gets out of control, and, if they're accompanied by rigorous testing, I think China proved that it works. Everyone who moves at all in China has to report where they've been and where they're going and then gets tested when they arrive."The outbreak in New Rochelle ostensibly began when a Manhattan lawyer who lives in Westchester County contracted the coronavirus on a trip and brought it home, where his wife, son, daughter, rabbi, and several neighbors became infected, too. The lawyer, Lawrence Garbuz, has since been hospitalized at the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan, according to health officials.Ken Ovitz, a longtime friend and cousin of Garbuz, told The Daily Beast that Lawrence is "the best, finest person you would ever know" and that he was told by the patient's wife that his condition was "improving slightly." Ovitz declined to provide more details about his cousin's condition, except to say that he was "wise, kind, a gentleman, [has a] great heart," and is "very smart."The one-mile "containment zone" was set to be structured around the Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue, the temple attended by Garbuz before he was diagnosed. But Cuomo has stressed that the zone was not a travel lockdown and that anyone not quarantined was free to leave their homes, and local businesses could remain open. But all schools, houses of worship, and other large gathering spots in the area were to be shut down for two weeks."New Rochelle is the hottest spot in the country, the most dense cluster," Cuomo said on Wednesday. "Our action in New Rochelle is just no large gatherings. People can come, people can go. There's no limitation on movement, but no large gatherings because the large gatherings are where it spreads.""It sounds more dramatic than it is," he added.Still, those trying to live their lives in New Rochelle told Gothamist this week, before the order even took effect, that "it feels like there's a toxic haze over us," while others questioned how helpful the National Guard could even be during an epidemic."What are they going to do? Shoot the virus?" Raj Shaikhar, the owner of Jessica Newsstand, asked in an interview with the outlet.The precedent set by Italy, which has seen hundreds of deaths caused by the virus, also loomed.Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte this weekend signed an unprecedented coronavirus containment decree, to disastrous effect, as Italians jumped in cars and on trains to flee an impending travel lockdown, and authorities sent and received mixed signals about whether they should even stop anyone. While movie theaters, museums, gyms, schools, and beauty parlors have been closed in the south, officials across the country instituted a "one meter rule," requiring three feet of personal space everywhere from sidewalks to coffee bars. All 60 million people in the country are now affected by either the expanded lockdown or other travel and social-distancing restrictions. Anyone defying a ban on "unnecessary movement"—into and out of the virus-battered northern region, which includes the cities of Venice, Milan, Parma, and Modena—could be subject to criminal charges.The country's worst cluster emerged in northern Italy on Feb. 21. As of Wednesday, there were 12,462 cases and 827 deaths nationwide.Meanwhile, in China, the outbreak was largely confined to the Hubei province, where it first originated. The lockdown in Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, is still in effect, though the rate of new cases has come way down, and President Xi Jinping even visited the city this week.But Gostin said he did not buy the Chinese precedent as the only—or best—way forward."There's very little evidence that these large lockdowns worked," he said. "Japan and South Korea have not used them—and used traditional public health measures—and had dramatic drops in cases."Social separation, on the other hand, may not stop an epidemic, "but it flattens the curve and slows it down, which buys us time," said Gostin, who noted that he expects Americans will likely see increased self-isolation at home in the coming of weeks, possibly into the millions."Quarantine and isolation is a social contract where citizens agree to stay separated from the community for the common good, and, in exchange, the government promises them that they will keep them safe with good healthcare and humane conditions," he said. "I think citizens will comply, but I'm not sure if the government can hold up its end of the bargain.""If you're unemployed, uninsured, elderly, disabled, in a rural area, you're not going to have the ability to take care of yourself and you may be very vulnerable," said Gostin.Will Coronavirus Make America Finally Care About the Homeless?Those concerns have already been discussed by city leaders in affected areas, at least in Seattle, where City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda on Wednesday called on her state's elected officials to act "with one purpose: to protect the health of the community and front line workers.""That includes maintaining protections for civil liberties, housing and care for our most vulnerable and acting swiftly to implement public health prevention and containment strategies," she told The Seattle Times. But Gostin cautioned: "Lockdowns without testing are minimally effective. To be effective, you have to know who is infected and who is not. You have to know who to treat and how to contact-trace."To that end, Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday joined several other local and state leaders who have pointed fingers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over its troubled rollout of working diagnostic kits, which experts and elected officials have said deflated the number of confirmed infections in the United States. Only about 5,000 tests had been conducted in the U.S. by Wednesday, compared to the tens of thousands in other developed countries."What's happening in New Rochelle is a joke" compared to the rigorous tracking and testing in China, Haseltine argued. "It isn't a joke for those people, but in terms of what's effective—it's not effective. They need tests, and they need to make sure that there's really effective containment.""Our testing is so far behind the reality that there probably is no connection between the two," Cuomo said on MSNBC Wednesday. "I have no doubt that people have coronavirus and are walking around."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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| Putin Saw a World in Turmoil and Decided It Needs More Putin Posted: 12 Mar 2020 04:21 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Vladimir Putin changed his mind and backed a plan to allow him to run for two more presidential terms because of the current turbulent period in the world, his spokesman said, in the Kremlin's first public explanation of a move that would let him rule until 2036."The situation in the world has become less stable," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call Thursday. He cited the coronavirus pandemic, the risks of "global recession," numerous "acute regional conflicts" and western sanctions as among the factors that led to Putin's decision."In these difficult years, the stability of the authorities, the firmness and consistency of government have huge significance," he told reporters. "In such hard years, some countries have taken decisions to allow the incumbent president to remain on his path into the future."Putin has had a hand in some of the latest turmoil, setting off a price war in the oil market by refusing last week to agree to deepen output cuts in a deal with other major producers and fueling a crisis earlier this year with Turkey over the civil war in Syria. Peskov didn't explain why the Russian leader felt the current instability will continue to be a factor requiring his continued rule four or more years from now.Putin had previously said he would respect term limits, meaning he would have had to step down in 2024, even as he left the door open to take another role to retain control. But Tuesday he reversed himself and backed a constitutional amendment that would exempt him from the restrictions. While Putin had been widely expected to find a way to extend his 20-year rule, he had previously suggested he would likely step down as president.'Our Advantage is Putin'Under the new plan, Putin, 67, would be allowed to run for up to two more terms, opening the way for him to remain president until 2036, when he would be 83. Peskov said Putin hasn't yet announced whether he will run again in 2024."I doubt these arguments will be seen as convincing," said Mikhail Vinogradov, a St. Peterburg political analyst. "Now it's coronavirus, but there was a time when the Icelandic volcano erupted and they suspended air service. These things happen but it's no reason to change the constitution."The amendments were approved by parliament this week and are expected to go to a national vote next month after Putin signs them and the Constitutional Court signs off. They would take effect immediately."Today, with the challenges and threats that are out there in the world, it's not oil and gas that are our advantages," Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told members of the State Duma Thursday. "Our advantage is Putin and we should defend him."Despite the apparent alarm about coronavirus, Peskov said the Kremlin isn't currently considering changes to its plans for the constitutional vote next month or the May 9 festivities to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. The government Wednesday recommended canceling public events because of the risk of spreading the virus."The Putin regime is a classic personalistic autocracy of the Latin American or Asian type, which always uses current circumstances to justify cracking down," said Andrei Kolesnikov, analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "They assume that an authoritarian system deals with crises more confidently."(Updates with parliament speaker quote in ninth paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Andrey Biryukov in Moscow at abiryukov5@bloomberg.net;Evgenia Pismennaya in Moscow at epismennaya@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony HalpinFor 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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| Facing coronavirus spread, Romania's president makes new push to form government Posted: 12 Mar 2020 07:21 AM PDT  Romanian President Klaus Iohannis called talks with political parties for Friday to try to get parliament to endorse a new prime minister next week so he can focus entirely on tackling the coronavirus outbreak. Prime minister-designate Florin Citu abandoned his bid to become premier earlier in the day, minutes before a scheduled parliamentary vote of confidence that his Liberals had hoped to lose in order to trigger an early election. Cases in Romania have doubled over the past 24 hours to 52.
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| Man in car with daughter, 2, was approached by police, drove into river Posted: 12 Mar 2020 10:12 AM PDT  The man was found dead in the water, and the girl is missing in what police called "a very tragic event."
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| US bill forcing women to see baby on ultrasound before having abortion passes – despite walkout protest by female senators Posted: 11 Mar 2020 12:43 PM PDT  The entire female body of the Utah Senate staged a walkout in protest of an abortion bill mandating women to be shown the foetus on an ultrasound before being allowed to have the procedure.All six female members of the Senate refused to vote on the bill and left the room, leaving only male peers to vote on Wednesday.
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| Biden names Clinton-Obama veteran as new campaign manager Posted: 12 Mar 2020 09:52 AM PDT  Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden is shaking up his campaign leadership by naming a veteran of Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's White House bids as his campaign manager. The campaign announced Thursday that Jen O'Malley Dillon will serve as campaign manager going forward.
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| A 7-Eleven owner has been charged after selling bootleg hand sanitizer that chemically burned at least 4 children, police say Posted: 11 Mar 2020 01:20 PM PDT  The 7-Eleven owner created the bootleg sanitizer by mixing commercial sanitizer with water. It burned four children.
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| Mike Pence says 'thousands' more Americans will get coronavirus Posted: 12 Mar 2020 11:55 AM PDT  Thousands more Americans will become infected with coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday.
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| The nation's top expert on infectious disease says the US is 'failing' when it comes to coronavirus and testing kits Posted: 12 Mar 2020 10:05 AM PDT  Fauci's comments about the US's "failing" came about a week after Trump visited the CDC and falsely said "anybody that needs a test gets a test."
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| Europe Wants to Give Consumers a ‘Right to Repair’ Posted: 11 Mar 2020 06:44 AM PDT |
| Senate GOP blocks emergency paid sick leave bill from moving forward Posted: 12 Mar 2020 09:59 AM PDT  A Republican lawmaker has blocked an attempt by Senate Democrats to pass legislation that would require employers to provide paid sick leave, in light of the coronavirus.
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| Pakistan passes child abuse law after girl's rape and murder Posted: 11 Mar 2020 01:35 PM PDT |
| Bernie Sanders and His Movement Will Win in the End, Thanks to AOC Posted: 11 Mar 2020 01:41 AM PDT  The primary contests for Bernie Sanders have not gone as he'd hoped and, while the election isn't over yet, the question now looms about what happens to the progressive movement after Bernie Sanders.I think the answer to that was never centered around the presidential race to begin with. Which should be intuitive because the future of the progressive movement can't be a 78-year-old white guy who's been in politics for several decades, almost by definition. Bernie is a pioneer, not the future. The future is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (And Ayanna Pressley. And Ilhan Omar. And Rashida Tlaib. And Katie Porter. That they are all women is not a coincidence. That they are all, except for Porter, women of color isn't either.)In the past few weeks, Ocasio-Cortez has been asked repeatedly whether she would support the Democratic nominee for president if he or she wasn't Bernie Sanders, and her replies have been affirmative and unambiguous.As to Sanders, whose campaign she helped revive with her endorsement after his heart attack in October, she was clear Tuesday evening: "There's no sugar-coating it. Tonight's a tough night. Tonight's a tough night electorally," Ocasio-Cortez said on an Instagram live chat, noting the stark "generational divide in the Democratic Party on health care, on climate change, on foreign policy." She noted that "Our generation seems to have a streak of progressivism that doesn't seem to be going away soon," and that, while "movements aren't necessarily electoral," as "people get better at learning to vote over time." It's Over. Bernie's Push for a Trump-Like Takeover Is Done.During her short tenure in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez has already been a powerful agenda-setter for Democrats in ways that long-term elected Democratic officials who skew more moderate—establishment Democrats, as Bernie would put it—have not always embraced or even felt threatened by. She's also been visible, vocal, and in hearings, unintimidated by process or her peers and impeccably prepared. And to the extent that this has made her the unofficial bogeyman of the right, she has turned it into a powerful microphone for educating people about what it means to need the things a progressive agenda has to offer—universal health care, upward mobility for younger people suffering from decisions made by the prior generation, justice and equality for marginalized people—and how it can actually be achieved. Despite the incessant howling on Fox News about the horrors of socialism, 76 percent of Democrats say they'd vote for a socialist president, and AOC's telegenic accessibility has the potential to make democratic socialism less scary to the 24 percent who are holding out. She natively understands media in a way that her priors don't and leverages it to speak to the left about the need for more progressive work and the right, simply because she has their attention. At the core, there is nothing on Sanders' agenda that is not also on Ocasio-Cortez' agenda, and Sanders recognizes that. She is his most visible and powerful surrogate. She speaks to the younger voters that are the most vibrant and crucial part of his coalition and also models for them a pathway that works in the context of the flawed and, in certain ways, increasingly more fragile government we have. But she also advances a rhetoric of reform that leaves room for new constituencies, and that may be the key difference between AOC and the Sanders campaign, if not Sanders.There is a small but vocal portion of the Sanders base that is accelerationist in nature, and cannot really think about what it would do with power within the Democratic party in any meaningful way because it's mostly concerned with dismantling the party—punitively, and for crimes the party has certainly committed (bowing to special interests, aligning itself with undemocratic policies, choosing between corporate interests and vulnerable populations and picking the former). But there are a lot more progressives who view the existing system of government and the two-party system as the most obvious, maybe only way, to get progressive policies enacted. And hostility toward the party in the abstract does not, for many Democratic voters, translate to hostility toward Democrats generally. You can think the party at the most elite powerful levels is full of corrupt insiders and still like your local representative, who you think has your back. You can also think that some of the best progressive advances that we've made as a country were accomplished by Democrats in spite of those problems. Ocasio-Cortez seems to be able to thread this needle in a way that Sanders can't. She's pushed back against what she perceives to be party regressiveness—refusing to pay DCCC dues after they banned vendors who worked on her campaign—but also exhibiting a willingness to work with people (Republicans even; Ted Cruz, even!) where they can potentially agree on a progressive objective.So it's not going to feel like a win for progressive voters this week at the presidential level, but the baton is already being passed, and to a progressive standard bearer who can hold insiders to account and maintain the excitement Bernie Sanders' movement built with younger voters, while simultaneously pulling new people into the progressive movement and getting things done within an extremely flawed system. The progressive movement is bigger than any single candidate in any case, but if we're going to choose avatars by necessity, we still have exciting options.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| Should you get a soundbar for your TV? Posted: 12 Mar 2020 01:55 PM PDT  A soundbar is virtually always going to be better than your TV's built-in speakers. Here's how to find the best soundbar for your setup.
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| Fox News Host Shuts Down Guests for Politicizing Biden’s Coronavirus Speech Posted: 12 Mar 2020 11:32 AM PDT  If Fox News didn't want to have a "political" conversation about former Vice President Joe Biden's speech about the coronavirus response Thursday afternoon, they probably should not have invited two ideologically opposed pundits to debate it. After showing viewers Biden's address in full, Fox News host Harris Faulkner welcomed her "power panel" with a warning. "Politics aside, and we're going to have to do that with COVID-19, we just are," she began, "what would you say is the main takeaway from what the administration that Joe Biden says he would do?" Without missing a beat, conservative talk radio host Chris Plante started attacking Biden for what he called "throwing money at the problem," He called Biden's address an "extremely political speech, a very polarizing speech" before proceeding to criticize the Obama administration's response to the H1N1 swine flu outbreak. "And Joe Biden lecturing people about the use of the word China, the use of the word Wuhan is laughable also," he added. Trump Campaign Spox Grilled by Fox Host on Refusal to Cancel RalliesFrom there, Plante and his left-leaning counterpart Ethan Bearman started shouting over each other, accusing each other of telling lies and generally devolving into a typical cable news food fight argument. But this time was different. "Gentlemen, please!" Faulkner exclaimed. "You know what, I don't find this helpful right now," she said calmly and the two men continued to spiral out of control. "COVID-19 on the horizon, that's what we're focused on right now," Faulkner said. "And I want both of you to focus in." As they both chuckled uncomfortably, she continued, "I understand that politics are the game, but the bigger umbrella here is that people are watching for answers." Faulkner tried once more to give her guests a chance to discuss the differences in approach by Trump and Biden in a reasonable manner, saying that the American people will have to decide for themselves "what is best when they go to the polls in November." But they just couldn't do it. "I'm going to step in," she said. "I think you gentlemen got about equal time, we've had a lot of breaking news this hour so I've got to scoot." 'Pandumbic': 'Daily Show' Gives Trump the Disaster Movie TreatmentRead 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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| Coronavirus: Senate Republicans block emergency sick leave bill as outbreak spreads across US Posted: 11 Mar 2020 01:31 PM PDT  Senate Republicans have blocked an emergency paid sick leave bill aimed at helping deal with complications stemming from the coronavirus outbreak, arguing that the federal government should not foot the bill for the measure that Democrats claim is a public health imperative.The Republican resistance to paid sick leave for employees in the United States comes as the deadly virus continues to spread throughout the country, which has led state governments to consider their paid leave policies and how those might impact worker safety.
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| Official: Pentagon launches airstrikes targeting Iran-backed militia after rocket attack on U.S., British troops Posted: 12 Mar 2020 04:09 PM PDT  The U.S. airstrikes came after the U.S. military confirmed three coalition personnel in Iraq were killed after rockets hit Iraq's Camp Taji base.
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| California banned gatherings of 250 or more, and said smaller ones should only happen if people stand 6 feet apart Posted: 12 Mar 2020 05:20 AM PDT  Governor Gavin Newsom announced the new measures late Wednesday in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus in California,
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| Pregnant 19-year-old dies trying to climb US border wall Posted: 12 Mar 2020 10:54 AM PDT  A 19-year-old pregnant woman from Guatemala died this week from injuries suffered when she fell trying to climb the U.S. border wall near El Paso, Texas, U.S. and Guatemalan authorities said Thursday. Guatemala identified the woman as Mirian Stephany Girón Luna. The U.S. said Girón was eight months pregnant, while Guatemalan authorities said she was at seven months.
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