| Pressure grows on Trump to invoke Defense Production Act for coronavirus response Posted: 17 Mar 2020 05:47 PM PDT  President Trump said Tuesday he was not prepared to invoke the authorities to allow the government to ensure that the private sector can ramp up production of emergency medical supplies, despite a growing chorus of voices urging him to do so.
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| Life under coronavirus lockdown in Italy: ‘Time goes so slowly’ Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:52 AM PDT  "Time goes so slowly," says Rosa Di Maggio, 30. She's one of 60 million Italians currently on nationwide lockdown, under Italy's strict measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19.
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| 'I'm dealing with a f---ing global crisis': Bernie Sanders issues a scathing response when asked if he'll suspend his campaign Posted: 18 Mar 2020 02:51 PM PDT  Sen. Bernie Sanders did not hold back when asked if he would drop out of the 2020 race, saying, "I'm dealing with a f---ing global crisis."
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| Editorial: Coronavirus makes jails and prisons potential death traps. That puts us all in danger Posted: 18 Mar 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Soap is restricted and hand sanitizer is contraband at correctional facilities. We need to stop admitting people accused of low-level crimes.
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| NKorea's Kim admits troubled medical system amid virus fears Posted: 17 Mar 2020 09:14 PM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un acknowledged that his country lacks modern medical facilities and called for urgent improvements, state media said Wednesday, in a rare assessment of the North's health care system that comes amid worries about the coronavirus in the impoverished country. Outside experts say a coronavirus epidemic in the North could be devastating due its chronic lack of medical supplies and outdated health care infrastructure. North Korea has engaged in an intense campaign to guard against the new virus, though it has steadfastly maintained that no one has been sickened, a claim many foreign experts doubt.
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| Hawley Calls for ‘Full, International Investigation’ into China’s Coronavirus Coverup Posted: 18 Mar 2020 08:22 AM PDT  Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) on Wednesday warned the Chinese Communist Party that it would have "to pay" for its attempts to coverup the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, and called for a "full, international investigation" to get to the bottom of the situation."There needs to be a full, international investigation of China Communist Party's actions that helped turn coronavirus COVID19 into a global pandemic," Hawley tweeted Wednesday morning.> There needs to be a full, international investigation of China Communist Party's actions that helped turn coronavirus COVID19 into a global pandemic - and China needs to be prepared to pay other countries for the havoc the CCP has unleashed https://t.co/u1Uo0H0PTj> > -- Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 18, 2020The freshman senator was referencing a story that Beijing has attempted to drown out with a propaganda campaign. China on Tuesday stripped press passes from reporters at the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post who were stationed in China and Hong Kong, its latest action to escape accountability and international censure over its handling the outbreak.In December, genomics laboratories in Wuhan sequenced coronavirus and discovered it closely resembled the deadly SARS virus which broke out in 2002-2003, but were subsequently gagged by authorities, who ordered them to turn over or destroy the samples.Hawley, a China hawk who slammed the regime for its crackdown on Hong Kong protestors in the fall, has been vocal in recent months as the coronavirus pandemic grew. He sent a letter in January to the heads of four government agencies to ask whether the Trump administration was considering any potential Chinese travel ban to prevent an American outbreak of the coronavirus — a move the White House made soon after.Last month, the senator introduced legislation to reorient medical supply chains and to reduce reliance on China for the manufacture of certain prescription drugs and other medical supplies.
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| Coronavirus: Southwest Airlines ending drink service on flights during COVID-19 outbreak Posted: 17 Mar 2020 04:48 PM PDT  The airline said it will only offer travelers unopened cans of water. Passengers may bring their own drinks. Snacks will still be served.
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| The Best Gifts Like a Smart Coffee Machine for Mom on Mother’s Day Posted: 17 Mar 2020 12:18 PM PDT |
| U.S., Canada Agree to Block Leisure Travel Between the Countries Posted: 18 Mar 2020 02:31 PM PDT |
| Iran's supreme leader to pardon 10,000 prisoners, including political ones Posted: 18 Mar 2020 01:40 PM PDT  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will pardon 10,000 prisoners including political ones in honor of the Iranian new year on Friday, state TV reported. "Those who will be pardoned will not return to jail ... almost half of those security-related prisoners will be pardoned as well," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told state TV on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Esmaili said Iran had temporarily freed about 85,000 people from jail, including political prisoners, in response to the coronavirus epidemic.
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| Iran's president says country 'will respond' to Soleimani death Posted: 18 Mar 2020 05:42 AM PDT  Iran's president said Wednesday that the country will respond to America's assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
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| 'I'm married to an Asian': Kellyanne Conway responds to criticism of a White House official reportedly calling the coronavirus the 'Kung-flu' Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:15 AM PDT  Conway made the remark in response to reporters questioning Trump's use of the term "China virus" and a White House official calling the virus "the Kung-flu."
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| Africa should 'prepare for the worst' with virus, WHO says Posted: 18 Mar 2020 07:15 AM PDT  Africa should "prepare for the worst" as the coronavirus begins to spread locally, the World Health Organization's director-general said Wednesday, while South Africa became the continent's new focus of concern as cases nearly doubled to 116 from two days before. South Africa's health minister, Zweli Mkhize, this week called that kind of rate "explosive" in the country with the most cases in sub-Saharan Africa. Fourteen of the latest cases were from local transmission — and six were in children under 10.
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| Farewell to the Pro-Life Democrats Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:33 AM PDT  In Illinois last night, abortion-rights advocate Marie Newman unseated pro-life representative Dan Lipinski in the Democratic primary for the third congressional district. Based on ratings from anti-abortion groups, Lipinski was the last remaining stalwart pro-lifer among Democratic politicians in Congress.It is a symbolic end to an era that really ended a long time ago, a time when Democratic politicians could vote against taxpayer-funded abortion and in favor of abortion restrictions without being ousted from their seats, and when the party's leadership acknowledged and welcomed pro-life voters whose views on other issues aligned them with the party.With Lipinski's loss, there is no longer even the slightest bit of room for Democrats to give themselves cover on this issue, and they appear not to mind. The Democratic Party is, at the national level, filled with politicians who support abortion on demand, at any stage of pregnancy, for any reason, funded by the U.S. taxpayer.This is dramatically out of step with most Americans, only 13 percent of whom favor allowing elective abortion in the last three months of pregnancy and nearly three-quarters of whom would limit abortion to the first three months or to cases of rape or incest, or not permit it at all. It is also out of step with most Democrats, only 18 percent of whom would allow third-trimester abortion. A full 30 percent of Democrats call themselves pro-life.Instead of being accommodated or reassured, these Democrats are explicitly told by the politicians seeking to represent them that their views have no place in their own party — a curious election strategy.In 2017, Democratic leaders derided Bernie Sanders when he endorsed Heath Mello for mayor of Omaha, Neb., after abortion-advocacy groups dubbed Mello "anti-choice" for having backed a law requiring doctors to give women the option to view a fetal ultrasound prior to abortion (hardly a stringent anti-abortion law, though it is revealing that abortion supporters opposed it).A lot can change in three years. Last month, Sanders declared during a town hall that "being pro-choice is an essential part of being a Democrat." Former presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg made the same assessment in January, telling Kristen Day, director of the beleaguered Democrats for Life, that he would not budge an inch on the issue. (Day, for the record, did not ask Buttigieg to change his position on abortion but rather to "support more-moderate platform language . . . to ensure that the party of diversity, of inclusion really does include everybody." It took him several minutes to get around to saying, in essence, "Keep dreaming.")What, then, is a pro-life Democrat to do? And what happened to the party that used to feature men like Dan Lipinski and his pro-life Democratic father Bill, one or the other of whom has represented the third congressional district in Illinois since 1983?Here an anecdote might be helpful. In 1992, Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Bob Casey Sr., was slated to speak at the party's national convention in New York City but in the end was not permitted to do so. Though Democrats have since contended that this was because he had not endorsed the presidential ticket, contemporaneous reporting shows that it was in fact because he intended to speak about his opposition to abortion, at a time when the party was beginning more uniformly to embrace abortion rights. It was Casey who went to the Supreme Court in 1992 to defend his state's regulations on abortion clinics, losing in the landmark case Planned Parenthood v. Casey that currently governs abortion jurisprudence.Today, Casey's son, Bob Casey Jr., serves as a Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, and in recent years has received a 100 percent score from NARAL Pro-Choice America for his voting record on abortion rights.The Democratic Party has been on this trajectory for a long time, driven in no small part by its desire for the financial backing and public-relations acclaim of powerful actors such as NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and the conglomerate of women's media groups that writer and former editor of Ladies' Home Journal Myrna Blyth christened the "Spin Sisters.""Reproductive rights is the issue that all women must care and agree about," Blyth wrote in her 2004 book Spin Sisters of these publications and their ability to drive public opinion. "To keep the support of the Spin Sisters, politicians may not stray even a hair from the Planned Parenthood position."Though the Democratic allegiance to unlimited legal abortion surely has something to do with the millions of campaign dollars that flow from abortion-advocacy groups, it has perhaps even more to do with the optics of the issue, with the fact that Planned Parenthood and its media allies could sound the death knell for a campaign by deeming a Democrat "anti-choice" for doing something as anodyne as supporting a woman's right to be offered the chance to view an ultrasound. (It was, for instance, primarily these groups that funded and championed Newman's campaign to unseat Lipinski.)State politics confirm this theory, where pro-life Democrats continue to reelect pro-life Democratic politicians who enact anti-abortion laws, out of reach of the national abortion-advocacy apparatus. In Louisiana, Democratic legislator Katrina Jackson sponsored a bill, currently facing a challenge at the Supreme Court, to extend existing safety measures to abortion clinics. That bill, along with a heartbeat bill banning abortion after six weeks' gestation, was signed into law by the state's Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards. In West Virginia earlier this month, Democratic lawmakers helped to pass a born-alive bill, requiring doctors to care for newborn infants who survive an abortion procedure.These proposals have no hope of passing Congress, where the consistent leftward shift of the Democratic Party has left pro-life liberals like Dan Lipinski, and all the voters who valued his leadership, without a home.
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| Israel slaps virus closure on Palestinian-ruled areas of West Bank Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:33 AM PDT  Israel closed off Palestinian-administered areas of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to limit the spread of the coronavirus, officials from both sides said. "From today, a closure has taken place in the West Bank," said Yotam Shefer, who heads the international department of COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories. Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Melhim said all Palestinians would be affected, though goods would still be allowed to pass.
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| As the coronavirus spreads, Catholics are turning to online spiritual practices, from masses live-streamed from the Vatican to a $110 wearable 'eRosary' Posted: 18 Mar 2020 10:30 AM PDT  The Vatican has also started live-streaming the pope's daily mass "to be close to all those who are suffering from the current coronavirus epidemic."
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| A White Nationalist Has Rebranded Himself as Coronavirus Expert. And People Are Flocking to Him. Posted: 18 Mar 2020 01:47 AM PDT  At first glance, Maine resident Tom Kawcyznski seems like just another person talking about the coronavirus pandemic. His daily "Coronavirus Central" podcast has consistently been in the top 20 podcasts on the Apple charts for "Health & Fitness," and at one point earlier this month it hit the fifth spot in the category. But anxious listeners flocking to Kawcyznski's podcast for more information about the disease's spread may not be aware of his background. Before he rebranded himself as a coronavirus expert, Kawcyznski was a notorious white nationalist advocating for a nearly all-white monarchy in New England—with himself as its king. Kawcyznski's surprising reinvention and his success on podcast apps demonstrate the degrees to which concerned Americans are turning to anyone on the internet for coronavirus information, without much consideration of the source. As rumors about coronavirus and the government's response circulate via text message and hoax cures proliferate online, extremist figures like Kawcyznski have seen an opening of their own. "I think the coronavirus is creating a brand new world," Kawcyznski told The Daily Beast, when asked about his new role as a would-be coronavirus expert. Fox Host Trish Regan Goes on Batsh*t Rant Against 'Coronavirus Impeachment Scam'Kawcyznski advocates for the creation of the "Arboreal Kingdom of New Albion," a currently fictional, 95-percent white monarchy he imagines cobbling out of parts of Canada and New England after social collapse. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists his New Albion group as a white nationalist hate group. In 2018, Kawcyznski was fired from his job as the town manager of Jackman, Maine, after the discovery of his posts on fringe social network Gab. In the posts on his now-private account, Kawcyznski wrote that "the average black in America has less intellectual aptitude" and advised white supremacists on how to recast their message in more appealing terms. "I'm putting a happy face on AltRight thinking that brings normies in," Kawcyznski wrote in 2017.Now Kawcyznski has brought the same apocalyptic thinking that turned him into a figure on the racist right to worried coronavirus podcast listeners. He's built an entire coronavirus media empire in the space of two months, including a coronavirus prep book he's selling on Amazon that promises to help people prepare for the disease "on any budget." By publishing a hastily written book on Amazon about the coronavirus, Kawcyznski joined a flood of dubious experts self-publishing coronavirus books on the internet retail giant. In Kawcyznski's book, which he initially published under a pseudonym, he doesn't discuss his background in the white nationalist movement. He also promotes conspiracy theorists like frequent InfoWars guest Mike Adams as reliable sources of information on the disease and envisions a world of societal collapse brought on by the coronavirus, writing that "toilet paper will be more valuable than dollars."Kawcyznski's podcast has drawn more people to him since he started it in February, as cases started to appear in the United States. A Vulture review of coronavirus-related podcasts called the show a "spitting image of caricatures about crackpots and charlatans who vie for attention during crises." But it also noted that his podcast ranks highly in searches on podcast apps for "coronavirus."Kawcyznski claims his daily podcasts, which range from between an hour to two-and-a-half hours, each receive roughly 20,000 listens. It's impossible to independently verify podcast listenership. In his episodes, Kawcyznski positions himself as a sort of guru of the coronavirus era, urging in a Tuesday episode to "refocus your life around the virus." "Stop worrying about what comes after the virus so much, and worry about how you're going to survive it," Kawcyznski said in one. Kawcyznski has also used the coronavirus to gather a community of adherents around himself online. In a chat group on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app popular with extremist right-wing personalities, Coronavirus Central has amassed more than 1,400 members. Kawcyznski claims it's not fair to describe him as a white nationalist, even as he advocates for the creation of a majority-white splinter nation. But as recently as January, Kawcyznski went on a podcast hosted by Chris Cantwell, the neo-Nazi who became infamous in the 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally as the "crying Nazi." Kawcyznski presented Cantwell with a fictional flag for New Albion, describing it as a "blood flag"—a reference to a swastika flag used by Adolf Hitler."It's a sign of my respect to you," Kawcyznski said, as he handed Cantwell the flag.Later that month, Cantwell was arrested on federal interstate threat charges.Kawcyznski, who says he maxed out his credit cards in an attempt to prepare for the coronavirus, has positioned himself for a rebranding in the coronavirus era. In an apparent attempt to distance himself from his white nationalist comments, Kawcyznski said he doesn't "really get into politics" when discussing the coronavirus."I hope people take their opportunities to approach this world with open minds and open hearts," he said. 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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| As Biden cruises toward the Democratic nomination, which VP pick can help him beat Trump? Posted: 17 Mar 2020 08:19 PM PDT  Biden must weigh who can help him win, who is simpatico with him, who has the broadest appeal and who could be called on to take over.
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| Lazarus: The airlines want our cash? Give us more legroom in return Posted: 18 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT  President Trump, who fancies himself a master negotiator, is giving away the store to airlines and seeking little if anything in return.
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| Samoan chief guilty of slavery in New Zealand Posted: 17 Mar 2020 11:53 AM PDT  Joseph Auga Matamata lured victims with promises of a better life but beat them and kept their money.
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| Earthquake shakes Utah, rattling frayed coronavirus nerves Posted: 18 Mar 2020 06:43 AM PDT  A moderate earthquake Wednesday near Salt Lake City temporarily shut down a major air traffic hub, damaged a spire atop a temple and frightened millions of people already on edge from the coronavirus pandemic. The 5.7-magnitude quake just after 7 a.m. damaged the spire and statue atop the iconic Salt Lake Temple. Elsewhere, bricks were showered onto sidewalks and a chemical plume was released outside the city.
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| The Only Question on South African Rate Cut Is ‘How Much?’ Posted: 18 Mar 2020 01:44 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The debate around South African interest rates has now moved from whether the central bank will cut on Thursday to by how much.Of 21 economists in a Bloomberg survey, 11 predict a 50 basis-point reduction, while the balance expect the rate to be lowered by 25 basis points. Forward-rate agreements show traders have switched from pricing in a less than 50% chance of a 25 basis-point cut three weeks ago to betting on a 100% chance that the central bank will cut by 50 basis points.With an economy that slumped into a recession even before the coronavirus intensified, South Africa's inflation-targeting central bank is facing calls to ease policy to support economic growth. The Reserve Bank has repeatedly said that monetary policy alone cannot help South Africa's economy and has a track record of being cautious when moving down -- the last time it cut at consecutive meetings was in 2010.In addition to the U.S. Federal Reserve cutting its main interest rate twice this month to near zero, emerging-market peers Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt eased by between 75 and 300 basis points this week.While Governor Lesetja Kganyago ruled out an emergency meeting in response to the virus after the Fed called such a gathering early in March, it is now urgent enough for a 50 basis-point cut, according to PwC economists Lullu Krugel and Christie Viljoen. Two interest rate cuts of 25 basis points each in March and May would suggest the bank is not in panic mode, according to PwC."Significant monetary policy easing -- combined with faster implementation of economic reforms, as indicated in the budget review 2020 -- is required to boost the South African economy," Krugel and Viljoen said in a note. "This could add 0.3 percentage points to economic growth over the next 12 months. And there is no risk to the inflation outlook from this suggested stimulus."Since Kganyago was appointed governor in November 2014, the MPC has made a 50 basis-point move only once, and that was an increase. The last 50 basis-point cut was in July 2012, when inflation was at 5%. That compares with 4.6% reported for February, which saw the rate above the midpoint of the central bank's 3% to 6% target band for the first time in 15 months.President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government is planning fiscal measures to support the economy, but with a budget deficit close to a 30-year high the scope to do so is limited.To effectively shore up the economy, a rate cut would have to come hand-in-hand with fiscal and health-care stimulus which could be achieved by re-prioritizing current spending plans, according to Reezwana Sumad, an analyst at Nedbank Group Ltd."The reasons for a cut wouldn't be grounded in fundamentals," she said. "It would probably be the Reserve Bank reacting to very volatile moves in the market to try and calm down the market."The risk of a downgrade to junk by Moody's Investors Service next week, which would trigger outflows and batter the rand even further, could keep the central bank from cutting more than 50 basis points, according to Mpho Molopyane, an economist at FirstRand Group Ltd.'s Rand Merchant Bank.It's also possible that the MPC could go back to having monthly meetings, like it did in 2009 during the global financial crisis, she said. That would give the panel scope to cut by 50 basis points this round and by 25 basis points each in April and May, she said.The rand weakened 1.1% to 16.8094 per dollar by 10:44 a.m. in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The currency has weakened more than 16% this year following declines in almost all emerging markets.What Bloomberg's Economist Says"An escalation of the virus outbreak and a drop in oil prices to record lows now gives the SARB scope to significantly revise its economic and inflation outlook, creating both the space and rationale for further cuts. However, the effectiveness of monetary policy and rand weakness will remain a valid concern."\--Boingotlo Gasealahwe, Africa economists-Click here to view the research(Updates with February inflation data in seventh 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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| National Security Council Ties China’s Expulsion of American Reporters to Coronavirus Outbreak Posted: 17 Mar 2020 02:52 PM PDT  The National Security Council on Wednesday slammed China's expulsion of all American reporters working for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post from the country."The Chinese Communist Party's decision to expel journalists from China and Hong Kong is yet another step toward depriving the Chinese people and the world of access to true information about China," read a statement from the NSC posted on Twitter. "The United States calls on China's leaders to refocus their efforts from expelling journalists and spreading disinformation to joining all nations in stopping the Wuhan coronavirus."China's foreign ministry said the expulsion of reporters was in response to the U.S.'s designation of five Chinese government-owened media outlets as foreign missions and its decision to place certain restrictions on those outlets' employees. It comes amid worries that the Chinese Communist Party may be attempting to hide the full extent of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.Chinese premier Xi Jinping is "terrified of a free and independent press because he doesn't want to be challenged when his government regularly spews insane propaganda," Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) said in a statement on Wednesday. "Chairman Xi can expel all the real journalists he wants, but he can't change the fact that his coronavirus cover-up killed thousands of his own people and put the world at risk."Chinese medical authorities reportedly put a gag order on Wuhan labs that discovered the new coronavirus in December, and Wuhan government officials have reprimanded doctors who tried to warn friends and family of the virus. Meanwhile, Chinese propagandists have recently begun pushing a theory that the Wuhan coronavirus may have originated in the U.S.
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| Duncan Hunter, an early Trump supporter who vaped in a Congressional hearing, gets 11 months in prison Posted: 17 Mar 2020 10:53 AM PDT  The former California congressman pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations after a fall from grace forcing him out of his seat.
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| Senate coronavirus vote delayed after Rand Paul pushes doomed amendment Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:03 AM PDT  Sen. Chuck Schumer called the Paul amendment "ridiculous" and "a colossal waste of time"
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| Iran defends response as virus deaths surpass 1,000 Posted: 18 Mar 2020 08:45 AM PDT  Iran said its novel coronavirus death toll surpassed 1,000 on Wednesday as President Hassan Rouhani defended the response of his administration, which has yet to impose a lockdown. The COVID-19 outbreak in sanctions-hit Iran is one of the deadliest for any country outside China, where the disease originated. Rouhani's government reported another 147 deaths -- a record high for a single day in the month since it announced the emergence of the disease.
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| Putin is being protected from coronavirus around the clock, says Kremlin Posted: 18 Mar 2020 05:17 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin is being protected from coronavirus around the clock, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, saying all Kremlin staff involved in his events schedule were undergoing mandatory testing for the virus. "Everything needed to protect the president from viruses and other illnesses is being done around the clock," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov has previously declined to say whether Putin has been tested for coronavirus, but has said that the president's medical care is of an exceptionally high level.
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| Op-Ed: Can Biden beat Trump? Michigan's swing districts offer good clues Posted: 17 Mar 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Biden won the Michigan primary with a big turnout, including in districts that went heavily for Donald Trump in 2016.
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| Commandant directs Marines on how to prepare for coronavirus Posted: 17 Mar 2020 10:59 PM PDT  The letter instructs commanders on the ground to make force preservation and risk mitigation decisions based on new information.
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| Jalisco New Generation drug cartel spreads nationwide across Mexico Posted: 18 Mar 2020 07:31 AM PDT  A fast-rising criminal cartel in Mexico is expanding nationwide after beginning from the outskirts of Mexico City.
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| Warrant issued for Mexico's ex-head of investigations Posted: 18 Mar 2020 03:42 PM PDT  A Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for the former head of investigations for the Attorney General's Office for alleged violations in the investigation of the case of 43 college students who disappeared in 2014, officials said Wednesday. Tomas Zerón and five other former officials face charges including torture, forced disappearance and judicial misconduct. Three have been arrested and three, including Zerón, are still at large.
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| At least 7 members of the same New Jersey family contracted COVID-19 at a family gathering. 2 of them died and 4 are in critical condition. Posted: 18 Mar 2020 07:27 AM PDT  "To imagine a week ago to get a phone call like this — if someone told me this story, I wouldn't believe it," a family member said.
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| House Democrats just passed another version of their coronavirus bill that significantly scales back paid sick leave Posted: 17 Mar 2020 07:52 AM PDT  The new bill tightens eligibility for extending sick pay beyond two weeks. Businesses had warned of running out of cash to pay workers.
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| IMF denies Venezuela emergency aid to help fight coronavirus Posted: 17 Mar 2020 08:39 PM PDT  The International Monetary Fund has rejected Venezuela's request for a $5 billion loan to help it cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Venezuela became the first country to request an emergency loan from the IMF on Tuesday and there are international concerns that its ravaged economy and public services will not cope with the spread of the virus. However, the IMF rebuffed the request, claiming a lack of certainty over the legitimacy of President Nicolas Maduro's government. "Unfortunately, the Fund is not in a position to consider this request," because there is "no clarity" on international recognition of the country's government, the Washington-based institution said. "As we have mentioned before, IMF engagement with member countries is predicated on official government recognition by the international community, as reflected in the IMF's membership. There is no clarity on recognition at this time," the statement said.
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| 'We're in panic': travellers stranded for days as Polish-German border shuts Posted: 18 Mar 2020 08:48 AM PDT  With blank stares or catching a few winks of sleep curled up on uncomfortable chairs, dozens of people have been stranded for four days on a bus locked in gigantic tailbacks at the Polish-German border due to virus restrictions. Queues of trucks, cars and other vehicles stretched up to 60 kilometres (37 miles) back from Germany's eastern border with Poland Wednesday, with Red Cross carers on the scene to attend to people waiting up to 30 hours. "This is a questionable situation from a humanitarian perspective," Red Cross worker Kai Kranich told German national news agency DPA.
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| Rattled world 'at war' with coronavirus as deaths surge in Italy, France Posted: 18 Mar 2020 05:48 AM PDT  MADRID/BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of millions of people faced a world turned upside down on Wednesday by unprecedented emergency measures against the coronavirus pandemic that is killing the old and vulnerable and threatening prolonged economic misery. "This is a once-in-a-hundred-year type event," said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, warning the crisis could last six months as his nation became the latest to restrict gatherings and overseas travel. The fast-spreading disease that jumped from animals to humans in China has now infected over 212,000 people and caused 8,700 deaths in 164 nations, triggering emergency lockdowns and injections of cash unseen since World War Two.
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| Bernie Sanders to ‘assess’ his campaign after suffering yet another bruising defeat to Joe Biden Posted: 18 Mar 2020 08:24 AM PDT  Bernie Sanders has announced he will "assess his campaign" for the Democratic presidential nomination after suffering bruising losses in Tuesday's primaries against former vice-president Joe Biden, who won all three states that cast ballots.The Vermont senator's campaign said in a statement on Wednesday morning that he was "going to be having conversations with supporters" about his bid for the Democratic nomination as Mr Biden appeared to gain a formidable lead in delegates over Mr Sanders.
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| Nunes walks back 'go to your local pub' comments, blames media for creating coronavirus panic Posted: 17 Mar 2020 04:07 AM PDT  On Sunday, Nunes said, "if you're healthy – you and your family – it's a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant. Likely you can get in easily."
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| Police Are Using Drones to Yell at People for Being Outside Posted: 17 Mar 2020 02:48 PM PDT  It's a harsh—but necessary—way to enforce social distancing.
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| Detroit man convicted in killings of 2 gay men, transgender woman Posted: 18 Mar 2020 10:16 AM PDT  A 19-year-old Detroit man has been convicted of gunning down two gay men and a transgender woman who authorities believe were targeted because of their sexual orientation last year following a house party.
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| Mom accused of killing 9-month-old when she fell asleep with her kids Posted: 17 Mar 2020 09:28 AM PDT  Authorities found that Heather Hall had four types of drugs in her system after she fell asleep with her legs pinning her 9-month-old child face down on the bed.
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| Elon Musk told Tesla employees in a leaked email that they don't have to go to work if they're sick or worried about the coronavirus Posted: 16 Mar 2020 09:10 PM PDT  "I'd like to be super clear that if you feel the slightest bit ill or even uncomfortable, please do not feel obligated to come to work," Musk said.
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| ‘Gag and Vote For It Anyway’: McConnell Urges Republican Hold Outs to Back House Coronavirus Bill Posted: 17 Mar 2020 12:52 PM PDT  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he would push ahead with passing the $100-billion stimulus package negotiated between the White House and House Democrats last week, adding that Senate Republicans with reservations about the bill should "gag" them."We're going to go on and vote as soon as the Senate can get permission to vote on the bill that came over from the House, send it down to the President . . . and reassure the people around the country," McConnell said. He added that "a number of my members think there are considerable shortcomings in the House bill. My counsel to them is to gag and vote for it anyway."The Senate will also move ahead with drafting a phase-three package that would add additional measures to help the economy, following a closed-door lunch with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who negotiated extensively with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) on the phase-two bill which McConnell will now bring to the floor.Mnuchin announced on Tuesday that President Trump is considering sending checks to Americans as an alternative to a payroll tax cut in order to provide Americans with immediate assistance in the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.The package could be worth approximately $250 billion, and could be part of a larger package "that would inject $1 trillion into the economy," Mnuchin revealed to reporters. Both the White House and Senate Democrats have proposed additional measures to supplement the House bill, which could range from $750 to $850 billion.Senators Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) and Mitt Romney (R., Utah) have all pushed for direct payments to Americans to offset economic losses.On Monday, Cotton critiqued emergency spending legislation passed by the House as being too complicated, relying on paid sick leave and refundable tax credits when it would be faster to give cash payments directly to Americans. McConnell is now signaling that those criticisms will be considered in new bill set to be drafted by the Senate.> The House bill sets up a complicated relief system that relies on paid sick leave & refundable tax credits. > > That won't move quickly enough & puts undue pressure on businesses to lay off workers. > > We don't want to see layoffs—we need cash in the hands of affected families. pic.twitter.com/64hNtYhfJO> > -- Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 16, 2020
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| A small town emergency doctor's view of the coronavirus pandemic Posted: 17 Mar 2020 04:00 AM PDT  What small hospitals will face if coronavirus continues to spread and overwhelm the system.
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| Putin Worries Coronavirus Could Screw Up His Constitutional ‘Coronation’ Posted: 17 Mar 2020 09:22 AM PDT  MOSCOW—Around the world, more than 5,000 people have died from COVID-19 and European countries are closing their borders one after another, but authorities in Russia—adjacent to both Europe and China—continue acting as if people here in the motherland have some kind of magical immunity.State officials shake hands at public meetings, go around without masks, and organize big public events, while the number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases in Russia has jumped from 63 to 93 overnight. The plague's trolls, styling themselves coronavirus dissidents, spread fake news claiming the epidemic is "a project of the pharmaceutical companies."For three decades, even before the advent of social media, this same kind of conspiratorial misinformation helped HIV/AIDS spread across the country virtually unchecked, at a cost of more than 200,000 lives. Fake News Helped Spread HIV/AIDS in Russia. Has It Stopped?But in this case there's a particular edge to it—an unmistakable political context. Russia's parliament has just paved the way for Vladimir Putin to run in rubber-stamp elections and serve in office until he's in his 80s. And then? Maybe longer. In effect, he'll be president for life. In Russian terms, he'll be the 21st century version of a czar. But there's a hitch.Although the Russian parliament passed the necessary amendments to the constitution on March 11 with a vote of 383 to 0, they are supposed to receive popular approval in a plebiscite scheduled for April 22. And if the coronavirus pandemic takes off in Russia before then—or, rather, can be seen to have taken off—the new czar might have to wait for his quasi-constitutional quasi-coronation. The Kremlin insists that in spite of the growing fear of an outbreak, the plebiscite will take place as scheduled.So what we're hearing from Putin is that there is "nothing critical" happening on the coronavirus front, the main sources of news about sick people in Russia are both fake and foreign: "Their goal is clear, to spread panic among our population," Putin told a governmental conference on March 4. Putin's Now Positioned to Be President for LifeThis does not inspire confidence, especially among those who lived through Soviet times and remember such explanations about the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl in 1986, when Soviet leaders delayed telling citizens the truth at the cost of thousands of lives. On Monday, Moscow's city hall confirmed 53 diagnoses of coronavirus. The first one was registered on March 3. With the growing number of cases, there is increasing public suspicion that there are many more carriers than state television will acknowledge, either because they are asymptomatic, or misdiagnosed. There is also a rapidly growing public sentiment that officials will hide the facts deliberately, at least through April 22. Meanwhile, after China carried out the biggest quarantine in recorded history, and as European countries are shutting down cinemas, bars, restaurants, factories, and eventually, as in Italy, emptying the streets, with the United States belatedly preparing to follow suit, Moscow opened a St. Patrick's Day Irish Film Festival at one of its major movie theaters—one of more than 600 here in the capital. More than 160 drama and musical theaters also continue to work. Though the situation is rapidly changing: on Sunday, the Bolshoi Theater, with 1600 seats, presented Swan Lake, but on Monday Russia's major theater made a decision to cancel all its shows. The Vatican may have canceled public services at Easter, but in Saint Petersburg crowds have been lining up all week to kiss the holy relics of Saint John the Baptist at Kazan Cathedral. "The infection cannot be spread in church," priest Aleksander Pashkov told journalists. The coronavirus pandemic is "an anti-church campaign." In the most recent developments, Russian authorities closed the border with Belarus and recommended that all universities switch to distance education online. All sorts of pseudo experts speak their mind on YouTube. Igor Gundarov, presenting himself as a doctor and a medical authority, says he doubts that the pandemic outbreak is taking place at all. "Evil people with capital, they go crazy," he proclaims. "As Karl Marx said, they can kill even their own mother—to sell an idea, they manipulate people's minds." Gundarov racked up more than 800,000 Russian YouTube viewers in January, and his words inspired dozens of conspiracy theorists to push out their dissident messages about an ostensible COVID-19 hoax even as 100,000 people got infected around the globe.Medical workers find refuge in cynicism and in some cases wishful thinking. They know they will be on the front lines and highly vulnerable if the pandemic explodes here as it has elsewhere. Right now, for instance, Moscow has banned mass demonstrations of more than 5,000, and they wonder why that would be the case if there is "nothing critical" happening. Three doctors at First City Hospital were laughing at the new rule on Friday night: So, if there is a gathering of 4,999 people, they wondered, can they cough all over each other and it's okay? "We sign a non-disclosure agreement, so we cannot give journalists' information," one physician told The Daily Beast. Asked about rumors that there are some 6,000 Russians known to have coronavirus symptoms, the doctor did not say that was wrong.Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, however, vehemently denied such stories. "All these rumors we come across, irresponsible declarations about a huge number of infected patients in Moscow, are not true," he said Sunday on the television show A Week in Town. "Some politicians obviously want to inflame this topic, as often happens in difficult times. On the contrary, we are interested in immediately telling our citizens about novel coronavirus cases." Even so, when news broke last week of a teenage girl diagnosed with coronavirus, Moscow started a volunteer quarantine for school children. Unlike most of the rules dictated in Russia's life, this time it is not up to the Kremlin but up to the parents to decide if they want to put their children at risk.All state institutions, including kindergartens, schools, and universities, work without interruption in Nizhny Novgorod, a Russian city on the Volga with a population of more than 1.2 million. A crowd of parents with children filled up the circus on Friday night and fans gathered at Jupiter concert hall to listen to a concert. The first case of coronavirus reported in this city last week did not inspire the local authorities to take serious action, although one municipal deputy, Yevgeny Lazarev, showed up wearing a thin face mask at the city council meeting on Tuesday. "More than 63,000 people live below the poverty line and cannot afford simple things, including gauze masks," Lazarev declared. He called on his fellow deputies to raise the city administration's awareness of the new virus and its danger. But a majority of his colleagues did not support Lazarev. They thought there were other more important things on the city's agenda. After all, the czar-to-be has told them there's no real problem.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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| Spying on the virus: Israel secret service to track patients Posted: 17 Mar 2020 02:40 AM PDT  The head of Israel's shadowy Shin Bet internal security service said Tuesday that his agency received Cabinet approval overnight to start deploying the agency's phone surveillance technology to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus in Israel, a move that sparked widespread criticism from lawmakers and civil rights groups. While Nadav Argaman acknowledged that using the agency's counter-terrorism capabilities to track sick Israeli citizens deviates from Shin Bet's typical operations against Palestinian militants, he said the goal was still in line with its overall mission of "saving lives." The move was announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a series of sweeping measures to stop the outbreak and immediately raised concerns from civil-liberties advocates that the practice would raise serious privacy issues.
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| Coronavirus justifies moving ex-Trump lawyer Cohen home from prison - letter Posted: 17 Mar 2020 12:20 PM PDT  Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, risks catching coronavirus while serving his three-year prison sentence, justifying his release into home confinement, Cohen's attorney said on Tuesday. In a letter to U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan, Cohen's lawyer Roger Adler accused the Federal Bureau of Prisons of being "demonstrably incapable" of safeguarding inmates who live in close quarters and face an "enhanced risk" of catching coronavirus. Adler urged Pauley "to consider my client's exposure to the coronavirus," and act "thoughtfully and decisively" given the "absence of Presidential leadership" in protecting federal prisoners from COVID-19.
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| Could the coronavirus actually be saving lives in some parts of the world because of reduced pollution? Posted: 17 Mar 2020 09:51 AM PDT  Is there any "good news" related to the coronavirus? Perhaps, in reduced pollution and carbon emissions – and in some places, lives saved.
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