| Leaked intelligence report saying China 'intentionally concealed' coronavirus to stockpile medical supplies draws scrutiny Posted: 04 May 2020 10:24 AM PDT  The Trump administration has issued an intelligence analysis claiming China purposely delayed notifying the World Health Organization about the spread of the coronavirus.
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| How the coronavirus undid Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Posted: 04 May 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Long before the coronavirus outbreak turned him into one of the least popular governors in the nation, DeSantis of Florida was something of a conservative golden boy.
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| White House discusses winding down Coronavirus Task Force Posted: 05 May 2020 04:35 PM PDT  President Trump said the task force has done "a phenomenal job," and the administration is "looking at other phases."
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| Trump makes false statement, claims Biden offered him an apology Posted: 04 May 2020 03:45 AM PDT  President Trump falsely stated on Sunday that Joe Biden apologized for calling him xenophobic after he issued travel restrictions on China.
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| For nearly two months, Italians rarely left their homes. Now they lead Europe's reopening. Posted: 04 May 2020 07:35 AM PDT  "A new page is beginning, and we will have to write it together with faith and responsibility," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said.
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| Trump says he might give federal coronavirus aid to states if they comply with his political demands Posted: 05 May 2020 01:10 PM PDT  Trump has been sharply criticized for suggesting a quid pro quo between states and the federal government during a public-health crisis.
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| Putin awards commemorative WWII medal to Kim Jong Un Posted: 05 May 2020 01:34 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin has awarded Kim Jong Un a commemorative war medal marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, the Russian embassy in Pyongyang said Tuesday. The medal was awarded to the North Korean leader for his role in preserving the memory of Soviet soldiers who died on North Korean territory, the statement said. Russia's ambassador in North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, presented the award to the country's Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon on Tuesday.
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| US family 'murdered shop guard for enforcing mask policy' Posted: 04 May 2020 08:33 PM PDT  A Michigan store guard is shot in the back of the head after confronting a customer who had no mask.
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| Iranian airline linked to Revolutionary Guards 'defied coronavirus ban on China flights' Posted: 05 May 2020 03:08 AM PDT  An Iranian airline with links to the Revolutionary Guards Corps may have contributed to the spread of coronavirus around the Middle East after it continued to fly to China despite a ban imposed by the Iranian government, an investigation has claimed. Mahan Air, a privately owned airline, flew between Iran and China 157 times between early February and March, an analysis of flight tracking data by BBC Arabic found. The Iranian government banned flights to and from China on January 31. Mahan said it was suspending flights and ticket sales to and from China on February 2, in accordance with instruction from the World Health Organisation and Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation. It has previously said it carried out several evacuation flights of Iranian citizens after that date, and published a message of thanks from Iranian aviation authorities for doing so on its website on February 7. The flights included an Airbus 310 that repatriated 70 Iranian students from Wuhan to Tehran on February 6, and then flew on to Baghdad the following day. Four more flights were operated between February 3 and February 6, carrying repatriated Chinese and Iranian citizens in either direction. But the BBC found that that airline continued to fly regularly to destinations including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen after that. It also claimed that Mahan had continued to fly to Iraq after the government of that country banned flights from Iran on April 20, and to the United Arab Emirates after it introduced a ban on February 25. Iraq and Lebanon reported their first cases of coronavirus in travellers from Iran in February. The BBC claimed both cases arrived on Mahan Air flights. Iran was one of the worst-affected countries at the beginning of the pandemic and has so far recorded almost 100,000 cases of the coronavirus. Allegations that Mahan was flouting the flight ban were first reported in the Shargh daily, a reformist newspaper in Iran. Mahan said in a statement at the time that since the ban on China routes it had only flown repatriation and aid flights at the request of the country's ministries of health and foreign affairs. It said it had also agreed to fly industrial materials from China for Iranian manufacturers. "Obviously, our company would be in such a situation that regardless of material interests and even accepting losses, it had to assist the esteemed government and the country's industries and carry over hundreds of tons of industrial items to Iran," it said. Mahan has faced US sanctions because of its suspected links to the Revolutionary Guards Corps. Germany, France and Italy banned Mahan flights in 2019, following requests from the United States. Germany cited "security" concerns and the airline's alleged role in flying personnel and material to conflict zones including Syria. The airline's last European Union route, a twice-weekly service between Tehran and Barcelona was cancelled in March after Spain revoked its landing license. Mahan did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
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| Tokyo governor Koike to ask businesses to refrain from operating until end of May - NHK Posted: 04 May 2020 11:29 PM PDT  Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike will ask businesses in Japan's biggest city to refrain from operating until the end of this month, following the central government's extension of the state of emergency, a public broadcaster NHK reported. The Tokyo government will pay more financial aid to businesses that remain closed during the period, the report said, adding that she will announce details at a media briefing later on Tuesday. Japan on Monday extended a nationwide state of emergency to May 31, saying the new coronavirus infection rate had yet to drop enough to justify ending measures aimed at slowing the outbreak.
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| Armed lockdown protestors who stormed Michigan Capitol represent ‘worst racism and awful parts’ of US history, governor says Posted: 04 May 2020 08:31 AM PDT  Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has criticised the stay-at-home protesters who stormed the state's Capitol on Thursday, saying they represent the "worst racism and awful parts" in US history.Her heated comments came when appearing on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday to discuss the coronavirus pandemic in Michigan and how some residents have responded to current stay-at-home measures.
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| Boko Haram jihadists clash with army near key Niger city Posted: 05 May 2020 09:14 AM PDT  Boko Haram fighters clashed with government forces on Sunday in Diffa, the largest city in southwestern Niger, in what the jihadists said was a successful attack on a military camp. A propaganda video released by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram splinter group affiliated to the so-called Islamic State, purports to show heavily-armed insurgents storm an army camp following sustained fighting and heavy weapons fire. The area around Diffa, a city of around 200,000 people located near the Nigerian border, has been repeatedly attacked by the jihadist group, which emerged in Nigeria in 2009.
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| Blake Bivens learned on Facebook that wife, son, mother-in-law were killed Posted: 05 May 2020 09:20 AM PDT  Bivens, who last season pitched for the Montgomery Biscuits, an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, opened up about the August 2019 deaths of his family. His brother-in-law has been charged.
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| Trump attacks Joe Scarborough, who tells him 'take a rest' and 'let Mike Pence actually run things' Posted: 04 May 2020 08:21 AM PDT  With the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus mounting, President Trump on Monday took aim at MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. The cable news host responded by telling Trump to let Vice President Mike Pence "run things for the next couple of weeks."
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| Woman killed by alligator in SC was doing homeowner's nails Posted: 05 May 2020 12:01 PM PDT |
| How child abusers and other criminals are exploiting COVID-19 realities Posted: 05 May 2020 04:29 AM PDT  "There is no doubt that with more children online, we need to work harder to protect those children," National Crime Agency boss says.
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| Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic will cut thousands of jobs, retire its most iconic planes, and close one of its biggest bases as it fights to survive the pandemic Posted: 05 May 2020 11:52 AM PDT  Virgin Atlantic has seen plummeting demand due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has been operating cargo flights to try and maintain some revenue.
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| High-rise 48-storey tower catches fire in UAE Posted: 05 May 2020 01:43 PM PDT  A high-rise tower caught fire on Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates. The side of the 48-floor Abbco Tower in Sharjah, which neighbours Dubai, saw flames shoot up them. Firefighters and police surrounded the tower, as did curious onlookers. Seven people were treated for minor injuries from the fire in the tower in Sharjah's Al Nahda area and taken to hospital for treatment. Authorities offered no immediate cause for the blaze.
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| Taiwan rebuffs WHO, says China has no right to represent it Posted: 04 May 2020 11:29 PM PDT  Only Taiwan's democratically-elected government can represent its people on the world stage, not China, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday, calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to "cast off" China's control during the coronavirus pandemic. Taiwan's exclusion from WHO, due to China's objections which considers the island one of its provinces, has infuriated Taipei, which says this has created a dangerous gap in the global fight against the coronavirus. Taiwan has been lobbying to attend, as an observer, this month's meeting of the WHO's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), although government and diplomatic sources say China will block the move.
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| British Scientist Who Spearheaded National Lockdown Quits After Meeting With Married Lover Posted: 05 May 2020 12:55 PM PDT  The British scientist known colloquially as "Professor Lockdown," who pushed Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose a nationwide lockdown, resigned on Tuesday after he defied social distancing guidelines to have a rendezvous with his married lover in his London home.Professor Neil Ferguson, who had been praised for his expertise and guidance during the U.K.'s coronavirus outbreak, allowed 38-year-old Antonia Staats—who is married with two children—into his home at the same time he was publicly advising everyone else to adhere to strict guidelines banning couples from seeing each other if they didn't live together. Ferguson, who is the head of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London, had delivered stark warnings to Downing Street about how many people could die of the coronavirus if the government did not impose restrictions. His renowned work also reportedly informed government responses to coronavirus in the United States, France, and Germany."I accept I made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action," Ferguson told The Telegraph, which first reported on Ferguson's ouster. "I have therefore stepped back from my involvement in SAGE [the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies]. I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing to control this devastating epidemic. The government guidance is unequivocal, and is there to protect all of us."The scientist's lover reportedly made several trips to his home in March and April even though she admitted to her friends that her husband was experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jenny Harries and Health Secretary Matt Hancock informed the public one week before the lovers' first reunion on March 30 that "if the two halves of a couple are currently in separate households, ideally they should stay in those households." According to The Telegraph, Staat and her husband are in an open marriage and Staat did not believe their actions to be hypocritical because she considers the households to be one.Ferguson has for years modeled the spread of major pathogen outbreaks such as swine flu and Ebola. He tested positive for the coronavirus on March 19 after speaking at a Downing Street press conference two days earlier. He recently completed two weeks of self-quarantine, according to The Telegraph. "This virus is probably the one that concerns me the most of everything I've worked on," Ferguson said in a February 14 interview in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.The scientist had been on the forefront of the coronavirus fight in the U.K., frequently appearing in interviews to praise "very intensive social distancing" measures. Ferguson heads an Imperial College team that presented a staggering report to the government that projected more than 500,000 deaths in the UK without enforced restrictions. "Scientists like him have told us we should not be doing it, so surely in his case it is a case of we have been doing as he says and he has been doing as he wants to," said British Member of Parliament Iain Duncan Smith. "He has peculiarly breached his own guidelines and for an intelligent man I find that very hard to believe. It risks undermining the government's lockdown message."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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| Body of 18-year-old missing since leaving Target in January is found Posted: 05 May 2020 06:48 AM PDT  Abdullahi "Abdi" Sharif was last seen on security video on Jan. 17 leaving the Target store at Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines where he and his sister, Ifrah, had worked for about two years.
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| Under Trump, America has gone a bit late Weimar. We know how that ended Posted: 04 May 2020 06:07 AM PDT  Life and death are on the line and the president and his minions appear reluctant to grasp the reality * Coronavirus – latest US updates * Coronavirus – latest global updates * See all our coronavirus coverageWelcome to the US in the age of coronavirus. Faces and fists pounded the windows of Ohio's capitol like a zombie apocalypse. In Michigan, an armed crowd stormed the state house. Then, history repeated itself.Taking a page from his Charlottesville playbook, Donald Trump called the protesters "good people" and urged Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor of Michigan, to "make a deal" over the shutdown. The president tweeted that Whitmer should "give a little, and put out the fire". In other words, negotiate over the barrel of a gun. After all, his base was "angry".One state over, in Illinois, an anti-shutdown protester waived a poster aimed at the state's Jewish governor, JB Pritzker: "Arbeit macht frei, JB." The words that hung over the gates of Auschwitz.A Trump administration insider conveyed that it was all a "bit" reminiscent of the "late" Weimar Republic. We know how that ended.Society's guardrails crashed, the volk demanded its pound of flesh and democracy made the frighteningly unimaginable possible. Hell became part of the here and now.Election day is six months away. The US may experience 25% unemployment and economic collapse. We stand to witness "between 100,000 and 240,00 American lives lost", according to Dr Deborah Birx. As for the protesters, Birx labelled their conduct "devastatingly worrisome"."Collective rage" looms large.Life and death are on the line and the president and his minions appear reluctant to grasp the reality. Echoing his boss, Larry Kudlow ties himself into knots over earlier pronouncements that the scourge would be quickly gone. Marc Short, Mike Pence's chief of staff, prematurely rejects projections of a death toll above 60,000. By Tuesday, the total will probably exceed 70,000.How this plays out at the ballot box remains to be seen. But the early numbers should give Trump serious pause. It is unlikely that racial minorities, suburban mothers and college degree holders will take kindly to bully boys playing Trump surrogates.A poll taken last month showed most Americans wary of returning to normal, with those living in cities and suburbs signaling particular reluctance. Indeed, Republicans disfavored such a move by nearly a two-to-one margin.As for the presidential horserace, Trump is lagging Joe Biden in most national polls and in the swing states. Among college graduates, the former vice-president holds a near 20-point lead. Biden is ahead by double digits among women. Cultural resentments are two-way streets.All this is a continuation of trends that appeared in the 2018 midterms. Nancy Pelosi became speaker of the House and Democrats captured the female vote by nearly three-to-two, suburban women by more than 20 points, and a majority of white college graduates. Peloton moms made a difference.More ominously for the president, swing states are drifting away: Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are lining up for Biden. In a break from four years ago, seniors are growing tired of Trump. Were the trend to hold, the ballgame would be over.Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio also appear shaky. Biden could be sitting atop an electoral college landslide.Excluding New York state, the number of coronavirus cases have moved upward and the average number of fatalities appears stuck in neutral. This is not the re-election campaign Trump envisioned in January. Not surprisingly, some of his most ardent supporters in the Senate are engaging in political social distancing.Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, North Carolina's Thom Tillis and Arizona's Martha McSally tout home-state accomplishments. They are not embracing Trump. The impeachment vote feels a century ago.McSally appears destined for defeat and Tillis is in a dead heat. Only McConnell is given a clear edge and even he is struggling.Coronavirus has unleashed more than death. Social fissures once buried have metastasized into jagged volcanic chasms. The past is always with us, much as we try to jettison it. Weimar was less than a century ago. Democracy is more fragile than we may care to acknowledge.
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| 3 family members charged in killing of guard over face mask dispute Posted: 05 May 2020 03:58 AM PDT  Three members of a family have been charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard over a virus mask dispute at a Family Dollar store in Michigan.
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| W.Va. woman charged with mishandling classified information Posted: 04 May 2020 12:08 PM PDT  A West Virginia woman who had already been accused of kidnapping her daughter faces a new charge of retaining top-secret information from the National Security Agency in a storage unit she leased, court papers show. Elizabeth Jo Shirley was charged with willful retention of national defense information in a two-count criminal information document filed in federal court in West Virginia last week. The document contains only sparse information about the allegations, but says that between 1999 and August 2019, Shirley had unauthorized possession of documents "relating to the national defense" and "failed to deliver them to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive them."
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| Airbnb is holding an all-hands meeting and rumors are circulating among employees that layoffs may be on the agenda Posted: 05 May 2020 11:32 AM PDT  Sources confirm that the company is holding an all hands meeting, while online forums suggest the company may be discussing additional layoffs.
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| Drone discovers mass grave of Islamic State victims at bottom of gorge in Syria Posted: 05 May 2020 02:29 AM PDT  Islamic State fighters used a stunning gorge in north-eastern Syria as a mass grave for their victims, a human rights group has revealed, after it deployed a drone to confirm the suspicions. In a new report, Human Rights Watch said the terror group dumped the bodies of people it had abducted, tortured and executed in al-Hota gorge, near Raqqa. It is one of around 20 mass graves containing thousands of bodies in areas that were formerly held by the so-called Islamic State (IS). Local villagers told researchers from Human Rights Watch that people had been threatened by IS fighters with being thrown into the gorge, while videos posted on Facebook in 2014 show two victims being cast in. The clothes on the men's bodies in that video match the clothing of two men being killed on camera in a separate propaganda video, Human Rights Watch said. Activists used a drone to fly into the gorge, where they discovered six bodies floating in the water in a state of decomposition. "Al-Hota gorge, once a beautiful natural site, has become a place of horror and reckoning," said Sara Kayyali, Human Rights Watch's Syria researcher. "Exposing what happened there, and at the other mass graves in Syria, is crucial to determining what happened to the thousands of people ISIS executed and holding their killers to account." It is likely that there are more bodies at the very bottom of the gorge, which the drone was unable to reach as it was underwater. Human Rights Watch has now called on Turkish forces, which control the area, to retrieve and identify the bodies so as to begin building a criminal case against IS for the atrocities committed in 2014 and beyond. "Whichever authority controls the al-Hota area is obliged to protect and preserve the site," added Ms Kayyali. "They should facilitate the collection of evidence to hold ISIS members accountable for their horrendous crimes, as well as those who dumped bodies in al-Hota before or after the ISIS rule." She also called on the Turkish military to clear the al-Hota area of boobytraps and other hazards that prevent thorough investigation of the site.
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| Cuomo Blasts Trump: Your Bailout Strategy Will Doom Us All Posted: 05 May 2020 11:03 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Republicans' refusal to bail out cash-strapped states "will lead to defeat for us all," in an epic rant on Tuesday against the federal government's "decades" of mismanagement and crippling partisanship in the face of COVID-19."It's not red or blue, it's red, white, and blue. This coronavirus doesn't pick Democrats or Republicans. It doesn't kill Democrats or Republicans, it kills Americans," Cuomo said during his daily press briefing in New York City, urging the nation to embrace "factual, productive and united" bipartisanship to pass a virus relief stimulus bill necessary to "get this economy back on its feet.""The virus is less discriminating and more of an equalizer than the lens through which we're viewing it," he added. "And if we can't get past this now, when can we get past this? You can't put your politics aside even now, even today?"Cuomo Slams McConnell: 'I Dare You' to Let States Declare BankruptcyCuomo has repeatedly feuded with Republican leadership over the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. In a Monday interview with the New York Post, Trump said he wouldn't provide federal aid to states that have been hit hard by the coronavirus, including New York, because they're mostly blue states."I think Congress is inclined to do a lot of things, but I don't think they're inclined to do bailouts. A bailout is different than, you know, reimbursing for the plague," Trump said. "It's not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need help—they're run by Democrats in every case. Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantastic—very little debt."Trump, who was happy to bail out the airline and cruise ship industries with $58 billion, has also floated the idea of incorporating a state's use of "sanctuary cities" in bailout considerations. "If you starve the states, how do you expect the states to be able to fund this entire reopening plan?" Cuomo said, adding that Democratic lawmakers will not pass another bill that does not provide funding for states. "The president, in my opinion, has to be the responsible one here."Cuomo, who has been asking for federal funding for weeks, said the federal government has the authority to "literally determine how many people live or die." New York is grappling with a $13.3 billion budget shortfall and is projected to lose another $61 billion over four years as a result of the public health crisis.Cuomo said New York was resilient enough to bounce back from what he previously called an "economic tsunami" but he said he was more appalled that the federal government was in a stalemate over allocating funds in the next stimulus bill to state and local governments."It's not a blue-state issue. Every state has coronavirus cases. This is not any mismanagement by the states," Cuomo said. "If anything, the mismanagement has been on behalf of the federal government, and that's where the mismanagement has gone back decades." Trump's comments to the Post echoed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who suggested last week that states most affected by the pandemic should consider filing for bankruptcy rather than seeking additional aid from the federal government. McConnell said any additional assistance to state and local governments needed to be "thoroughly evaluated."Cuomo, who has repeatedly slammed McConnell for his "absurd" suggestion, said Tuesday that New York had paid $116 billion more than it had received from the federal government annually, money he wished "to get back" if Republicans refused to provide relief funding. New York had given the most money to the federal government, while Kentucky—McConnell's home state—was among the top three states to receive more than they give, he added. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also slammed Trump on Tuesday, calling the president "a pure hypocrite" for putting politics over the coronavirus response. In his daily briefing, de Blasio said Trump claimed he does not "do bailouts" but provided nearly $58 billion to the airline industry amid the pandemic.Trump Wants to Bail Out Airlines and Cruise Ships. How About Us?"He says he's not inclined to do bailouts. He's a pure hypocrite given how much money he's put in the hands of the corporations and the wealthy already," de Blasio said, noting that the pandemic is projected to cost the city $7.4 billion in lost tax revenue next year. "That means he's not inclined to help firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, police officers, doctors, nurses, health-care workers, teachers, sanitation workers."Seemingly in response to Cuomo's harsh words, Trump took to Twitter Tuesday afternoon to suggest "poorly run" states were using the pandemic as an excuse to secure federal funds. "Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse!" Trump tweeted, adding that "the elimination of Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table." The political squabble comes as New York officials shift their attention to reopening the economy. To date, 25,000 state residents have died and 318,953 more have been infected with the coronavirus. Cuomo said that, although 230 people died in the last 24 hours, hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and deaths have decreased over the last week. And while the state seems to be past the worst of the pandemic, Cuomo stressed his continued apprehension about lifting shelter-in-place restrictions too early, triggering a second wave of the disease. "There's a cost to staying closed, no doubt. Economic cost, personal cost. There's also a cost to reopening quickly. Either option has a cost," Cuomo said. "The faster we reopen, the lower the economic cost, but the higher the human cost because the more lives lost. That, my friends, is the decision we are really making. What is that balance? What is that trade-off?"Federal projections now estimate the COVID-19 death toll will increase from 60,000 to 100,000. Cuomo reiterated Tuesday that, despite political and economic pressure to loosen restrictions, New York still has a long way to go between public life to return to a "new normal." 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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| A man wore a KKK hood to a California grocery store after a mask mandate was put in place Posted: 04 May 2020 10:29 AM PDT  Photos posted on Facebook showed the man wearing a KKK mask while pushing his cart through a Vons supermarket in Santee, California.
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| Students at 25 universities sue for refunds after campuses close due to coronavirus Posted: 05 May 2020 01:04 PM PDT  "It's just not the same experience I would be getting if I was at the campus," said Grainger Rickenbaker, who filed a lawsuit against Drexel University.
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| White House Pushes for Capital Gains Tax Cut as Part of Next Coronavirus Relief Bill Posted: 05 May 2020 12:30 PM PDT  The Trump administration on Tuesday revealed it is considering a capital gains tax cut as well as other tax-cut proposals as part of a future coronavirus relief bill.President Trump and his allies are also pushing for liability protection for businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic."Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse!" the president wrote on Twitter. "The elimination of Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table. Also lawsuit indemnification & business deductions for restaurants & rent."Many Senate Republicans have pushed back on plans to enact additional rounds of government spending to combat the economic damage wrought by coronavirus. The four relief bills that have already been passed have allocated roughly $3 trillion in support for businesses and direct checks to Americans."'No more spending' has really become the rallying cry of the right," Stephen Moore, president of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, told the New York Times. "We've done the spending, it didn't work, and now we need to try something else. There is going to be civil war in Congress over this."Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) on Tuesday defended his push for more spending to offset the effects of the pandemic."The concerns we have about deficit spending now are going to look like a walk in the park," Hawley told CBS. "Bold action now to get people to jobs back is not wasteful spending; it's critical."U.S. unemployment has reached 18 percent, or 30 million people, since the pandemic forced mass closures of businesses and schools across the country.
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| This Extremely Detailed Owl Puzzle Has Unique Wooden Pieces That Create a Colorful Masterpiece Posted: 05 May 2020 09:31 AM PDT |
| Iran news agency: Gunmen kill 3 Revolutionary Guard members Posted: 05 May 2020 09:19 AM PDT |
| Intel from US allies suggest it is 'highly unlikely' the coronavirus came from a Chinese lab and 'highly likely' that it was 'naturally occurring' Posted: 04 May 2020 10:48 PM PDT  "It is highly likely it was naturally occurring and that the human infection was from natural human and animal interaction," an official told CNN.
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| For Haitians, die of hunger today or coronavirus tomorrow? Posted: 04 May 2020 12:36 AM PDT  Port-au-Prince (AFP) - When the novel coronavirus first appeared in Haiti authorities and humanitarian experts panicked, worried about the country's decrepit health system -- but the pandemic's economic consequences could prove yet deadlier for the nation's poor. With just eight official virus fatalities as of Saturday, the COVID-19 pandemic is still in its infancy in Haiti, where staying at home and social distancing are unattainable luxuries for many who make their living in the informal economy. In an attempt to stem the spread of the virus the government of Haiti -- the poorest country in the Americas -- announced that wearing a mask would be compulsory in all public places beginning May 11.
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| 20 Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs capture the stunning violence from last year's Hong Kong protests Posted: 05 May 2020 02:08 PM PDT  Pulitzer Prize winning photos reveal how the protests in Hong Kong last year turned violent, destructive, and deadly.
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| Philippine telecoms body orders TV broadcaster that irked Duterte to shut Posted: 05 May 2020 10:15 AM PDT  Duterte has repeatedly threatened to block the renewal of ABS-CBN's franchise, after the channel refused to air his 2016 presidential campaign commercials.
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| Trump allies fall silent amid SCOTUS financial records case Posted: 05 May 2020 07:08 AM PDT  Allies of President Trump are remaining quiet amid a Supreme Court battle over his financial records.
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| Venezuelan authorities detain U.S. citizens allegedly involved in incursion Posted: 04 May 2020 01:00 PM PDT  Venezuelan authorities have detained two U.S. citizens working with a U.S. military veteran who has claimed responsibility for a failed armed incursion into the oil producing country, President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday. In a state television address, Maduro said authorities arrested 13 "terrorists" on Monday allegedly involved in a plot he said was coordinated with Washington to enter the South American country via the Caribbean coast and oust him. Eight people were killed during the foiled incursion attempt on Sunday, Venezuelan authorities said.
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| Florida sheriff defends keeping childhood shooting a secret Posted: 04 May 2020 07:29 AM PDT  The Florida sheriff appointed by the governor after the 2018 Parkland high school massacre is defending himself over allegations that he should have disclosed he fatally shot another teenager when he was 14 in Philadelphia. Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony told reporters over the weekend that he didn't see the need to disclose the 1993 killing to Gov. Ron DeSantis or on other applications during his law enforcement career because he was a juvenile and he was cleared because it was self-defense. The shooting came to light Saturday in an article published by the Florida Bulldog website and further roiled the August Democratic primary race between Tony and the fired sheriff he replaced, Scott Israel.
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| Jim Jordan Demands Top FBI Officials Answer Questions about ‘Perjury Trap’ Set for Michael Flynn Posted: 05 May 2020 06:37 AM PDT  House Judiciary Republicans are demanding that FBI Director Christopher Wray answer for the Bureau's "targeting" of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn by making top officials and documents connected to the probe available to lawmakers.House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) and Representative Mike Johnson (R., La.) asked Wray to hand over all documents and communications related to the FBI's "Crossfire Razor" investigation of Flynn, as well as to address why the Bureau has not been forthcoming regarding the new information about the case that has been released in court filings."The American people continue to learn troubling details about the politicization and misconduct at the highest levels of the FBI during the Obama-Biden Administration," Jordan and Johnson wrote. "Even more concerning, we continue to learn these new details from litigation and investigations — not from you. It is well past time that you show the leadership necessary to bring the FBI past the abuses of the Obama-Biden era."Records released last week showed that handwritten notes dated January 24, 2017 — the same day of Flynn was interviewed at the White House interview by FBI agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka — showed one agent questioning whether the goal of the interview was "to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired."Further documents released in the case also reveal that Strzok intervened to keep the Flynn case open after Crossfire Razor investigators noted on January 4, 2017 that they had found "no derogatory information" regarding Flynn's Russian contacts. That same day, Strzok also told a redacted individual that the FBI's "7th floor" had intervened — apparently referencing the floor in Bureau headquarters that houses senior FBI leadership.In their letter, Jordan and Johnson ask Wray to allow Pientka and Priestap to be made available for an interview to explain their respective roles in the case, and also ask Wray to publicly address allegations that he had opposed the disclosure of exculpatory information in the Flynn case, as reported by the Daily Caller.President Trump reportedly wants to fire Wray in response to the latest revelations, but the president is unlikely to remove him before the November election. Wray has been backed publicly by Attorney General Bill Barr, who said in an October interview that "there's been a world of change" since Wray took over in 2017. "I think that he is restoring the steady professionalism that's been a hallmark of the FBI," Barr told Fox News.
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| Top US health official contradicts Donald Trump's claim coronavirus was made in a Chinese lab Posted: 04 May 2020 08:40 PM PDT  Top US health official Anthony Fauci has said that there is no scientific evidence to support claims by Donald Trump that the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab. Dr Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been one of the leading medical experts helping to guide the US response to the highly contagious virus that has swept across the country. Dr Fauci contradicted claims made by the US president that the global coronavirus pandemic started in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan in an interview published on Monday evening by National Geographic. "If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, (the scientific evidence) is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated," Fauci told the magazine. "Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that (this virus) evolved in nature and then jumped species," he said. The well-regarded doctor has at times corrected or contradicted the president at White House briefings or in press interviews on issues such as the time required to develop a vaccine and the likelihood that the coronavirus will return in the fall. The World Health Organization also said on Monday that Washington had provided nothing to support "speculative" claims that a Wuhan lab was to blame for the outbreak. "We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus - so from our perspective, this remains speculative," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual briefing. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison also said in comments on Tuesday that the most likely origin of the virus was a Chinese wet market, appearing to contradict Trump's claims.
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| A volunteer on Kushner's coronavirus team filed a complaint to Congress warning the group was 'falling short' on helping health care workers Posted: 05 May 2020 11:31 AM PDT  Kushner, the president's son-in-law, has tapped inexperienced volunteers from consulting and private equity firms to help his COVID-19 response team.
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| Mississippi welfare scandal: Luxury cars among $94M in questionable spending, audit shows Posted: 04 May 2020 03:36 PM PDT  Money meant to help poor Mississippi residents was instead used to buy luxury cars and sponsor a college baseball tournament, a new state report shows.
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| Biden's top potential running mates bring unique strengths — and weaknesses Posted: 04 May 2020 05:57 AM PDT  First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.
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