| Trump now says if 100,000 Americans die from coronavirus he will have done 'a very good job' Posted: 30 Mar 2020 08:33 AM PDT  The president repeatedly cited a projection that as many as 2.2 million people would have died if the administration had "done nothing" to mitigate COVID-19's spread.
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| Suspected SARS virus and flu samples found in luggage: FBI report describes China's 'biosecurity risk' Posted: 30 Mar 2020 07:45 AM PDT  An FBI report about China's involvement with scientific research in the U.S. has raised alarms. While the report refers broadly to foreign researchers, all three cases cited involve Chinese nationals.
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| Are pot and guns essential in a pandemic? Posted: 30 Mar 2020 12:44 PM PDT  As states and cities shut down all nonessential businesses to stop the spread of coronavirus, pot shops and gun stores are staying open in some places. Are they really essential?
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| 'Sailors do not need to die': Captain of aircraft carrier hit by coronavirus outbreak begs Navy for more help Posted: 31 Mar 2020 08:47 AM PDT  The commanding officer told the Navy that the outbreak was worsening and called for the removal of almost the entire crew as soon as possible.
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| Stabbing of Asian-American 2-Year-Old and Her Family Was a Virus-Fueled Hate Crime: Feds Posted: 31 Mar 2020 12:03 PM PDT  The vicious stabbing of an Asian-American family, including a 2-year-old girl, at a Sam's Club in Texas earlier this month has been deemed a hate crime by the feds, as authorities continue to raise alarm bells about a potential surge in racially motivated crimes amid the coronavirus outbreak.Jose L. Gomez, 19, confessed to authorities that he attempted to murder three Asian-American family members, including the toddler and a 6-year-old, on March 14 at the Midland, Texas store, according to the Midland Police Department. Gomez, who stabbed the individuals and a Sam's Club employee, is now facing several charges, including three counts of attempted capital murder and one count of aggravated assault. He is being held on several bonds totaling $1 million."The suspect indicated that he stabbed the family because he thought the family was Chinese, and infecting people with coronavirus," according to an FBI analysis report obtained by ABC News.Inside the Ugly Uber and Lyft Driver Freakout Over CoronavirusThe Texas incident was used in the report as one example of a recent surge in hate crimes and racially fueled violence targeting Asian-Americans as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep the United States. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Midland Reporter-Telegram, Gomez attempted to kill the Asian-American family of four inside the wholesale store at about 7:30 p.m. When a Sam's Club employee and another patron intervened, Gomez allegedly stabbed the patron in the leg and fingers with a knife. At one point, the customer was able to knock the knife away from Gomez during the struggle before the teenager was finally subdued by Border Patrol Agent Bernie Ramiez, who was off-duty and just leaving the store after shopping for groceries, the affidavit states.Ramirez later told CBS7 that during the altercation, he saw the store employee had managed to put Gomez in a chokehold after he had stabbed multiple people."My initial thought was it was just the shortage of items that they were fighting over," Ramirez told the local outlet. "So I just started making my way over there to break it up."The agent added, "I've got close to 19 years in law enforcement. It's crazy and it's sad the way certain individuals think, their mindset. It's a sad deal."When authorities arrived at the Sam's Club, investigators immediately began to question Gomez. The teenager then admitted to trying to kill the family and assaulting the patron with a knife, the affidavit states. Ramirez did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment and a spokesperson for Midland Mayor Patrick Payton's office declined to comment, stating that the case has now been turned over to the FBI. According to the intelligence report that was compiled by the FBI's Houston office and distributed to local law enforcement agencies across the nation, federal officials believe hate crimes will only increase as COVID-19 continues to spread.'We're Scared': Doctors in New Coronavirus Hotspots Brace for 'Tsunami' of Patients"The FBI assesses hate crime incidents against Asian Americans likely will surge across the United States, due to the spread of coronavirus disease... endangering Asian American communities," the report states. "The FBI makes this assessment based on the assumption that a portion of the US public will associate COVID-19 with China and Asian American populations."To date, more than 3,416 people have died and 174,467 individuals have been infected with the virus nationwide—a death toll that has eclipsed China's official count and put much of the United States on lockdown.Since then, several political and media commentators, including President Donald Trump, have adopted the practice of calling the pandemic the "China virus" or the "Wuhan virus.""It did come from China," Trump said at a March 19 White House briefing. "It is a very accurate term."Many experts and political figures believe that officials using racial terms for the virus has contributed to discrimination against members of the Asian-American community. "This is a global emergency that should be met with both urgency and also cultural awareness that COVID-19 is not isolated to a single ethnic population," Jeffrey Caballero, executive director of the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, said in a statement to The Daily Beast. "Xenophobic attacks and discrimination towards Asian American communities are unacceptable and will not make our families safer or healthier."California Gov. Gavin Newsom reiterated the FBI's report findings, stating he has seen a "huge increase" in assaults targeting the Asian-American community in his state. In New York, Attorney General Leticia James launched a hotline for victims of coronavirus-related bias crimes. Since the surge, even Trump tried to backtrack on his language, tweeting on March 23, "It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all around the world. They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to get rid of it. WE WILL PREVAIL TOGETHER!"'This Is a War': Cuomo Pleads for Help From Doctors Across U.S. as Coronavirus Death Toll SurgesAccording to one New York City medical social worker, racism is also rampant in the health-care system as Asian-American doctors and nurses struggle to care for patients who don't want to be touched. "I get yelled at down the street coming into work from people in their cars saying all these really nasty things and telling me I should be punished for bringing the virus here," the social worker told The Daily Beast last week. "Inside the hospital, I have heard from several Asian-American doctors and nurses that some patients don't want to be treated by them because they think they already have the virus. It's like we are the virus or something.""It's scary and it's dangerous. We're already putting ourselves on the line to help others. Don't make it harder for us than it is," she added. 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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| Rep. Velazquez has presumed COVID-19 infection, was near Pelosi, other lawmakers last week Posted: 30 Mar 2020 12:28 PM PDT  Rep. Nydia Velazquez spoke on the House floor Friday and stood near Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the signing of the $2 trillion stimulus bill.
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| IG Horowitz Found ‘Apparent Errors or Inadequately Supported Facts’ in Every Single FBI FISA Application He Reviewed Posted: 31 Mar 2020 08:13 AM PDT  The Justice Department inspector general said it does "not have confidence" in the FBI's FISA application process following an audit that found the Bureau was not sufficiently transparent with the court in 29 applications from 2014 to 2019, all of which included "apparent errors or inadequately supported facts."Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report in December which found that the FBI included "at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications and many errors in the Woods Procedures" during its Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign. After releasing the report, Horowitz said that he would conduct a further investigation to see if the errors identified in the Page application were widespread."The concern is that this is such a high-profile, important case. If it happened here, is this indicative of a wider problem — and we will only know that when we complete our audit — or is it isolated to this event?" Horowitz told lawmakers during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. "Obviously, we need to do the work to understand that."Horowitz's office said in a report released Tuesday that of the 29 applications — all of which involved U.S. citizens – that were pulled from "8 FBI field offices of varying sizes," the FBI could not find Woods Files for four of the applications, while the other 25 all had "apparent errors or inadequately supported facts.""While our review of these issues and follow-up with case agents is still ongoing—and we have not made materiality judgments for these or other errors or concerns we identified—at this time we have identified an average of about 20 issues per application reviewed, with a high of approximately 65 issues in one application and less than 5 issues in another application," the report reveals.The Woods Procedure dictates that the Justice Department verify the accuracy and provide evidentiary support for all facts stated in its FISA application. The FBI is required to share with the FISA Court all relevant information compiled in the Woods File when applying for a surveillance warrant."FBI and NSD officials we interviewed indicated to us that there were no efforts by the FBI to use existing FBI and NSD oversight mechanisms to perform comprehensive, strategic assessments of the efficacy of the Woods Procedures or FISA accuracy, to include identifying the need for enhancements to training and improvements in the process, or increased accountability measures," the report states.The OIG concludes by recommending that the FBI "systematically and regularly examine the results of past and future accuracy reviews to identify patterns or trends in identified errors" relating to the Woods Procedure, as well as double-checking "that Woods Files exist for every FISA application submitted to the FISC in all pending investigations."In a letter acknowledging the audit, FBI Associate Deputy Director Paul Abbate said that the issues "will be addressed" by the Bureau's already-issued correctives after the Carter Page review, and added that "the FBI fully accepts the two recommendations."President Trump has relentlessly attacked the FBI's FISA process and the abuses it allowed during the surveilling of his 2016 campaign. He has argued that the FISA abuses invalidate the entire investigation, which he has referred to as an "illegal attempted coup," and slammed the officials involved, including former FBI director James Comey and former acting FBI director Andy McCabe.McCabe admitted in January that the FBI has an "inherent weakness in the process" of obtaining FISA warrants.
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| Venezuela prosecutor's office summoned Guaido for 'attempted coup' Posted: 31 Mar 2020 08:16 AM PDT  State prosecutors in Venezuela have summoned opposition leader Juan Guaido for an alleged "attempted coup d'etat" and attempted assassination, Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced Tuesday. In a statement broadcast on state television, Saab said Guaido had been summoned to appear before prosecutors next Thursday following an investigation last week into the seizure of a weapons cache in neighboring Colombia that he said was to be smuggled into Venezuela.
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| Open coffins are left on roads to remind people to stay inside while soldiers shoot disinfectant from water cannons. Here's what lockdown for 57 million people in the Philippines looks like. Posted: 30 Mar 2020 08:12 PM PDT  Despite the lockdown, on Sunday the Philippines reported a daily increase of 343 new coronavirus cases — its highest one day increase yet.
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| Trump, Cuomo and the mystery of the missing masks Posted: 30 Mar 2020 12:08 PM PDT  Earlier this month, Cuomo said that people were stealing face masks and other equipment needed to fight the coronavirus from area hospitals. On Monday, the New York governor dismissed a similar claim by the president.
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| Meet Candy Sterling, a fierce drag queen at night and a corporate professional by day Posted: 31 Mar 2020 11:26 AM PDT  This is Candy Sterling – a fierce drag queen who lights up the New York City nightlife while maintaining a professional day job. Get to know her both in and out of drag on this week's episode of Behind the Drag.
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| 12 Buildings That Show the Beauty of Deconstructed Architecture Posted: 31 Mar 2020 03:59 PM PDT |
| Outrage in India as migrants sprayed with disinfectant to fight coronavirus Posted: 30 Mar 2020 08:12 AM PDT  Indian health workers caused outrage on Monday by spraying a group of migrants with disinfectant, amid fears that a large scale movement of people from cities to the countryside risked spreading the coronavirus. Footage showed a group of migrant workers sitting on a street in Bareilly, a district in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, as health officials in protective suits used hose pipes to douse them in disinfectant, prompting anger on social media. Nitish Kumar, the top government official in the district, said health workers had been ordered to disinfect buses being used by the local authorities but in their zeal had also turned their hoses on migrant workers.
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| One country is refusing to shut down to stop the coronavirus Posted: 31 Mar 2020 09:35 AM PDT  "It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees!" Lukashenko, who hit the ice for a weekend hockey game, said.
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| AOC Drifts Away from Activist Left, Toward a More Conventional Staff and Political Strategy Posted: 30 Mar 2020 06:59 AM PDT  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has taken steps recently to collaborate more with the Democratic establishment, taking a less contentious approach and allying with fellow Democratic members.After urging fellow progressives in 2018 to run for office with the support of the progressive group the Justice Democrats, which supported her, the New York Democrat has declined to endorse most of the candidates the group is backing to oust incumbent Democrats in 2020.Of the six candidates the group is backing this time around, Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed Jessica Cisneros in Texas and Marie Newman in Illinois, both of whom are running against conservative Democrats who oppose abortion and were subsequently supported by several other high-profile Democrats.The move comes as the Justice Democrats are recruiting progressive candidates to run against liberals and moderate Democrats."We don't usually endorse so far out," Ocasio-Cortez's communications director, Lauren Hitt said of the congresswoman's lack of endorsements for the group of candidates, according to Politico.Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez, who shot to notoriety in 2018 when she ousted powerful Democratic congressman Joe Crowley, is also replacing some of her more radical, progressive top aides with more conventional political professionals, Politico reported.The freshman congresswoman has also struck a more conciliatory tone towards Democratic leadership in recent months, in February calling Pelosi the "mama bear of the Democratic Party."She also criticized supporters of her progressive ally, 2020 presidential contender Bernie Sanders, for their antagonistic behavior online."There's so much emphasis on making outreach as conflict-based as possible," she said. "And sometimes I even feel miscast and understood. Because it's about what tools you use, and conflict is one tool but not the only tool."Nevertheless, Ocasio-Cortez has largely maintained her status as a progressive standard-bearer. Earlier this year, she endorsed a group of progressive women running for Congress on Friday through her political action committee, Courage to Change.In January, she announced that she would not pay dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to the House.
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| Idaho governor signs into law anti-transgender legislation Posted: 30 Mar 2020 05:19 PM PDT |
| Trump says Democrats' push for expanded voting threatens Republicans Posted: 30 Mar 2020 10:26 AM PDT  President Trump on Monday criticized attempts by Democrats in Congress to expand voting access for the presidential election in the fall, saying increased voter turnout would keep Republicans from getting elected.
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| A Doctor Who Met Putin Just Tested Positive, and Russia’s COVID-19 Crackdowns Could Get Real Ugly. Posted: 31 Mar 2020 01:49 AM PDT  MOSCOW—Amid a growing uproar in newly locked-down Russia, news broke on Tuesday that a doctor President Vladimir Putin met with just a week ago during a highly publicized visit to a coronavirus treatment facility has now tested positive for the infection himself. Widely disseminated photos of the visit showed Putin donning an orange hazmat suit, but he had also talked to Dr. Denis Protsenko extensively without protection and photographs show them together with very little "social distancing."Putin's spokesman says the Russian president is tested frequently for coronavirus infection and is just fine. But the news is bound to shake a country already racked by uncertainty, fear, and not a little anger."You should find abandoned cells used to punish prisoners, cold ones with no food in them, lock them up there," Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov declared as the Russian Federation went into a nationwide lockdown over the weekend. He was telling his security force commanders how to treat those who disobeyed the curfew and quarantine orders. "Throw them in a big hole, bury them, let them die in it."Most Russian officials are not as blunt and brutal as Kadyrov, a Putin protégé and the point man for some of the more ruthless actions carried out in support of the president. But the coronavirus crisis has brought to the fore the grim authoritarian instincts of several leaders in what was once the Soviet Bloc. As their people try to find masks and rubber gloves to protect themselves, dictators are raising their iron fists, not least, to protect their regimes. Others are still trying to pretend there's no problem at the moment. The crackdowns will come later.One of the most stunning moves was taken in Hungary, a member of the European Union, where the parliament passed a bill giving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—one of Putin's closest EU soulmates—virtually unlimited powers to rule by decree; suspending parliament; canceling elections; threatening up to five years in prison for those who spread "fake new" and rumors (read, criticism of the regime); and up to eight years in prison for those who break the quarantine. All this for as long as Orbán wants. "And there it is," tweeted historian and columnist Anne Applebaum, "The European Union's first dictatorship. None of these powers is needed to fight the virus. But they will help distract and deter opposition, especially when it becomes clear that the government has no better plan."Here in the Russian capital the picture is more mixed, because Putin himself has sent messages to the public almost as confusing and contradictory as those of President Donald J. Trump in the United States.For weeks and months, as thousands began dying from the disease in China—then Italy, France, Spain, around the world and now with a vengeance in the United States—many epidemiologists warned COVID-19 will kill millions if drastic measures are not taken to stop it. But Russia delayed the actions needed to prevent the worst outbreak scenarios.Putin Worries Coronavirus Could Screw Up His Constitutional 'Coronation'It was obvious, as we reported, that President Vladimir Putin and his supporters did not want anything to interfere with a planned April 22 referendum to ratify his continued rule for at least another 16 years. It was also apparent that Russia did not want to let anything interfere with its May 9 Victory Day celebrations marking 75 years since the defeat of the Nazis. So the official number of infections in this country that borders the Chinese and European epicenters of the spreading plague remained implausibly low.Last week, the numbers caught up with the Kremlin, as cases became too numerous to deny, and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said flatly the infection rate was much higher than the government was admitting. The number of officially diagnosed Muscovites now exceeds 1,000, with at least nine people killed by the virus. On Tuesday last week, Russia's Channel One announced: "Our president is on the front lines of the main war on the planet, the war with coronavirus." Over the last two decades, Russians have seen Putin as a self-styled man of action mobilizing resources to make Russia stronger, richer, greater. TV channels showed the commander-in-chief in the cockpit of a fighter jet wearing a pilot's uniform. His shirtless shots became iconic. He even appeared to guide migrant birds as he flew an ultra-light aircraft. And now the country watched Putin in a bright yellow hazmat suit touring Moscow's new coronavirus hospital, although it appears he did not actually meet any coronavirus patients. Putin was giving the public its cue, once again, to follow the leader. And he did meet with the hospital's chief physician, Dr. Denis Protsenko, whose positive test for coronavirus was just announced this Tuesday.Protsenko, 44, sounded straightforward when he spoke to the BBC last week. He said he was convinced that Russia should be ready for the "Italian scenario," and that he personally was prepared to put diapers on and work 12 hours a day in intensive care units, like Chinese doctors did at the peak of the epidemic. "I personally would put Moscow on quarantine," he declared, adding with tact worthy of Trump advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, "The question is about the price for closing down."But in Putin's address to the nation the next day, he did not use the word "quarantine" at all. To the relief of many, he announced that nobody would have to go to work until April 5, but they would be paid, and nobody would have to go to the polls to vote for constitutional changes on April 22. The referendum would be postponed."If Putin made Russians go to polling stations next month, that would threaten thousands of lives; he is careful choosing his words now, he tries to secure his reputation," Ilya Yashin, a Moscow municipal deputy, told The Daily Beast.After coronavirus cases tripled in many Russian regions on Thursday, Putin ordered most public places closed, including city parks."If Russia's epidemics develop like the Italian scenario, which is quite possible, there will be no way for him to secure his reputation—the entire responsibility will be on the government," said Yashin. If that happens, one can expect even Putin himself to show the iron fist. But for the moment in the nation's capital that has not yet hammered down. And many Russians, a famously fatalistic people, appear unimpressed with the twin threats of tyranny and pandemic.On Sunday, most of the Russian capital's downtown was still open, and public transport as well. Bars were closed, but young people continued to hang out in hidden corners. Skateboarders focused on their kickflips, as if no epidemic mattered. A group of hipsters outside a still-open bookstore listened to a girl read aloud, her face pink in the light of sunset. The poem was one of Joseph Brodsky's: "They loved to sit together on a hillside..." Then on Sunday night, Russia slammed its doors a little harder, in a pattern now familiar to countries around the world: governments first try to persuade, and when that fails, as it usually does, they try to enforce the quarantines and distancing. A few hours before midnight Sunday night, authorities finally announced a complete lockdown for the capital and its 11 million residents. Police cars with loudspeakers began to order pedestrians to hurry back home: everyone in the city now had to stay in their apartments, leaving only for the closest grocery or drug store, or to walk a dog no more than 100 meters from home—the kinds of restrictions imposed in much of Western Europe for weeks now, and in Italy for more than a month. Moscow was joining the club of almost three billion self-isolating people around the globe. Moscow Mayor Sobyanin declared that the epidemic was entering "a new phase."Yet, as of Monday, authorities reported every fifth Muscovite violated the new regime. Even pro-Kremlin Russian experts said the measures came too late—with all the terrifying examples in the West to prove the point. "It was great we closed down Russia's border with China in January, but Moscow should have given people a week off from work earlier this month, and authorities should have banned all travel by trains and airplanes from Moscow to other regions," pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov told The Daily Beast on Monday morning. "That would have protected more than 55 regions, which are now also infected." By Monday afternoon, 71 out of 85 Russian regions had reported coronavirus cases—the epidemic is spreading around the world's largest country like windblown fire through dry grass, affecting its poorest and most vulnerable people even in remote corners of the federation.An infected resident who apparently contracted the disease on a trip to Cuba brought it to the remote town of Apatity, about 1,000 miles north of Moscow, in the Murmansk region. By the weekend, according to television reports, dozens of people in Apatity and nearby Kurskiy were checking into hospitals with coronavirus symptoms, so authorities had to shut down both towns for self-isolation on Monday.The sale of alcohol, wine as well as vodka, has jumped by at least 20 percent compared to March 2019. As for protection from the virus, there was none available. As happened in so many other countries, every pharmacy in town was out of masks and hand sanitizer. Yet many Russians found a kind of perverse courage by comparing what seemed the hypothetical threat of the virus with all too substantive difficulties and dangers of everyday life.A video clip of a song steeped in slavic fatalism mocked the pandemic. Russia is used to nightmares, it proclaimed: "First, our blood is full of alcohol, the whole of life is folded into a black hole; Authorities hypnotize us and sell us out, but we have no infected fellas in our favelas." Why be worried about COVID-19 if you risk being eaten by a bear or getting killed by a policeman, the authors say. "We lost all our ability to be afraid," the song concluded: "We don't give a shit." The polls reflect that sort of attitude. According to social research by Romir Holding, 54 percent of Russians do not believe in the danger of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, even now, the only man Russians listen to, commander of the coronavirus war Vladimir Putin, still has not given clear instructions about the deadly outbreak, or how to avoid getting infected. Nobody clearly predicted the scale of the epidemic's storm coming to Russia, nobody talked about the exponential growth of the outbreak in the United States and Europe except to crow as if Russia somehow were exempt.In announcing the week off, Putin did ask Russians not to rely on traditional "avos," the typical carelessness and fatalism traditional in the nation's approach to the dark promise of the future, but the message seems to have been taken with, well, fatalism and carelessness.Moscow is still in the early stages of the inevitable nightmare, when confusion and defiance mingle with fear. So hairdressers are still working, and without masks. Women are going to them without taking the slightest precautions. This, even as thousands of people who suspect they've been infected are calling a coronavirus hotline.Russia Claimed It Created a Coronavirus Cure, but It's an American Malaria DrugEarlier this week Yulia Galyamina, a Moscow politician and scientist lost her sense of smell, developed a fever, and felt weak. Those are all signs of infection. But as in other countries, she found it impossible to get a test unless she could prove she was at death's door. She called a doctor and the agency supervising tests, but they said they could do nothing for her. "A district [government] doctor said since I was not terribly sick, I could not get tested," Galyamina told The Daily Beast. "Private labs ask you not to show up if you have had symptoms in the past week." On Saturday, authorities admitted that 166,000 Russians are on a coronavirus watch list—not confirmed with infection, but suspected of having the contagion or of being at risk. That's a worrisome number. It suggests the observable cases are vastly higher than those confirmed, and again raises the question of why no clear determination had been made about many of them weeks ago."Moscow Mayor Sobyanin had guts to tell Putin right into his face on Tuesday that the real situation is much worse than the official reports say," Vladimir Ryzhkov, professor at the Higher School of Economics, told The Daily Beast. Earlier this month, Putin said that the situation with coronavirus was "under control." Authorities told Russians not to spread fake news about the pandemic threat. When there were still just a few cases of COVID-19 in Russia, Anastasia Kirilenko, The Insider's investigative reporter, heard tragic news from Novosibirsk: her 34-year-old cousin died of pneumonia. The Russian health system is in miserable shape in the regions, dozens of district clinics closed in rural remote towns all across the country in the past few years."Regional paramedics diagnosed my cousin, a young and healthy man, with acute respiratory viral infection but did not do an x-ray to check why he had a high temperature during the last month of his life," Kirilenko told The Daily Beast. "Now we wonder if my cousin had coronavirus just like thousands of other Russians who are said to have only pneumonia." Christopher Dickey also contributed to this article.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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| Liberty University welcomed coronavirus to campus last week, the New York Times reported. That's 'false,' university says. Posted: 29 Mar 2020 07:38 PM PDT  After the New York Times reported that multiple Liberty students had gotten sick after returning to campus, the Virginia university pushed back.
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| 28 Texas spring breakers who just returned from Cabo have tested positive for the coronavirus Posted: 31 Mar 2020 02:28 PM PDT  The spring breakers reportedly got on a chartered plane with 70 people. It shows why spring break is such a problem during the coronavirus pandemic.
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| China zeroes in on coronavirus patients with no symptoms as new infections rise Posted: 30 Mar 2020 05:54 PM PDT  SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China will start releasing information from Wednesday on coronavirus patients who show no disease symptoms, ordering them into quarantine for 14 days, a health official said, after the mainland witnessed its first rise in infections in five days. As local infections peter out and new cases surface among travelers returning home, the existence of virus carriers with no symptoms is fuelling public concern that people could be spreading it without knowing they are ill. From April 1, the daily report of the National Health Commission will include details of such cases for the first time, Chang Jile, a commission official, told a briefing.
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| The coronavirus is spreading quickly through Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities Posted: 30 Mar 2020 11:07 PM PDT  In Israel, the coronavirus is spreading in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities up to eight times faster than anywhere else in the country.Ultra-Orthodox Jews account for 12 percent of Israel's population, but they make up 40 to 60 percent of coronavirus patients at four of the country's largest hospitals, officials told Israeli media. Health experts said the virus is moving so quickly in these communities because the ultra-Orthodox have large families, don't trust the government, and pay little to no attention to secular media. Many are also still gathering for prayers and funerals, despite all Israelis being ordered to stay home.Bnei Brak is a suburb of Tel Aviv, and 95 percent of the population is ultra-Orthodox. On Friday, there were 267 confirmed coronavirus cases, and by Monday, that number climbed to 508. Several hundred mourners gathered in Bnei Brak on Saturday night for the funeral of a rabbi, prompting furious secular Israelis to call on the government to place Bnei Brak under curfew. On Monday, a New York Times journalist and photographer were told to leave a synagogue in the suburb where morning services were being held, and they walked past several groups meeting furtively for prayers.Bnei Brak has just one hospital, and its director general, Dr. Moti Ravid, told the Times he would like authorities to prohibit residents from leaving for at least one week, to slow down the coronavirus' spread. There are lots of small children living in the town, and "if they help to infect others, the result will be that many old people will die," he said.More stories from theweek.com Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is what real coronavirus leadership looks like Trump invoked the DPA 'hundreds of thousands of times' in his presidency before forcing GM to make ventilators USS Theodore Roosevelt captain says 'decisive action' is required to keep sailors safe from coronavirus
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| Dr. Birx predicts up to 200,000 coronavirus deaths 'if we do things almost perfectly' Posted: 30 Mar 2020 07:47 AM PDT  "I think in some of the metro areas we were late in getting people to follow the 15-day guidelines," the White House coronavirus response coordinator said on "TODAY."
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| Defense lawyer in death of 7 motorcyclists: Biker at fault Posted: 31 Mar 2020 10:33 AM PDT  One of the motorcyclists in a crash that killed him and six fellow bikers on a north woods highway was drunk and actually was the one who hit a pickup and caused the accident, the lawyer for the truck driver charged with homicide said in a document made public Tuesday. A New Hampshire State Police account of the June 21 crash in the community of Randolph "was deeply flawed," the lawyer for truck driver Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 24, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, said in a motion filed Friday that seeks a hearing to set him free on bail. State police initially determined that the flatbed trailer he was hauling was 1 1/2 feet over the center line at the time of impact, the motion said.
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| New coronavirus death rate estimates show how sharply the risk rises with age Posted: 31 Mar 2020 02:21 PM PDT  The fatality rate for people infected with the novel coronavirus is estimated to be less than 1%, according to a new study. It's 1.38% for those with COVID-19.
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| U.S. Base Workers Set for Furlough in Blow to South Korea Alliance Posted: 31 Mar 2020 03:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. military is set to put almost half of its 8,500 South Korean civilian workers on furlough, as the two sides bicker over the Trump administration's demands for a massive increase in troop funding.About 4,000 workers have been told not to report to American military bases in South Korea as of Wednesday, if the two countries can't find some way to extend a cost-sharing deal that expired Dec. 31. A breakthrough seems unlikely with President Donald Trump asking for as much as a five-fold increase and South Korea showing no signs of paying anywhere near that much.The furloughs, which the Hankyoreh newspaper said would be the first of their kind, will put new pressure on an alliance that Trump has repeatedly criticized since taking office three years ago. The move comes as the U.S. military struggles to keep coronavirus outbreaks from disrupting operations in South Korea and elsewhere and the allies watch for fresh provocations from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.The two sides have been deadlocked over what's known as the Special Measures Agreement, with Trump initially demanding about $5 billion a year from South Korea to pay for U.S. security. South Korean President Moon Jae-in's administration has indicated that it wouldn't pay much more than the almost $1 billion it agreed to in a one-year stopgap deal in 2019.South Korea's lead negotiator, Jeong Eun-bo, said in a statement Tuesday that the two sides were in the "final steps" of negotiations and expressed regret that the U.S. government went ahead with the furlough."If the Trump administration persists in holding to this level of unreasonable demands it will seriously damage the reliability and credibility of our security alliance," said Daniel Sneider, a lecturer in international policy at Stanford University who has written about how Japanese and Koreans view their shared history. "It feeds a strain of Korean nationalism that would want to effectively end the alliance and perhaps bring Korea, de facto, under the security umbrella of China."In the short term, the furloughs of workers, who provide services ranging from security to manning food stations, could mean further disruptions to daily life on bases that serve some 28,000 U.S. service personnel in South Korea. In the longer term, the dispute could accelerate a realignment of an alliance that the U.S. relies on to check China, as well as North Korea.Trump has repeatedly insisted that the U.S. gets a raw deal from partners who host American troops around the world, and he's focused particular ire on the South Korean agreement. Last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told his counterpart, Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, that "as a global economic powerhouse and an equal partner in the preservation of peace on the peninsula, South Korea can and should contribute more to its defense."South Korea's National Assembly must sign off on any deal and Trump's demands have brought about a rare moment of unity from progressives and conservatives in the country who see them as unreasonable. With parliamentary elections set for April 15, siding with Washington could lead to defeat at the ballot box.Missiles Fly"We are currently trying our best to ensure our joint defense posture goes unhindered as well to protect our Korean workers," South Korean Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said. The USFK Korean Employees Union, which represents the workers, said in a statement last week that negotiations "cannot end with the way the U.S. government and President Trump wants."Negotiators from the U.S. and South Korea met earlier this month in Los Angeles but a wide gap remains between the two sides, according to a State Department spokesman who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The official said that South Korea will need to show more focus and flexibility to reach a deal, without specifying what the U.S. is asking or what South Korea is offering.While the U.S. and South Korea have been bargaining, North Korea has been busy testing new types of solid-fuel, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles designed to strike anywhere on the peninsula and evade U.S. interceptors. It has fired off at least nine in March alone, a record for a month.Kim warned on Dec. 31 that bigger provocations could soon come, saying he was no longer bound by a previous promise to halt testing of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. On Monday, a top diplomat was quoted in a state media report issuing a new threat, saying Secretary of State Michael Pompeo's pressure campaign against Pyongyang will result in North Korea looking "to repay the U.S. with actual horror and unrest for the sufferings it has inflicted upon our people."North Korea Fires Missiles Off Its East Coast; 4th Volley This Month The negotiations in South Korea could affect other U.S. allies hosting troops, such as Japan, with Esper saying the Trump administration wants them to pay more, too. Japanese officials are watching the South Korea negotiations closely with the approach of talks set to begin later this year for a U.S-Japan cost-sharing deal.Daniel Pinkston, a lecturer in international relations at Troy University in Seoul and a former Korean linguist with the U.S. Air Force, said the difficulty in reaching a troop-funding deal "sends the wrong signal to allies, competitors, and challengers who must be questioning U.S. commitments and resolve.""It increases the likelihood of miscalculation, arms-racing, WMD proliferation, and even armed conflict," Pinkston said.(Updates with South Korean statement in fifth 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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| Some Nuclear Submarine Crews May Not Even Know About the Pandemic Posted: 31 Mar 2020 02:44 PM PDT  Meanwhile, ship crews face a menace that has ravaged navies for centuries.
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| India’s coronavirus emergency just beginning as lockdown threatens to turn into human tragedy Posted: 31 Mar 2020 12:08 PM PDT  A week after Narendra Modi ordered the largest national lockdown the planet has ever seen and Delhi's Bhogal market is little quieter than usual. Rather than being confined to home to stop the spread of Covid-19, large groups of residents instead huddle together in the shade, drinking tea and playing cards. Street vendors continue to hawk fresh fruit and vegetables and the police watch as daily life in the capital's backstreets continues, apparently content to enforce movement restrictions only on the capital's major thoroughfares. The failure to abide by the prime minister's decree is due to necessity, rather than defiance, said Muhammad Asif, 21, a cycle-rickshaw driver scanning the crowd for customers. The three-week-long social distancing precautions ordered by Mr Modi are an unaffordable luxury for tens of millions of daily-wage labourers.
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| Why Taiwan has become a problem for WHO Posted: 30 Mar 2020 10:23 PM PDT  Taiwan is effectively locked out of the World Health Organization - and tensions are rising.
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| CDC, Trump considering scenario where public wear masks Posted: 31 Mar 2020 02:30 AM PDT  Reaction and analysis from ebola and viral pandemics expert Dr. Dena Grayson.
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| 10 cruise ships that are still at sea as the coronavirus shuts down the cruise industry Posted: 31 Mar 2020 10:18 AM PDT  Ships from cruise lines like Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and Cunard Line are still at sea.
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| Britain names new MI5 chief: the spy who investigated 2018 Novichok attack Posted: 30 Mar 2020 03:30 AM PDT |
| What does furlough mean? Can I leave my home under shelter-in-place? Coronavirus terms, explained Posted: 31 Mar 2020 06:18 AM PDT  What does it mean when you hear New York is the coronavirus "epicenter" in the United States? Do doctors say they need ventilators or respirator?
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| 'Best they can get' or more 'politics than policy?' U.S. offers Venezuela a deal Posted: 31 Mar 2020 02:00 PM PDT  A former senior U.S. government official says it's the "best" deal they can get, while an analyst said this is more about "politics than policy."
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| Trump: a U.S. coronavirus death toll of 100,000 would mean his administration did 'a very good job' Posted: 29 Mar 2020 08:12 PM PDT  President Trump on Sunday said if his administration can keep the coronavirus death toll to 100,000 in the United States, it will have done a "very good job."Earlier in the day, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the coronavirus pandemic could cause between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths in the United States. Trump said while 100,000 is "a horrible number," if the U.S. can keep its death toll to "100,000, so we have between 100,000 and 200,000, we altogether have done a very good job."Trump also announced he is extending social distancing guidelines to April 30, a departure from his earlier declaration of having the U.S. "opened up" by Easter on April 12. That proclamation was "aspirational," Trump said.As of Sunday night, there are more than 139,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 coronavirus in the United States, and at least 2,400 people have died from the virus.More stories from theweek.com Fox News reportedly fears its early downplaying of COVID-19 leaves it open to lawsuits CDC is weighing advising Americans to wear face masks outdoors Trump's message to blue states battling coronavirus: Drop dead
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| Mexican president flouts coronavirus protocol to shake hands with mother of 'El Chapo' Posted: 30 Mar 2020 04:22 PM PDT  Mexican President Andres Lopez Obrador angered many when he shook hands with the mother of notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
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| Hospitals overflowing with bodies in US epicenter of virus Posted: 31 Mar 2020 02:46 PM PDT  It has become a grim ritual outside New York City's hospitals: workers in protective gear loading the bodies of coronavirus victims into refrigerated trailers. A surge in deaths in the epicenter of the crisis in the U.S. has overwhelmed the city's permanent morgues and filled storage spaces in many hospitals to capacity. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending 85 refrigerated trucks to serve as temporary morgues, the city said.
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| No, America’s Response to Coronavirus Isn’t the Worst in the World Posted: 30 Mar 2020 01:02 PM PDT  The coronavirus pandemic is already a catastrophe. How we fare in comparison to the rest of the world is hardly of paramount importance. Once the Chinese government hid the outbreak, failed to contain it, and then misled the world, there remained little possibility that any nation, much less an enormous and open society like the United States, was going to be spared its devastation.Yet, when the political media isn't preoccupied with a gotcha du jour, pundits, partisans, and journalists have seemed downright giddy to let their minions know that the United States now has the most coronavirus cases in the world. It took a six-siren-emoji tweet from MSNBC's Joe Scarborough to tell us that fact.Here is how the New York Times' Paul Krugman framed the number:> America's response to the coronavirus is the worst in the world, which is shocking and has a lot to do with a leader who is completely unfit, temperamentally and intellectually, for the job 1/ pic.twitter.com/sGZuFUukgr> > -- Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 29, 2020A Nobel Prize–winning economist surely understands that we don't have enough data to definitively declare the United States the world leader in cases. Even if we did, it doesn't necessarily follow that this is the fault of public policy. There are plenty of unexplained coronavirus disparities around the world.The Financial Times chart that that is circulated by Krugman and his fellow pundits, and sometimes cynically deployed as a means of attacking the administration's response, is largely useless as a point of comparison. For one thing, a graph illustrating per capita cases in all the nations that the Financial Times chart includes looks different. A chart that combined all the cases in European nations — the continent has approximately the same population as the United States — would also look dramatically different. The known cases in Spain and Italy alone are nearly twice as many as the United States right now.Cross-country comparisons at a given point in time fail to account for many things, including density and time. Iceland is not like Italy, and New York is not like Alaska. And simply because nations such as Italy and Spain experienced outbreaks earlier and more deadly than nations such as Germany and Sweden does not mean the disparities are destined to last.Moreover, testing in the United States began slowly before being ratcheted up quickly (and criticism of that delay is a fair one). Thus, the curve reflects the reality of expanded testing as much as it reflects reality of the disease. And though I'm not a statistician, I do know that nations have varied criteria for testing, varied standards of testing, and varying effectiveness in the testing they do perform. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese coronavirus tests sent to European nations, for example, have turned out to faulty. The data are incomplete. Krugman's claim lacks vital context.Speaking of China, accepting the veracity of numbers offered by the ChiCom government without any skepticism might be good enough for The New York Times and other outlets, but it shouldn't be enough for anyone who values facts.It's also worth mentioning that the timeline of these charts are also uncertain. It's unlikely we know when the tenth or hundredth case was actually transmitted in China or Iran or even here -- and it's possible that some people had died and some others had recovered before most people understood the magnitude of the future pandemic.All of this is worth keeping in mind when as we see journalists harping on the overall case number without context. If you want to continue to utilize this once-in-a-century pandemic as a cudgel against your political adversaries, have fun. But the most important gauges of success right now are flattening the curve so that hospitals aren't overwhelmed with new patients, ramping up our testing capacity to get a better handle on the virus's properties, and measuring the number of recoveries from coronavirus. Not owning Donald Trump.The United States has already dealt with coronavirus far better than the Chinese government. The fatality rate in the U.S., so far, is nowhere near that of Italy. Our dynamism is one of the reasons why an early high case count is a not a measure of either national success or failure. It's not our nature to allow the state to close down borders, travel, or trade, or to stop interactions with the world — or with each other, for that matter. And yet, many of same people who incessantly and cynically warned of the coming Fourth Reich are now blaming the administration for not acting like a dictatorship. It's difficult to keep up.
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| Coronavirus: Anger as migrants sprayed with disinfectant in India Posted: 31 Mar 2020 06:33 AM PDT  Footage shared thousands of times shows a group of workers in India being sprayed with chemicals.
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| Israeli police step up enforcement among ultra-Orthodox Jews Posted: 31 Mar 2020 11:29 AM PDT 
Israeli police are cracking down on gatherings in the country's ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. In recent days, they've used a drone, helicopter and stun grenades to prevent the spread of the coronavirus within the community. They've been met with occasional resistance and verbal abuse from the residents who have long chafed against the state -- with some youths even shouting 'Nazis' at police from their balconies. Israeli officials say the ultra-Orthodox community are especially prone to contagion as their districts tend to be poor and congested. They are accustomed to holding prayers three times a day with often large congregations. But residents like Menahem say they are trying (SOUNDBITE) (English) 28-YEAR-OLD MENAHEM ROITENBARG, AN ACCOUNTANT, SAYING: "It's very hard for us because normally here in this city we are always together and we like the community and (this past) couple of these days because we have to be careful we are trying to do the best even if it's much more harder than other places." Israel has reported over 4,000 coronavirus cases and 15 deaths - but the Health Ministry warned that the number of fatalities could eventually rise to the thousands. Stricter measures were put in place last week, instructing residents to stay within 100 meters of their homes. This includes the country's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- for now at least. The 70-year-old leader tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday after his aide was confirmed to be carrying the virus - but a spokesman says he will remain in isolation as a precaution.
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| No let-up in coronavirus deaths in Italy, new cases steady Posted: 31 Mar 2020 09:13 AM PDT  The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has climbed by 837 to 12,428, the Civil Protection Agency said on Tuesday, with the daily tally rising, albeit slightly, for a second day running. There were 889 deaths on Saturday, 756 on Sunday and 812 on Monday.
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| 3 mild symptoms could predict which coronavirus patients develop severe lung disease, research suggests — including body aches Posted: 31 Mar 2020 07:40 AM PDT  Body aches — along with two other factors — could be an early warning sign of severe coronavirus cases.
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| US calls on Maduro and Guaidó to stand down in Venezuela transition plan Posted: 31 Mar 2020 10:56 AM PDT  * Plan includes five-member council and sanctions relief * Sceptics see little incentive for government leadersThe US has proposed a political transition plan for Venezuela, offering to lift sanctions if the president, Nicolás Maduro, and his opponent, Juan Guaidó, step aside and pass power to an interim government made up of their supporters.Under the "democratic transition framework", all political prisoners would be released, and all foreign – principally Cuban – forces would leave. A five-member council of state would be selected, with two members chosen by the opposition, two by Maduro's Socialist party, and the fifth member picked by the other four. The military high command would remain in place."The hope is that this set-up promotes the selection of people who are very broadly respected and known as people who can work with the other side," the US special representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, told the Associated Press.The US and EU would then lift sanctions on the current leadership. Broader sanctions on the country's oil business would be lifted after all foreign forces had left the country. All sanctions would be lifted after free elections, to be held within six to 12 months.The proposal comes five days after the US indicted Maduro and top members of his government and army for drug trafficking and money laundering, and as Venezuela faces blanket sanctions, a collapse in the price of oil, its main export, and the coronavirus pandemic, with a crippled health system."The United States has long been committed to finding a solution to the manmade crisis in Venezuela," the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said. "The urgency for this has become all the more serious in light of the Maduro regime's failure to adequately prepare for and address the global Covid-19 pandemic. This framework demonstrates our commitment to helping Venezuela fully recover and ensures that the voice of the Venezuelan people is respected and included."Sceptics of the plan said it provided few incentives for the incumbent officials to give up power, days after they were charged with serious offences and multimillion-dollar rewards put on their heads.Eliot Engel, the Democratic chair of the House foreign affairs committee, said: "Essentially, Maduro regime officials are being told on one hand that nothing they do will stop the US [Department of Justice] from pressing charges against them while on the other hand, they are being asked to agree to a transition government for unrelated sanctions relief.""The people of Venezuela cannot afford such a ham-handed approach. It's time to get serious about our Venezuela policy," Engel said.David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the deal was very similar to what was discussed by Maduro and Guaidó representatives in Oslo and Barbados last summer, with one major difference."Coming less than a week after indicting all the main figures of the Maduro government it would seem the Trump administration is trying to hardwire in who they think should be part of a transition," Smilde said on Twitter. "This was a main point of contention during last summer's negotiations, with the US reluctant to endorse any transition plan that allowed Maduro to preside over new elections."Briefing journalists on the new plan, a senior administration official said the US was prepared to negotiate with Maduro about the terms of his departure from office.But the official referred to the fate of Gen Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian dictator, who was indicted on drug smuggling charges in 1988 and then removed in a US invasion the next year."History shows that those who do not cooperate with US law enforcement agencies do not fare well, " the official said. "Maduro probably regrets not taking the offer six months ago. We urge Maduro not to regret not taking it now."
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| Women who left N.Y. for China amid U.S. coronavirus outbreak document their journey Posted: 31 Mar 2020 11:20 AM PDT  "Because we're kind of in between these two cultures, we also understand both. So it feels like our experience could speak to both of the audiences."
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| Putin sending medical supplies to help U.S. fight coronavirus: IFX Posted: 31 Mar 2020 12:47 PM PDT  Russia is sending the United States medical equipment to help fight the coronavirus outbreak, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. President Vladimir Putin made the proposal in a phone conversation with President Donald Trump on Monday, when they discussed the coronavirus and oil markets, directing their energy ministers to speak. "Trump gratefully accepted this humanitarian aid," Interfax quoted Peskov as saying.
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| Coronavirus lockdowns are working, according to data from digital thermometer app Posted: 30 Mar 2020 09:36 PM PDT  Three-quarters of Americans have been urged or ordered to stay at home, to the extent possible, to stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and those measures appear to be working, The New York Times reports, citing data from internet-connected thermometer company Kinsa. The thermometers and their app upload temperature readings to a centralized database, allowing Kinsa to track fevers across the country. It started mapping fevers to catch flu outbreaks in 2018, and it modified its software to look for "atypical" COVID-19 fevers earlier in March.Kinsa's million-plus thermometers have been recording up to 162,000 readings from around the U.S. each day since the coronavirus started spreading, the Times reports. Only strict social-distancing measures — closing bars and restaurants, asking people to shelter in place — led to a significant drop in fever readings, while declaring a state of emergency or limiting the size of public gatherings had little effect. Data from New York and Washington State's health departments have buttressed Kinsa's findings, showing drops in hospitalizations a few days after Kinsa spotted the falloff in fevers.The Kinsa readings certainly look "like a way to prove that social distancing works," Dr. William Schaffner at Vanderbilt University tells the Times. "But it does shows that it takes the most restrictive measures to make a real difference." Kinsa data appears to show that social distancing is also reducing transmission of the seasonal flu."People need to know their sacrifices are helping," Kinsa founder Inder Singh tells the Times. "I've had friends text or call and say: 'Inder, this seems overblown. I'm sitting at home by myself, I don't know anyone who's sick, why am I doing this?'" Read more about the fever mapping at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is what real coronavirus leadership looks like Trump invoked the DPA 'hundreds of thousands of times' in his presidency before forcing GM to make ventilators USS Theodore Roosevelt captain says 'decisive action' is required to keep sailors safe from coronavirus
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| Fed steps in once again to try to smooth out lending markets Posted: 31 Mar 2020 06:50 AM PDT  The Federal Reserve is intervening once again to try to smooth out the world's lending markets, this time by lending dollars to other central banks in exchange for Treasurys. The Fed's move Tuesday marks its latest aggressive effort to keep borrowing rates down and ensure that financial markets can still function in the face of the coronavirus outbreak. The Fed is trying to facilitate lending and boost confidence that it will do all it can to support the global financial system.
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