| Coronavirus conspiracy theories make Fauci the villain, because someone has to be Posted: 28 Apr 2020 07:00 AM PDT  Dr. Anthony Fauci has emerged as the latest target in the vast web of COVID-19-related conspiracy theories that have been circulating on social media.
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| US Navy ship sails through Chinese-claimed waters in South China Sea Posted: 29 Apr 2020 09:07 AM PDT  A US Navy guided-missile destroyer sailed through waters near the Paracel islands in the South China Sea challenging China's claim to the area, the Navy said Wednesday. The USS Barry undertook the so-called "freedom of navigation operation" on Tuesday, a week after Beijing upped its claims to the region by designating an official administrative district for the islands. "Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose an unprecedented threat to the freedom of the seas, including the freedoms of navigation and overflight and the right of innocent passage of all ships," it said.
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| New Navy carrier inquiry suggests tough scrutiny of admirals Posted: 29 Apr 2020 06:46 AM PDT  The Navy is launching a wider investigation of the coronavirus crisis aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, suggesting closer and deeper scrutiny of actions and decisions by senior admirals in the Pacific that led to the controversial firing of the ship's commander nearly a month ago. The move announced Wednesday effectively delays a decision on whether to go ahead with a Navy recommendation that Capt. Brett E. Crozier be restored to command of the Roosevelt, which has been docked in Guam for weeks. Crozier was fired after pleading for urgent Navy action to protect his crew.
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| Over 60,000 lives claimed by COVID-19 in U.S. — a tally some models predicted for late summer Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:00 PM PDT  New York sees a dip in deaths, and Louisiana governor meets Trump, as each state in the union thinks about how to move forward amid coronavirus.
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| Amazon city resorts to mass graves as Brazil COVID-19 deaths soar Posted: 29 Apr 2020 01:31 PM PDT  Deaths from the coronavirus outbreak have piled up so fast in the Amazon rainforest's biggest city that the main cemetery is burying five coffins at a time in collective graves. "It's chaos here," said Maria Garcia, who waited for three hours in a line of hearses to obtain a death certificate to be able to bury her 80-year-old grandfather, who died at dawn in his home of respiratory collapse. Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, was the first in Brazil to run out of intensive care units, but officials warned that several other cities are close behind as the country registered a record 6,276 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday.
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| 'Naked concerns': Doctors strip down to protest lack of protective equipment Posted: 28 Apr 2020 05:30 AM PDT  In one of the photos a doctor holds up a sign which reads in German, "I learned to sew wounds. Why do I now need to know how to sew masks?"
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| Elon Musk, who predicted 'close to zero' new coronavirus cases by the end of April, demands we 'free America' Posted: 29 Apr 2020 09:58 AM PDT  Tesla CEO Elon Musk's coronavirus tweets from last month sure haven't aged well, but he's still got even more to confidently declare about the pandemic.Musk on Twitter this week criticized lockdown measures put in place in the United States to slow the spread of COVID-19, demanding in one, "FREE AMERICA NOW." He applauded Texas for its plan to begin reopening the state's economy, and said the U.S. should "reopen with care and appropriate protection, but don't put everyone under de facto house arrest."Musk also replied to a user who claimed the "scariest thing" about the pandemic isn't the coronavirus but seeing Americans willing to give up freedom, to which the Tesla CEO responded, "true."These tweets, as Gizmodo points out, come after Musk previously downplayed the threat of the coronavirus and in March predicted that by the end of April, there would be "close to zero" new coronavirus cases in the United States. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. continues to rise and just passed one million on Tuesday.> Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April> > -- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 19, 2020"The coronavirus panic is dumb," Musk also wrote in early March regarding a virus that would go on to kill over 58,000 Americans as of this week, more than were killed in the Vietnam War.Experts have repeatedly warned about the dangers of reopening the economy too quickly, and recent polls have found a majority of Americans are fearful of the U.S. reopening too soon. "If you jump the gun, and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you're going to set yourself back," Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently stressed.More stories from theweek.com How Tara Reade's allegations could bring down Joe Biden The perils of Hooverism Trump claims China doesn't want him to be re-elected
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| Trump backtracks after saying U.S. would "very soon" hit 5 million tests a day Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:35 PM PDT  On Tuesday, the president, asked whether he was confident the U.S. could reach 5 million COVID-19 tests a day, said the U.S. would be there "very soon."
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| Myanmar's Military May Be Committing War Crimes While the World Is Distracted by Coronavirus, Says U.N. Rights Expert Posted: 29 Apr 2020 03:29 AM PDT  She says the Myanmar military is using the distraction of COVID-19 to escalate attacks on civilians
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| 20+ Cocktails To Celebrate Moms Everywhere Posted: 29 Apr 2020 11:30 AM PDT |
| Miss the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds flyby? Check out the footage people captured of the jets roaring over New York City to honor essential workers. Posted: 28 Apr 2020 02:56 PM PDT  The jets flew a 35-minute path across the Northeastern states as a part of "Operation America Strong" to honor essential workers.
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| Trump urges states to consider reopening schools before end of academic year Posted: 28 Apr 2020 03:32 AM PDT  President Trump suggested Monday in a call with governors that states "seriously consider" reopening schools before summer.
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| Florida governor announces plans to reopen state Posted: 29 Apr 2020 02:55 PM PDT  DeSantis' announcement came as 350 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Florida, along with 47 new deaths.
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| Most Americans cannot or will not use COVID-19 contact tracing apps: poll Posted: 29 Apr 2020 10:38 AM PDT  More than half of all Americans either do not own smartphones or would not use apps backed by Alphabet Inc's Google and Apple Inc to trace who has been exposed to the new coronavirus, according to a poll by the Washington Post and University of Maryland released on Wednesday. The two tech companies have been working with public health experts and researchers to write apps that people can use to notify those they have come in contact with if they come down with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
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| Infectious disease expert warns people are treating coronavirus models 'too seriously' Posted: 28 Apr 2020 08:35 AM PDT  You've probably noticed that graphs and charts are having a moment during the coronavirus pandemic. Governments are using them to make informed decisions about when to re-open economies, and they pop up daily to present people around the world with a look at how the pandemic is trending. But some would argue people are putting a little too much stock in models without accounting for their potential pitfalls.Carl Bergstrom, an expert on both emerging infectious diseases and networked misinformation from the University of Washington, told The Guardian in an interview he doesn't think people have done a good job of "thinking about what the purpose of models are, how the purposes of different models vary, and then what the scope of their value is." That's led people to over-rely on them and "treat them too seriously," and when reality eventually differs from the projections, models tend to get criticized "for not being perfect at everything."Bergstrom's point is that science, especially in fast moving scenarios like the pandemic, is "provisional" and "can be corrected." He believes researchers can improve at communicating that point by "deliberately stressing the possible weaknesses of our interpretations." A really good paper, he said, will lay out all the reasons why it could be wrong. Read more at The Guardian.More stories from theweek.com How Tara Reade's allegations could bring down Joe Biden The perils of Hooverism This visualization shows how droplets from a single cough can infect an entire airplane
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| Biden assault allegation prompts GOP attacks, Dem worries Posted: 29 Apr 2020 03:00 PM PDT  A sexual assault allegation is raising Joe Biden's first big challenge as the Democrats' presidential nominee, fueling Republican attacks and leaving many in his own party in an uncomfortable bind. Biden's campaign has denied the allegation from his former Senate staffer Tara Reade, who has said Biden assaulted her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in the 1990s.
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| Inmates at Parchman's Unit 29 describe life inside notorious cellblock Posted: 29 Apr 2020 05:16 PM PDT  Four inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman spoke to CBS News in recent days, expressing frustration as they wait to be relocated from the state's oldest prison.
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| India virus deaths pass 1,000, but low toll puzzles experts Posted: 28 Apr 2020 05:23 PM PDT  India's confirmed coronavirus death toll passed 1,000 on Wednesday following its highest daily increase, but the numbers remain low compared with Europe and the United States in a phenomenon that is puzzling experts. With massive slums and a shaky healthcare system, there were fears India would be ravaged by the pandemic that has killed more than 214,000 people worldwide. The latest daily toll of 73 deaths was India's highest, offering a warning that the giant South Asian nation was not yet in the clear.
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| The South Korean government says it's 'aware of Kim Jong Un's location' Posted: 28 Apr 2020 09:34 AM PDT  It was one of South Korea's most unequivocal statements yet, after roughly two weeks of downplaying rumors about the North Korean leader's health.
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| Inmate who gave birth on ventilator dies of Covid-19 Posted: 29 Apr 2020 08:13 AM PDT  The 30-year-old appears to be the the first US federal female prisoner to die from coronavirus.
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| Top ER Doctor Who Treated Virus Patients Dies by Suicide Posted: 28 Apr 2020 05:22 AM PDT  A top emergency room doctor at a Manhattan hospital that treated many coronavirus patients died by suicide Sunday, her father and the police said.Dr. Lorna M. Breen, medical director of the emergency department at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, died in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she was staying with family, her father said in an interview.Tyler Hawn, a spokesman for the Charlottesville Police Department, said in an email that officers on Sunday responded to a call seeking medical assistance."The victim was taken to UVA Hospital for treatment, but later succumbed to self-inflicted injuries," Hawn said.Breen's father, Dr. Philip C. Breen, said she had described devastating scenes of the toll the coronavirus took on patients."She tried to do her job, and it killed her," he said.Philip Breen said his daughter had contracted the coronavirus but had gone back to work after recuperating for about a week and a half. The hospital sent her home again, before her family intervened to bring her to Charlottesville, he said.Lorna Breen, 49, did not have a history of mental illness, her father said. But he said that when he last spoke with her, she seemed detached, and he could tell something was wrong. She had described to him an onslaught of patients who were dying before they could even be taken out of ambulances."She was truly in the trenches of the front line," he said.He added: "Make sure she's praised as a hero, because she was. She's a casualty just as much as anyone else who has died."In a statement, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia used that language to describe her. "Dr. Breen is a hero who brought the highest ideals of medicine to the challenging front lines of the emergency department," the statement said. "Our focus today is to provide support to her family, friends and colleagues as they cope with this news during what is already an extraordinarily difficult time."Dr. Angela Mills, head of emergency medical services for several NewYork-Presbyterian campuses, including Allen, sent an email to hospital staffers Sunday night informing them of Lorna Breen's death. The email, which was reviewed by The New York Times, did not mention a cause of death. Mills, who could not be reached for comment, said in the email that the hospital was deferring to the family's request for privacy."A death presents us with many questions that we may not be able to answer," the email read.Aside from work, Breen filled her time with friends, hobbies and sports, friends said. She was an avid member of a New York ski club and traveled regularly out west to ski and snowboard. She was also a deeply religious Christian who volunteered at a home for older people once a week, friends said. Once a year, she threw a large party on the roof deck of her Manhattan home.She was very close with her sisters and mother, who lived in Virginia.One colleague said he had spent dozens of hours talking to Breen not only about medicine but about their lives and the hobbies she enjoyed, which also included salsa dancing. She was a lively presence, outgoing and extroverted, at work events, the colleague said.NewYork-Presbyterian Allen is a 200-bed hospital at the northern tip of Manhattan that at times had as many as 170 patients with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. As of April 7, there had been 59 patient deaths at the hospital, according to an internal document.Dr. Lawrence A. Melniker, the vice chair for quality care at the NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, said Breen was a well-respected and well-liked doctor in the NewYork-Presbyterian system, a network of hospitals that includes the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the Weill Cornell Medical Center."You don't get to a position like that at Allen without being very talented," he said.Melniker said the coronavirus had presented unusual mental health challenges for emergency physicians throughout New York, the epicenter of the crisis in the United States.Doctors are accustomed to responding to all sorts of grisly tragedies, he said. But rarely do they have to worry about getting sick themselves, or about infecting their colleagues, friends and family members.And rarely do they have to treat their own co-workers.Another colleague said that Breen was always looking out for others, making sure her doctors had protective equipment or whatever else they needed. Even when she was home recovering from COVID-19, she texted her co-workers to check in and see how they were doing, the colleague said.--If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Turkish president backs cleric who said homosexuality 'brings disease' Posted: 28 Apr 2020 08:06 AM PDT  The cleric claimed thousands of people are exposed to HIV annually due to homosexuality and adultery and called on worshipers to fight "this kind of evil."
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| New York's Cuomo calls politics 'hammer into the middle' of U.S. during pandemic Posted: 29 Apr 2020 09:18 AM PDT  Cuomo's wide-ranging remarks also criticized what he called the "extraordinarily dangerous" politicization of the response to a pandemic that has killed more than 58,000 Americans and left millions jobless. The Democratic governor, who has intermittently traded barbs with U.S. President Donald Trump and other Republican politicians during the crisis, made a thinly veiled reference to the upcoming national election in November. Cuomo, who previously blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's suggestion that states like New York should be able to declare bankruptcy if financially crippled by the crisis, took fresh aim at Florida Senator Rick Scott.
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| The Trump administration is reportedly organizing a Manhattan Project-style effort to expedite the development of a coronavirus vaccine Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:26 PM PDT  Experts say the predicted development timeline for an approved COVID-19 vaccine is already remarkably quick at an estimated 12 to 18 months. But the Trump administration is aiming to get one out even faster, much like Oxford University, Bloomberg reports.Two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg the administration is orchestrating a Manhattan Project-style operation that aims to have 100 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine out by the end of the year. It will take a united effort by private pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and the military to get there.The expedited timeframe will also likely be wasteful, Bloomberg notes. It will cost billions of dollars and require mass production of vaccine candidates that may fail (rendering them useless), so the ones that don't are ready to be distributed widely upon approval.The project will reportedly be funded by money the government already has and won't require congressional approval. Those resources will first be used to test experimental vaccines in animals before launching coordinated human clinical trials to further narrow the field. There are numerous candidates in development already, but the efforts haven't been cohesive. Read more at Bloomberg.More stories from theweek.com How Tara Reade's allegations could bring down Joe Biden The perils of Hooverism Trump claims China doesn't want him to be re-elected
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| Pence Lied, Americans Are Dying, and Trump Is Sneering Posted: 28 Apr 2020 07:03 AM PDT  OK. So now it turns out that when Mike Pence started talking about four million tests, he didn't mean they'd be administered. He just meant they'd be procured. Monday night, ABC's Jonathan Karl asked him: You said in early March there'd be four million tests by the next week. Now here it is six, seven weeks later, and you're saying we're just now getting them. "John, I appreciate the question, but it represents a misunderstanding on your part, and frankly a lot of people in the public's part," Pence said.Let's stop right there for a minute. Reproducing the words in cold type is one thing. But you really need to watch this moment. Specifically, you need to focus on Donald Trump's face as Pence delivers that little lecture, at :48 seconds in:Trump is looking out toward the reporters, presumably at Karl, and smirking. Good dog, Mikey; just what you're up here to do. And you, Karl, you fake news bloodsucker, boy, did you get yours. It's just two or three seconds, but those two or three seconds say everything. Millions infected, thousands dying; the topic at hand is his most colossal failure in this whole nightmare, a failure that has caused far more misery than this nation needed to have suffered. And he sees it as an occasion to smirk at a journalist.Pence continued: "...about the difference between having a test versus the ability to actually process the test." Eventually, Karl was able to follow up: "So when you said four million tests seven weeks ago, you were just talking about the tests being sent out, not actually being completed? I'm a little confused." "John, I think, precisely correct."Are you a schoolteacher or a college professor? I have an idea for you. Next semester, or whenever we have regular school again, prepare a test for your students, but don't give it to them. Then, when the semester ends, and you don't have enough results on which to hand out grades, and the principal or the dean asks you, "So, you prepared the tests, but didn't administer them, is that right? I'm a little confused." You should say: "Precisely correct!"America Is About to Blow Past the 60,000 Coronavirus Deaths Trump Said Would Be a WinIt's just staggering that they can stand up there and keep spinning this. The Washington Post reports Tuesday morning that Trump was warned not once or twice or three times but repeatedly over January and February in the Presidential Daily Brief that this was deadly serious. He's not the first Republican president to have a problem with a PDB. You'll recall that George W. Bush blew off the PDB of August 6, 2001 that warned about a coming terrorist attack on U.S. soil conducted by Osama bin Laden. Bush ignored one briefing. Trump ignored several. Because of course he "routinely skips reading the PDB and has at times shown little patience for even the oral summary he takes two or three times per week," as the Post put it. We've known that Trump spent those first crucial weeks wishing the virus away. We didn't know that he did it in the face of repeated warnings. From the intelligence community. But of course, they're just deep-staters, so why should he have listened?We are deep into Wonderland, and with the election coming, we're just going to get deeper and deeper. A meme is developing now on the right that this isn't so bad. Tucker Carlson said it Monday night: "The virus just isn't nearly as deadly as we thought it was, all of us, including on this show. Everybody thought it was, but it turned out not to be." I'm seeing it pop up on Twitter and Facebook. See, they say; a few weeks ago, they were saying two million deaths. Now, we're looking at a fraction of that. You lib fake news Trump haters tried to blow this up into a huge catastrophe.There's an obvious response to this, but you have to stop and think for seven seconds and connect a couple dots. Those projections were real at the time—many of them were being cited by the White House that's mocking them now. They were based on us not doing anything. Now the projections are lower. But they're lower precisely because we're staying indoors. And how much lower would the projections—and actual numbers—have been if we'd had a president who could read a short briefing paper and who did the things that obviously needed to be done in January and February? He should have spent January ensuring that manufacturers were making millions of tests—and that the federal government was distributing them adequately around the country. How different would this crisis be if 20 million tests had been out there ready to deploy by early February?Also in January, he needed to be making sure that we had ventilators and PPE. Actually, that should have been in place on a standing basis. And then, in February, he should have made Congress appropriate the money to hire an army of contact tracers. This is yet another epic disaster that is going to result in needless death. NPR reported Tuesday morning that experts think we need 180,000 contact tracers working in this country. Right now, we have 7,500. Some states are trying, but what's really needed is for Congress to spend the money.But hey—it's not as bad as we thought. And when the lapdog veep smacks down a fake newser, that's a big W. We could have had 40 million test kits out there right now, and something like 180,000 contact tracers. Instead we have four million (finally) and 7,500. But the guy from CNN got put in his place, and that's what really matters. 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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| SEALs tried to locate US citizen taken by Afghan militants Posted: 29 Apr 2020 09:07 PM PDT  In the days following the capture of an American contractor in Afghanistan earlier this year, Navy commandos raided a village and detained suspected members of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network while the U.S. intelligence community tried to track the cellphones of the man and his captors, The Associated Press has learned. While the circumstances surrounding the abduction remain unclear, the previously unreported operation described by multiple American officials over the past month shed new light on early efforts to locate Mark R. Frerichs. The disappearance several months ago of the contractor from Illinois has been shrouded in mystery, and the case has been the subject of minimal public discussion by the U.S. government.
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| Judge blocks 30-day extension of Illinois stay-at-home order Posted: 28 Apr 2020 08:53 AM PDT  Governor J.B. Pritzker, however, has vowed to appeal the ruling.
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| Insider poll: Just half of Americans say that they got a stimulus payment, and only half of those say it was enough Posted: 29 Apr 2020 10:55 AM PDT  48% of respondents said they're experiencing some degree of economic hardship from the coronavirus. Only 28% identified as unaffected.
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| Company says drug was effective against COVID-19 in U.S. study Posted: 29 Apr 2020 10:18 AM PDT  A biotech company says its experimental drug has proven effective against the new coronavirus in a major U.S. government study that put it to a strict test.
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| Iran says reopened for business as no end in sight to virus crisis Posted: 29 Apr 2020 04:23 AM PDT  Iran reopened for business despite its persistent coronavirus outbreak as there was no end in sight to the crisis, its president said Wednesday, as 80 new deaths were announced. "Due to uncertainty about when this virus will end, we are preparing for work, activity and science," said President Hassan Rouhani. Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said another 1,073 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.
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| University of Miami professor resigns after reportedly sharing porn bookmark on Zoom Posted: 29 Apr 2020 04:34 PM PDT  Business lecturer John Peng Zhang is no longer employed by the school, which said it "aggressively investigates all complaints of inappropriate behavior."
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| Drugs, oil … women? Mexican cartels turn to human trafficking Posted: 29 Apr 2020 10:30 AM PDT |
| Mnuchin blasts Lakers for taking PPP loan, says every company receiving over $2 million will get a 'full audit' Posted: 28 Apr 2020 06:59 AM PDT  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, but he's adamant he doesn't support the NBA's second most valuable franchise taking a $4.6 million loan as part of the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program, which is meant for small businesses.The Lakers gave the money back, which Mnuchin appreciated, but during a Tuesday appearance on CNBC, the secretary said it was "unfortunate" and "inappropriate" for large companies to take the money, especially because the fund ran out so quickly. The Lakers were not the only large business that initially received loans.> It was "outrageous" that the LA Lakers took a $4.6 million PPP loan, Treasury Sec. Mnuchin says. "I'm glad they've returned it." https://t.co/snISVRyg5z pic.twitter.com/RImnCrGpXG> > — CNBC (@CNBC) April 28, 2020He said the fault lies with the recipients, not the banks who doled out the cash, but the government is going to change things going forward. "We're going to do a full audit of every loan over $2 million," Mnuchin said. "This was a program designed for small businesses. It was not a program that was designed for public companies that had liquidity." Read more at CNBC.More stories from theweek.com Scientists are perplexed by the low rate of coronavirus hospitalizations among smokers. Nicotine may hold the answer. How Tara Reade's allegations could bring down Joe Biden AMC says it will no longer show Universal Pictures films because of Trolls World Tour move
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| Don Lemon Grills Stacey Abrams on Joe Biden Sexual Assault Allegation Posted: 28 Apr 2020 09:51 PM PDT  Stacey Abrams has made her ambition to be Joe Biden's running mate abundantly clear over the last couple of weeks. And to that end, she offered the presumptive Democratic nominee her unwavering support when questioned by CNN's Don Lemon about the sexual assault allegation against Biden on Tuesday night. "As someone who wants to be his vice president, I think it's important that we speak about something that's in the news now," Lemon said near the end of his conversation with the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, before laying out the details of Tara Reade's claim. "CNN has now spoken on the record with her former neighbor who says Reade told her about the allegation within a few years of the alleged incident," Lemon said. "Biden's campaign says untrue, never happened. Is this a credible allegation?" "I believe that women deserve to be heard and I believe that they need to be listened to," Abrams said carefully. "But I also believe that those allegations have to be investigated by credible sources." She cited an in-depth New York Times investigation that found the accusation was "not credible," though new information has emerged in the two weeks since it was published. "I believe Joe Biden," Abrams said. "I believe that he is a person who has demonstrated that his love of family, his love of our community, has been made perfectly clear through his work as a congressional leader and as an American leader. I know Joe Biden and I think he's telling the truth and that this did not happen." With her conclusion, Abrams appeared to be parroting official Biden campaign talking points, which read, in part, "Biden believes that all women have the right to be heard and to have their claims thoroughly reviewed. In this case, a thorough review by the New York Times has led to the truth: this incident did not happen."Stephen Colbert Grills Bernie Sanders: Are You Endorsing Biden or Not?Lemon could have left things there, but instead he confronted Abrams with a tweet she posted in 2018 that condemned Senate Republicans for "rushing" Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation forward despite the "courageous and compelling testimony from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford." "Are you applying a different standard now?" Lemon asked. "Not at all," Abrams replied. "I believed then and I believe now that women deserve to be heard because too often they are not. And Tara Reade deserved to have her story listened to and investigated. What was happening with Christine Blasey Ford was there there was no investigation. There was a rush to move it forward so no investigation was conducted." "So you said you've heard her, you've heard enough, you don't believe her, you believe Joe Biden," Lemon said.After once again returning to the Times investigation, Abrams said, "I believe the Biden I know. And I think he will make women proud, that he will make America proud." Asked if Biden needs to "address this more directly and more publicly," Abrams said, "I believe his campaign has been very clear. And I believe that is the approach that they intend to take and I support the approach. "We don't want women to ever be afraid to come forward," she concluded. "But we also have to recognize that allegations should be investigated and that those investigations need to be borne out." Anderson Cooper Dumbfounded by Trump's 'Sarcasm' Excuse: Does He Think We're 'Morons'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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| Gangs allegedly run Mississippi prison where inmates were killed Posted: 29 Apr 2020 05:16 PM PDT  Almost half the roughly 1,300 corrections positions in three major facilities in Mississippi remain unfilled.
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| Utah announces plan to mail free face masks to residents who don't already have them Posted: 29 Apr 2020 10:08 AM PDT  The move to give Utah residents free face masks comes as a precaution as the state prepares to begin reopening businesses.
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| Cuomo on McConnell: 'We bail them out every year' Posted: 29 Apr 2020 10:25 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell during his Wednesday press briefing.
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| Sri Lanka faces cash crunch without parliament amid virus lockdown Posted: 29 Apr 2020 03:25 AM PDT  Sri Lanka's opposition Wednesday called on the government to urgently recall parliament which was dissolved in March ahead of elections now postponed to June due to a coronavirus curfew. State spending will become illegal from Friday if the legislature remains in recess, they said, accusing strongman President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of using the virus lockdown to sidestep constitutional requirements. Opposition MP and former finance minister Mangala Samaraweera called for the immediate return of the 225-member assembly to avoid a financial crisis.
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| Class action suit aims to free all transgender ICE detainees Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:49 PM PDT  As hundreds of coronavirus cases are reported at U.S. immigration facilities, the suit calls for the release of dozens of trans migrants from what it calls ICE "death traps."
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| A Kentucky woman with coronavirus was arrested after violating quarantine orders 3 times and going to a Kroger grocery store, police say Posted: 29 Apr 2020 11:52 AM PDT  The woman made contact with five people at the Kroger, which was packed with roughly 200 customers and staff on a busy Monday morning.
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| UN council mum on Venezuela, EU members warn of virus risks Posted: 28 Apr 2020 08:12 PM PDT  The U.N. Security Council took no action after discussing the humanitarian situation in Venezuela behind closed doors on Tuesday but its European Union members said the coronavirus pandemic "risks having a devastating human impact in a country grappling with an already grave economic, social and humanitarian situation." A statement by France, Germany, Belgium, Estonia and former council member Poland reiterated EU concerns "about the sharply deteriorating crisis in Venezuela and its destabilizing effects across the region, including its severe humanitarian consequences." The members said the European Union is the largest donor to Venezuela's humanitarian crisis, "providing more than half of all funding," and they called for stepped up efforts to respond to the country's underfunded humanitarian emergency.
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| Trump campaign slams Senate GOP for memo advising candidates 'don't defend Trump' on COVID-19 response Posted: 28 Apr 2020 03:26 AM PDT  President Trump has not gotten the steep polling bump other Western leaders and proactive U.S. governors have seen as they fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and in fact, more Americans disapprove than approve of Trump's coronavirus response, probably feeding a drop in his overall approval rating and electoral standing. But any Republican candidates who fail to defend Trump's coronavirus handling will pay a price, the Trump campaign told the National Republican Senatorial Committee on Monday, Politico reports.Last week, Politico and The Washington Post reported that a 57-page memo prepared by GOP strategist Brett O'Donnell's consulting firm advised Senate candidates that when asked about the pandemic, "don't defend Trump, other than the China Travel Ban — attack China." When pressed, the candidates should respond: "I wish that everyone acted earlier — that includes our elected officials, the World Health Organization, and the CDC." The NRSC distributed the memo to Republican campaigns.The Trump campaign was furious, and top officials — including campaign manager Brad Parscale, communications director Tim Murtaugh, and political advisers Justin Clark, Bill Stepien, and Chris Carr — expressed their displeasure to the NRSC, Politico reports. "Candidates will listen to the bad advice in this memo at their own peril," Clark said in a statement. "President Trump enjoys unprecedented support among Republican voters," and GOP candidates "who want to win will be running with the president."Underscoring his point, NRSC executive director Kevin McLaughlin insisted Monday "there is no daylight between the NRSC and President Trump" and GOP Senate candidates aren't being advised to not defend Trump's response. O'Donnell issued a similar statement: "I never advise candidates not to defend the president, and the media shouldn't take one line out of context." Democrats would have to pick up four seats to win a majority in the Senate, and that no longer seems implausible.More stories from theweek.com Scientists are perplexed by the low rate of coronavirus hospitalizations among smokers. Nicotine may hold the answer. How Tara Reade's allegations could bring down Joe Biden AMC says it will no longer show Universal Pictures films because of Trolls World Tour move
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| To Confront China After Coronavirus, We Must See the Bigger Picture Posted: 29 Apr 2020 03:30 AM PDT  NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I n a popular movie two decades ago, hard-eyed criminals released into Sydney a woman infected with a virus, knowing that unsuspecting Australians would catch the highly contagious disease and, traveling on, unwittingly spread death across a hundred homelands. This past winter, the hard-eyed leaders of China did worse. They allowed not one, but thousands of infected to leave China and enter an unsuspecting world, a world lulled by Beijing. The crucial question is: Why?"China caused an enormous amount of pain [and] loss of life . . . by not sharing the information they had," Secretary of State Pompeo said on April 23. America is angry, he added, and while much remains to be known, China "will pay a price."No subpoenas, no oversight committees, no tell-all books will expose President Xi's calculations as the novel coronavirus spread inside China. The unelected of Beijing guard well their secret debates. The CCP knows the virtues of opacity, of letting uncertainty, complacency, and wishful thinking paralyze the West. Exploiting these has been its way.In 2018, a major Trump-administration speech called CCP misdeeds to task. Some, including, notably, Japan's prime minister, applauded. But many nations looked toward their feet, too reluctant, too sophisticated, perhaps too intimidated to bestir. Staggering COVID-19 losses may yet remind the world of the dangers of drift as great powers go astray.Today's American, European, Japanese, and Asian policymakers, like those of centuries past, bear the burdens of judgment. Uncertainty has ever been the statesman's curse. America's famed diplomat, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, has written, "Nations learn only by experience, they 'know' only when it is too late to act. But statesmen must act as if their intuition were already experience. . . ."A reassessment of Xi and the CCP looms. From their actions and practices, from assessments of their motives and apparent long-term aims, today's statesmen, like their forebears, must judge future risks and craft the surest course ahead. These are early days, but the picture of Beijing presented so far is troubling.Even before the virus spread in Wuhan, Xi brooded over a worrying hand. The CCP could not intimidate prolonged protests on the streets of freedom-loving Hong Kong. And the Party's oppression there, in determined violation of treaty commitments, spurred voters in Taiwan to rebuff Beijing's hopes for a more amenable regime in Taipei. The world was finally awakening to Xi's increasingly autocratic surveillance state, his harsh repression of Uighur Muslims, and his predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China's economy, essential to Xi's hold on power, had stumbled, in part because of the Trump administration's move to counter China's unfair, neo-mercantilist practices and to condemn their grim geopolitical implications. Worse yet, America's markets hummed, raising reelection hopes within the Trump administration, which had also surpassed modern predecessors in challenging China. Rumors of Party dissatisfaction with Xi seeped out.COVID-19's outbreak in Wuhan further darkened Xi's prospects. As long as the virus raged primarily inside China -- derailing only her economy, stigmatizing only her government -- his troubles would soar. All the while, the world predictably would have leapt ahead, taking Chinese customers, stealing China's long-sought glory.The disease's spread to Berlin and Paris, New York and Tokyo, improved Xi's prospects, at least in the near term. Pandemic diverted foreign eyes from Hong Kong's and the Uighurs' plight. Desperate needs rendered disease-weakened nations more susceptible to China's goods and BRI's short-term appeal. Asian states, wary of Beijing, had new cause to doubt the commitment of a pandemic-preoccupied Washington, while a weakened economy and vastly increased debts would likely constrain future U.S. defense spending, essential to Asian security. An unpredictable element had entered into America's 2020 election.As events unfolded, might Xi have recognized that COVID-19's leap into the wider world promised such political and geopolitical gains? Some say a desire to protect itself first fed a CCP cover-up, as if putting this before the health of innocents were not bad enough. But were CCP leaders blind, as days passed, to other benefits? It is the Chinese way, the noted French Sinologist François Jullien has written, to exploit the potential inherent in unfolding situations. CCP leaders still study China's legendary strategist, Sun Tzu, who advised centuries ago that if, "in the midst of difficulties, we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate ourselves from misfortune."As the CCP realized the imminent disaster COVID-19 posed inside China, Xi suppressed the world's appreciation of its dangers. By sometime in December, Chinese authorities had learned that a novel, highly infectious coronavirus similar to deadly SARS was on the loose. Yet for weeks PRC authorities, including China' National Health Commission, suppressed inquiries and, directly or through the WHO, misled the world about the risks. When Chinese authorities finally acknowledged human-to-human transmission, the CCP took steps to isolate Wuhan from other parts of China, but continued to permit international travel. After the U.S. on January 31, and later Australia, restricted travelers from China, Beijing's spokesmen, artful and indignant, rose to denounce such acts as ill-founded and ill-intentioned.For days, even weeks, after the CCP first knew of the danger, Chinese authorities and customs officers let tens of thousands of travelers, infected among them, leave China and enter an unwary world. In late January, China extended Lunar New Year celebrations, inviting greater international travel. PRC border guards stamped more exit papers. When America restricted such travelers, Beijing allowed more to leave for less cautious lands.Then, as pandemic gripped the world, the CCP brazenly blamed America for COVID-19. Xi once more preened over his authoritarian "China model's" efficiencies, now cauterizing troubles he denies having caused. In Europe, Beijing postured as a savior offering needed medical supplies -- albeit that its sales favored states where it sought geopolitical gains, often bore high prices, included defective products that could undermine defenses, and drew on CCP surpluses bolstered by January purchases of world supplies at pre-pandemic prices. In Southeast Asia, Beijing proved "relentless in exploiting the pandemic," a respected, former high-level Filipino bemoans, as it pushed its "illegal and expansive" territorial claims. Inside China, the Party seized the moment to round up leaders of Hong Kong's democracy movement and reassert unilateral efforts to curtail the city's special, self-governing status.Even after the virus began to spread inside China, events might have taken a different course. Many had once hoped for better from CCP leaders. Dreams of a mellowing CCP had floated widely among academics and policy elites, perhaps buoyed by the way such illusions avoided, rather than imposed, hard choices. Some yet hold to such views. The benign CCP of their reveries would have alerted others promptly as the novel virus's dangers became known, shared information, welcomed foreign scientists, ceased reckless practices, and guarded against the pandemic's spread.Indeed, under different leadership, China could have followed such a path. Traditions of humane governance, venerable and Confucian, are not alien to that land. China's ancient text, the Tao-te Ching, favors just such a response:> A great nation is like a man:> > When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.> > Having realized, he admits it.> > Having admitted it, he corrects it.> > He considers those who point out his faults> > As his most benevolent teachers.The learned will debate how much such leadership would have eased the wider world's suffering. Metrics and estimates will vary, but the consensus will be clear enough: The harm would have decreased manyfold.Such openness and grace have not been Xi's way. As he built up islets in the South China Sea, he promised never to militarize them, then dishonored his promise, disregarded international rulings, and dispatched ships in packs to intimidate neighboring states and expand Beijing's writ. Pledging to protect intellectual property, he enabled ongoing theft and coercion, ineluctably undermining industries of the advanced democracies, and then pressed forward on China's newly gained advantages. His BRI professes to aid, then exploits poor countries' weaknesses. Citing the betterment of all in the cause of greater China, he has imprisoned Uighurs, undermined Tibetan culture, and threatened the peaceful regional order that had enabled China's rise. He violates treaty commitments to curb Hong Kong's freedoms. Behind an anti-corruption façade, his prosecutors ruined scores of his rivals, as he consolidated and extended his personal powers. These wrongs he continues still. Xi's are not the ways of grace and remorse.An angry narrative drives this man. Under his hand, the CCP highlights Chinese suffering and humiliation roughly a century ago under Western and Japanese imperialists, while eliding the democratic world's helping hand and Japan's benign democracy over four generations since. He slides past the Chinese millions massacred in the intervening decades by the CCP and Mao -- China's legendary leader who spread cruelty and death as he judged useful. In imitation of Mao, Xi has issued his own "little red book" of wisdom. Mao's iconic image looms over Tiananmen still. Coveting Mao's autocratic power, Xi strove and won it; now he dare not let it go.The bitter recall of ancient Chinese glories; resentment of past humiliations; insecurity bred by corruption and illegitimacy; disdain, even hatred of America's easy ways -- these are the pathogens coursing through Xi's circle. A fever for Chinese primacy burns among them. For a time, they might pander to a Western-inspired, rules-based order, a liberal conceit; but this is not their dream. A historic economic rise, technological mastery, a rapidly expanding navy, all causes to be proud of, have freed them to be brazen. Xi now bares the teeth Deng Xiaoping's smile hid. From South China Sea islets to the New Silk Road's arid ends, the CCP, ruthless and defiant, pounds the stakes it holds to advance its aims. For Xi's CCP, it is the fate of small states to bend to the strong.Rules should soon be theirs to set, the CCP believes, and not without some reason. Before Trump, a subtle and experienced Chinese diplomat confessed, CCP leaders marveled at America's ineffectual response. In the South and East China Seas, on India's long border, Beijing's hostile and determined quest had followed Lenin's line: "Probe with bayonets, if you find mush, you push; if you find steel, you withdraw." It is to our shame, Trump observed on China's unfair trade practices, that Beijing had not been held to account by prior administrations. Unanswered, history has shown, the ambitious calculate and, at times, miscalculate.In past American forbearance, CCP leaders have seen a once great power on the wane. In foreign capitals they confided, inside China they proclaimed: It will soon be America's turn to bend. They claim their own version of the right side of history.The keys to victory, Sun Tzu counseled, lie in knowing your enemy and deceiving them. The cunning men of Beijing have taken heed. They have an instinct for a divided, self-doubting, and weary West. Cloaking their aggressions in ambiguity, they weigh the likely costs against desired gains.Straining to contain COVID-19, President Trump and Secretary Pompeo rightly extend a hand to international, including Chinese, cooperation. But in post-pandemic days to come, the democracies must carefully take the measure of the CCP and hold it to account, crafting strategies for what it is, not what they wish it to be. That is leadership's task.The late, great professor Fouad Ajami warned, "Men love the troubles they know" -- too ready to slip into a comfortable neglect, too reluctant to face strategic change. Some cite an arc of history, he lamented, to hide behind, hoping it might bear the burdens they would rather shun.With all doubts resolved in their favor, the untouchable leaders of the CCP have much for which to answer. Perhaps in reality, even more.In a time of death, Ajami cautioned: "There is no fated happiness or civility in any land." As a great river may abruptly rise or fall, "Those gauges on the banks will have to be read and watched with care."
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| Apple is about to provide its first look at how badly the coronavirus pandemic has shaken its business Posted: 29 Apr 2020 08:51 AM PDT  COVID-19 has rewritten the way Apple conducts business, from product development to its retail presence. Its Q2 earnings report will reflect this.
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| New York mayor confronted after breaking stay-at-home rules by walking 11 miles from home in overcrowded park Posted: 28 Apr 2020 02:41 AM PDT  New York City mayor Bill de Blasio was caught walking almost 11 miles from his home in Manhattan at the weekend, whilst encouraging New Yorkers to snitch on neighbours not adhering to stay-at-home measures.De Blasio was seen strolling through Prospect Park in Brooklyn with his wife, Chirlane McCray, on Saturday afternoon.
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