| Trump: People in Pennsylvania 'want their freedom now,' but Democrats delay reopening to hurt him Posted: 11 May 2020 09:10 AM PDT  President Trump on Monday accused Democratic governors without evidence of moving to reopen their states too slowly amid the coronavirus pandemic to hurt his chances of reelection.
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| China cuts Australian beef imports after warning against virus probe Posted: 12 May 2020 02:50 AM PDT  China suspended imports from four major Australian beef suppliers Tuesday, just weeks after Beijing's ambassador warned of a consumer boycott in retaliation for Canberra's push to probe the origins of the coronavirus. Analysts said the move raised concerns of a possible standoff between Australia and its most important trading partner that could spill over into other crucial sectors as it struggles to navigate the disease-induced economic crisis. Federal Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said shipments of meat from four abattoirs had been suspended over "minor technical" breaches related to Chinese health and labelling certificate requirements.
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| Justice Department probe sought for slaying of unarmed black man in Georgia Posted: 10 May 2020 07:14 PM PDT  Georgia's attorney general asked federal prosecutors on Sunday to investigate local law enforcement's response to the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man who authorities say was slain by a white ex-police officer and his son as the victim jogged through a small town. Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, were taken into custody on Thursday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and charged with aggravated assault and murder in the Feb. 23 killing of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, in Brunswick, about 300 miles (480 km) southeast of Atlanta. State Attorney General Chris Carr said in a statement he asked the U.S. Justice Department to open a probe into how the case was handled by two local prosecutors - district attorneys for the Brunswick and Waycross judicial circuits - and the Glynn County Police Department.
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| Coronavirus: California rodeo attracts thousands despite social distancing orders Posted: 11 May 2020 03:58 AM PDT  Thousands attended a rodeo in California despite state orders against public gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic, it has been reported.Crowds could be seen packed tightly in the stands at Sunday's annual Cottonwood Rodeo in rural Shasta County, after local police said they would not enforce the state's lockdown orders.
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| Venezuela detains 40 suspects after failed Maduro 'kidnap attempt' Posted: 12 May 2020 07:49 AM PDT  * Three captured west of Caracas are latest 'terrorists' arrested * Advisers to opposition leader Juan Guaidó linked to raid resign Nicolás Maduro's security forces have continued their roundup of alleged participants in last week's botched attempt to capture him, with the arrest of three Venezuelan men just west of the capital.The trio was reportedly seized in Carayaca, 35 miles from Caracas in the early hours of Monday, taking the number of detentions to more than 40. The official Twitter account of Venezuela's Bolivarian national guard claimed the men were "terrorists who entered the country intending to provoke violence".On Sunday the army chief, Remigio Ceballos, announced the capture of another eight "enemies of the fatherland" who were pictured kneeling down before a cluster of rifle-toting troops.Eight people were reportedly killed when a group of about 60 mercenaries, including two United States citizens, launched their botched sea raid on 2 May.One of the captured American attackers, Airan Berry, last week claimed, possibly under duress, that the group had been tasked with raiding Maduro's presidential palace and seizing a local airport in order to spirit him out of the country. Many of the group are reportedly being held in El Helicoide, Venezuela's most notorious political prison.The failed raid has proved a propaganda boon for Maduro, who has long claimed he was the subject of an imperialist, US-sponsored assassination plot.Maduro has spent the last 16 months fighting off a challenge from the young opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who more than 50 foreign governments recognize as Venezuela's legitimate interim leader.For Guaidó, who for a time last year looked poised to topple Maduro, recent events threaten to permanently derail his push for political change.Guaidó has denied any involvement in the failed mission to capture Maduro. But two of his advisers, the Miami-based strategist Juan José Rendón and the opposition lawmaker Sergio Vergara, are alleged to have signed a $212m contract with Jordan Goudreau, the former Green Beret behind the raid.Vergara and Rendón – who has admitted meeting Goudreau last year and paying him $50,000 in expenses – resigned from Guaidó's team on Monday.In his first interview since the incident, Guaidó tried to put on a brave face, insisting his campaign continued. "What happened last weekend," Guaidó said, "was regrettable."But some suspect the opposition leader, from whom support has been gradually draining away, is running out of steam."I'm sure Maduro and his people are quite thrilled about the way this turned out. This really works for them," said David Smilde, a Venezuela specialist at the Washington Office on Latin America."It just adds into this continual erosion of people's perception of Guaidó as an effective leader, and they are thinking: 'Well, maybe Maduro is not actually as much of a rube as we thought.'"
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| Angola billionaire Isobel dos Santos wants assets unfrozen Posted: 12 May 2020 09:14 AM PDT  The Angolan billionaire says documents included a forged passport using the late film star's signature.
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| At least 4,500 Tyson workers have caught COVID-19, with 18 dying. The meat giant still doesn't offer paid sick leave, as the industry blames workers for outbreaks. Posted: 11 May 2020 08:09 AM PDT  An analysis by Business Insider found at least 4,585 cases of COVID-19 and 18 deaths linked to Tyson. The company still doesn't offer paid sick leave.
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| Governor Cuomo: This Is Why You’re Wrong to ‘Reimagine Education’ After COVID-19 Posted: 11 May 2020 05:15 AM PDT  A counselor responds to Governor Cuomo's plans on "reimagining education" after the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and why student mental health is at risk.
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| 2,000 former DOJ, FBI officials call on Barr to resign over Michael Flynn case Posted: 11 May 2020 11:52 AM PDT  Barr is using the Justice Department to further Trump's personal and political interests, the letter said.
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| Zinc-hydroxychloroquine found effective in some COVID-19 patients: study Posted: 11 May 2020 02:57 PM PDT  The antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine has shown mixed results against the coronavirus in early studies, but a new paper out of New York suggests combining it with the dietary supplement zinc sulfate could create a more effective treatment. The research by the NYU Grossman School of Medicine was posted on a medical preprint site on Monday, meaning it hasn't yet been peer reviewed. Records of about 900 COVID-19 patients were reviewed in the analysis, with roughly half given zinc sulfate along with hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin.
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| Chinese coronavirus vaccine could be tested, manufactured in Canada Posted: 12 May 2020 08:33 AM PDT  China's CanSino Biologics Inc, the company behind one of the few coronavirus vaccine candidates already in clinical trials, is collaborating with Canada's National Research Council to "pave the way" for future trials in Canada, the research council said on Tuesday. The NRC said it would scale up a production process for CanSino's vaccine at a government facility in Montreal, and that CanSino was preparing a trial application for drug regulator Health Canada.
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| India's prime minister announces huge virus relief package Posted: 12 May 2020 08:12 AM PDT  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Tuesday that the government will spend more than $260 billion, the equivalent of nearly 10% of the country's GDP, on a coronavirus economic relief package designed to make the world's second most populous nation more self-reliant. "The package's main aim is to build a self-reliant India," Modi said in a televised speech, adding that it will help the country compete globally. India entered its sixth week of a stringent nationwide lockdown on Tuesday, pushing an economy already enfeebled before the pandemic to the brink of collapse.
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| Packed United flight leaves passengers 'scared,' 'shocked' amid fears of the coronavirus Posted: 10 May 2020 06:27 PM PDT  Physician tweets photo of full plane despite airlines' assurances of open middle seats. On this cross-country flight, there appeared to be no empties.
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| Rand Paul: Pandemic Response Marred by ‘Wrong Prediction after Wrong Prediction’ Posted: 12 May 2020 02:19 PM PDT  Senator Rand Paul said Tuesday that the response to the coronavirus pandemic has been hampered by "wrong prediction after wrong prediction" as he advocated for schools to reopen in the fall."The history of this when we look back will be of wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction," Paul said during a Senate hearing Tuesday at which Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to the Trump administration's coronavirus task force, testified."I think we ought to have a little bit of humility in our belief that we know what's best for the economy," the Kentucky Republican said. "As much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don't think you're the end all. I don't think you're the one person who gets to make a decision,"Paul said he believes it would be a "huge mistake" not to open schools in the fall and noted that the mortality rate from the coronavirus for children "approaches zero."Keeping children out of school would have a disproportionate effect on "poor and underprivileged kids" who do not have a parent who is able to homeschool them and will end up not learning for a full year, the senator said."In rural states we never really reached any sort of pandemic level," Paul continued. "It's not to say this isn't deadly, but really, outside of New England we've had a relatively benign course for this virus nationwide."Fauci said he agreed with Paul that the coronavirus has not proven as deadly to children as to others, but argued that the virus is still relatively mysterious and noted that some children with the virus developed a "very strange inflammatory syndrome."Paul himself tested positive for the coronavirus in March. As of Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. has seen more than 1.3 million cases of the virus and 80,000 people have died from it.
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| Mitch McConnell Moves to Expand Bill Barr’s Surveillance Powers Posted: 11 May 2020 02:04 PM PDT  Days after the Justice Department controversially dropped charges against Mike Flynn, Senate GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is set to expand a highly politicized Justice Department's surveillance authority during a vote this week to renew the 2001 PATRIOT Act. Under cover of redressing what President Donald Trump and his allies call the FBI's "witch hunt" over collusion with the Kremlin, McConnell, via an amendment to the PATRIOT Act, will expressly permit the FBI to warrantlessly collect records on Americans' web browsing and search histories. In a different amendment, McConnell also proposes giving the attorney general visibility into the "accuracy and completeness" of FBI surveillance submissions to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court. Versions of the amendments circulating Monday were shared with The Daily Beast. Taken together, privacy advocates consider McConnell's moves an alarming expansion of Attorney General Bill Barr's powers under FISA, a four-decade-old process that already places the attorney general at the center of national-security surveillance. It also doesn't escape their notice that McConnell is increasing Barr's oversight of surveillance on political candidates while expanding surveillance authorities on every other American. One privacy activist called McConnell's efforts "two of the most cynical attempts to undermine surveillance reform I've ever seen."Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said that Barr, who has been deeply involved in investigations of interest to Trump, could authorize an investigation into a political rival, which could then unlock the internet-spying powers McConnell wants to grant the FBI."Under the McConnell amendment, Barr gets to look through the web browsing history of any American—including journalists, politicians, and political rivals—without a warrant, just by saying it is relevant to an investigation," said Wyden, who has been trying to ban warrantless surveillance on such records. Dems Working With Trumpsters to Re-Up the Patriot ActA vote to restore expired provisions of the Patriot Act, the vehicle for McConnell's amendments, could come as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday. Barr has come under withering criticism from ex-Justice Department officials for corrupting his office on Trump's behalf, starting with Robert Mueller last year. On Sunday, Mary McCord, a former senior department national-security official, accused Barr ally Timothy Shea of misrepresenting her position on the Flynn investigation in his brief for dropping the charges. A day later, former Roger Stone prosecutor Jonathan Kravis, a public-corruption expert, wrote that Barr had "betray[ed] the rule of law" by "directly intervenin[ing] to benefit the president's associates."McConnell's amendment blocks the FBI from seeking the "content" of web browsing and searching conducted by Americans. But it explicitly permits the warrantless collection of "Internet website browsing records or internet search history records." Barr and other attorneys general approve guidelines for conducting such surveillance. Wyden and GOP colleague Steve Daines of Montana have been pushing to restrict warrantless web-browsing data collection by the intelligence agencies. Wyden considers McConnell's amendment egregious."The reference to 'content' in the McConnell amendment is meaningless, since its application to web browsing has never been settled in the courts," Wyden told The Daily Beast. "That's just an invitation to Barr to engage in more secret interpretations of the law, which have led to abuses again and again." That's a reference to how the NSA and Justice Department, from 2006 until 2015, shoehorned the bulk collection of Americans' phone records into part of the Patriot Act.It's not the limit of McConnell's changes to FISA through the Patriot Act vote. McConnell would mandate that Barr perform an annual review of the FBI's FISA submissions for "accuracy or completeness," speaking to the now-documented withholdings FBI officials made for re-upping surveillance on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Barr and his successors would present the congressional committees on judiciary and intelligence with a report on his findings each April. Additional oversight of the FBI has merit to it, considering that Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz recently found widespread flaws in the FBI's FISA applications, far beyond those relevant to Trump or his allies. But there's a competing proposal, from the civil libertarian Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), that puts oversight and review of those FBI surveillance applications in the hands of the comparatively neutral FISA Court and its amicus, an attorney who challenges the government's surveillance submissions. They, rather than the attorney general, would get to review exculpatory evidence on a proposed surveillance target.McConnell would also block expansion of the amicus' authority. Lee and Leahy propose to involve the adversarial attorney in proposed surveillance on "a domestic religious or political organization"; a "domestic public official or political candidate" or their staff; or the news media. McConnell instead authorizes an amicus before the court only in cases that "targe[t] a campaign for Federal office or an application that targets a United States person when the application relies for its criminal predicate on only the provisions of the Foreign Agents Registration Act." Neema Singh Giuliani of the ACLU said it was bizarre to "create an amicus to participate when targeting political candidates, but we're not going to provide that same oversight in cases involving religious organizations, domestic news media or everyday individuals who are facing new or significant civil rights concerns. It's hard to look at that amendment and conclude it's intended to really address not just problems exposed by the Carter Page report but the subsequent IG audit.""McConnell is literally trying to take a privacy safeguard designed for the press and religious groups and instead give it only to politicians and people suspected of being foreign agents. He's also trying to sneak warrantless surveillance of internet and search histories into an amendment that claims to prohibit it," added Sean Vitka, the senior policy council with activist group Demand Progress. "These are two of the most cynical attempts to undermine surveillance reform I've ever seen, and they threaten to make a Patriot Act reauthorization even worse, after a process that has so far successfully prevented any member of Congress from fixing the underlying bill." Section 215 of the 2001 Patriot Act mandates records providers turn over "tangible things" "relevant" to an ongoing investigation–which McConnell's amendment would extend to web-browsing and search-history records. It and other provisions of the Patriot Act expired last month after McConnell couldn't reach an agreement to pass a House-approved Patriot reauthorization that many privacy advocates hated. Giuliani said McConnell's amendment "can be read that some type of collection [on internet records] is appropriate, and leaves it up to leadership at the Justice Department. But the goal is not to leave this up to a DOJ determination, regardless of what administration you're in, but giving the sense that search and browsing history is something you can't collect under 215."McConnell's Senate office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did a Justice Department representative.On Monday, a coalition of left and right civil-rights groups, including the NAACP and FreedomWorks, circulated a letter to lawmakers urging restraints on surveillance in line with what Lee, Leahy, and Wyden are proposing. The groups agreed that Horowitz's report laid bare "systemic deficiencies" within the FBI's surveillance practices."The McConnell amendment hands vast surveillance powers to Attorney General Barr at a moment when he is accelerating the corruption of the Department of Justice to serve Donald Trump's political whims," said Wyden.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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| Isabel dos Santos says Angola faked evidence to freeze assets Posted: 12 May 2020 09:25 AM PDT  Isabel dos Santos, the billionaire daughter of Angola's ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, on Tuesday accused the government of resorting to forgery to freeze her assets last year. The 47-year-old tycoon and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo are accused of syphoning off more than one billion dollars from Angolan state companies. Dos Santos claimed in a statement that a copy of a fake passport -- bearing the signature of late martial arts film star Bruce Lee -- was part of the evidence submitted to the court.
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| Listen live: Supreme Court teleconference arguments continue Posted: 11 May 2020 08:55 AM PDT  The Supreme Court will consider Monday two cases, one involving tribal land and another involving how employment discrimination laws apply to religious institutions.
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| Putin's spokesman becomes fifth senior Russian official to get coronavirus Posted: 12 May 2020 01:58 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, as a new surge in infections gave Russia the third highest number of reported cases in the world after the United States. Peskov, the fifth senior official to contract the virus, said he had last met Putin in person more than a month ago, the TASS news agency reported. Putin, who has been working remotely from his residence outside Moscow and holding many meetings via video conference, held a face-to-face meeting earlier on Tuesday with Igor Sechin, the head of oil giant Rosneft .
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| U.S. diplomat’s wife accused of killing British teen ‘wanted internationally’ Posted: 11 May 2020 10:08 AM PDT  Anne Sacoolas left the UK shortly after fatal crash and claimed diplomatic immunity.
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| The Supreme Court just heard a pair of cases that could decide whether anyone will see Trump’s tax returns Posted: 12 May 2020 02:23 PM PDT  The Supreme Court on Tuesday met by teleconference to hear a pair of cases that will likely determine whether anyone sees Trump's tax returns and related financial records.
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| South Dakota governor demands tribes remove travel checkpoints on Indian reservations Posted: 12 May 2020 08:14 AM PDT  South Dakota Indian tribes have set up checkpoints on reservations restricting travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| WHO Says It Cannot Invite Taiwan to Annual Summit after China Says Participation Would ‘Severely Violate the One-China Principle’ Posted: 11 May 2020 02:15 PM PDT  The World Health Organization said it could not invite Taiwan to an upcoming international health summit, despite pleas from the U.S. and its allies, due to "divergent views," after China said it "deplores and opposes" efforts to include Taipei in the gathering.WHO principal legal officer Steven Solomon explained to reporters on Monday that the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom could not invite Taiwan — which is not a member of the WHO — to participate in the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA) if members of the international body disagreed."To put it crisply, director-generals only extend invitations when it's clear that member states support doing so, that director-generals have a mandate, a basis to do so," Solomon explained. "Today however, the situation is not the same. Instead of clear support, there are divergent views among member states and no basis there for — no mandate — for the DG to extend an invitation."Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that Tedros should include Taiwan in the upcoming WHA meeting, saying "he has the power to do, and as his predecessors have done on multiple occasions." The proposal was supported by New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Germany, but China disparaged the claim, saying that those supporting it "severely violate the one-China principle."Last month, Tedros himself accused Taiwan of racist "attacks" over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, an allegation that Taiwan denied as "unprovoked and untrue." Tedros's claim came after Taiwan said in March that the organization had ignored its December warnings that human-to-human transmission of coronavirus was possible. The WHO tweeted on January 14 that "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission."
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| 'It's all rigged': Trump foreshadows how he could undermine presidential election Posted: 12 May 2020 05:00 AM PDT  Trump accusations shed light on how he could use the Covid-19 pandemic to undermine the results of the November electionDonald Trump falsely accused Democrats of trying to "steal" Tuesday's special election in California amid the Covid-19 pandemic by adding a polling place in one of the most diverse sections of a district.But the county actually added the polling location at the request of the area's Republican mayor.In a move that could foreshadow his approach to November's presidential election, Trump said Democrats were deliberately adding one of the few polling locations over the weekend in Lancaster, a city North of Los Angeles, where it was likely to benefit Democratic voters. "They are trying to steal another election. It's all rigged out there. These votes must not count. SCAM!," he tweeted.> Dems are trying to steal the Mike Garcia Congressional Race in California. Republicans, get out and VOTE for your terrific candidate, ASAP!> > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2020The election is expected to take place largely by mail, common in California, and the state mailed a ballot to all registered voters in the district. Still, there will be some opportunity for in-person voting. But though Democrats complained that the lack of a polling location in Lancaster would harm minority voters, officials added the additional location after R Rex Parris, the city's Republican mayor, requested it.Though he thinks it's dangerous to vote in person during the Covid-19 pandemic, Parris told the Guardian he made the request after realizing a nearby city had two polling locations, while his city had none. While he believes elections can be rigged and understood why it might have appeared that way to Trump, he said adding the polling location was not a Democratic power grab."I gotta take the rap. I called them up and said I want a vote center, so they gave it to me," he said.The California accusations underscore how the president could take advantage of the way voting procedures are rapidly changing in response to Covid-19 and question the legitimacy of election results in November.While Trump has long railed, without evidence, that elections are tainted by voter fraud, the increased focus on vote-by-mail amid the pandemic could offer a new thread for him to pull on to undermine confidence in elections this year. Several studies have shown voter fraud is not a widespread problem."Given that the president has been making unsubstantiated voter fraud comments for years, I expect that these comments will continue," said Richard Hasen, a professor of election law at the University of California, Irvine. "The comments are very worrisome because they increase the chances that the president's supporters would not accept the election results as legitimate should he lose in November."Hasen and other experts helped author a report last month offering guidance on how to shore up confidence in the results of the 2020 election. The recommendations include getting states to develop emergency contingency plans well in advance and educating the public that election results might not be available on election night as officials count mailed-in ballots.Democrats and Republicans are already fighting over how aggressively to expand efforts to vote by mail in November, but the fight over the availability of in-person voting is likely to continue to be an explosive issue. Faced with poll worker shortages and concerns about in-person gathering, election officials have severely cut back in-person voting. Parties and campaigns are likely to aggressively fight over which polling places close and where the new ones are placed."All of those changes allow for someone frankly who wants to undermine our faith in the election system to say 'look at what they're doing to you. This is a corrupt system,'" said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles."Certainly whenever there's a change in how we vote I think it can be unsettling for people, and they can question whether or not they can have faith in the system, and President Trump has seized that opening."
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| Column: Is William Barr right that history is written by winners? Not anymore Posted: 12 May 2020 03:00 AM PDT  If you believe Trump is a great president, you'll probably be able to find a history book that supports your view one day.
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| In Brazil, gyms and hair salons are 'essential' businesses Posted: 11 May 2020 07:21 PM PDT  In Brazil, exercising at the gym and getting a haircut are essential activities -- so says President Jair Bolsonaro, who claims that COVID-19 is just a weak case of flu. In a decree published in a special edition of the government gazette, Bolsonaro included gyms and hair salons on a list of "essential" businesses allowed to open in states and cities currently under lockdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. "Because health is life, today I put gyms, beauty salons and barbers on the list of essential activities," he told reporters late Monday.
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| Dr. Fauci warns against triggering 'an outbreak that you may not be able to control' by reopening too soon Posted: 12 May 2020 09:22 AM PDT  Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Tuesday warned the Senate about the dangers of states reopening too quickly amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying this could result in more "suffering and death."Fauci, a member of President Trump's coronavirus task force, remotely testified before the Senate on Tuesday and said that the "consequences could be really serious" if states reopen their economies too quickly without following the White House's guidelines, noting they must be capable to respond to an increase in infections. "There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control, which in fact, paradoxically, will set you back, not only leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided, but could even set you back on the road to try to get economic recovery," Fauci said. "It would almost turn the clock back rather than going forward."Many states have started to reopen their economies despite not meeting the White House's guidelines, which include that states should have a "downward trajectory of positive tests" or a "downward trajectory of documented cases" over two weeks. According to The New York Times, "in more than half of states easing restrictions, case counts are trending upward, positive test results are rising, or both."As of Tuesday, 80,000 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in the United States, but Fauci also told lawmakers during the hearing that this is probably an undercount."The number is likely higher," Fauci said. "I don't know exactly what percent higher, but almost certainly it's higher." > Dr. Fauci warns that if states and cities disregard reopening checkpoints,"there is a real risk you will trigger an outbreak you might not be able to control ... leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided." pic.twitter.com/CsLmxfHEzQ> > -- NBC News (@NBCNews) May 12, 2020More stories from theweek.com How Trump lost his Electoral College edge to Biden 1 of these 7 women will likely be Joe Biden's running mate Progressives may block Democrats' coronavirus bill after it leaves out payroll funding for small businesses
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| Video shows food executives being told to remove their masks before discussing coronavirus outbreaks at meat plants with Mike Pence Posted: 11 May 2020 01:41 PM PDT  The vice president also did not wear a mask, though he had already known for several hours that his press secretary tested positive for COVID-19.
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| 'Should have kept his mouth shut': McConnell slams Obama for criticizing Trump admin Posted: 12 May 2020 04:41 AM PDT  The Senate majority leader said the former president broke with tradition by maligning his successor.
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| Supreme Court grills both sides in landmark battle over President Trump's financial records Posted: 12 May 2020 12:45 PM PDT  The dramatic oral arguments may lead to landmark rulings on a president's immunity from investigation while in office and Congress' oversight powers.
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| Second virus wave 'very unlikely' in Denmark, says expert Posted: 12 May 2020 01:44 AM PDT  Denmark is "very unlikely" to be hit by a second wave of coronavirus, the country's chief epidemiologist said on Tuesday, after the government laid out plans for increased testing and a contact tracing system. The Nordic country, which has 533 coronavirus-related deaths, was the first in Europe to relax its coronavirus lockdown almost a month ago. "But with the knowledge we have today, I find it very unlikely that we'll see second wave," he said.
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| Virus symptoms multiply as pandemic deepens Posted: 11 May 2020 06:44 AM PDT  Every week, it seems, the list of coronavirus symptoms -- ranging from disagreeable to deadly, from "COVID toes" to toxic shock -- grows longer. What began as a familiar flu-like cluster of chills, headaches and fever has rapidly expanded over the last three months into a catalogue of syndromes affecting most of the body's main organs. The new coronavirus can also push the immune system into overdrive, unleashing an indiscriminate assault on pathogens and their human hosts alike.
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| Wuhan reports 1st cluster of coronavirus cases since lockdown ended Posted: 11 May 2020 06:55 AM PDT  Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic began, has reported its first cluster of COVID-19 cases since ending its lockdown last month.On Monday, Wuhan reported five new COVID-19 cases after on Sunday reporting its first confirmed case since early April, BBC News reports. The cases are from the same residential compound, officials said, and one of the cases confirmed on Monday was the wife of the man whose case was confirmed the day before. The cases, BBC notes, were previously asymptomatic, which China doesn't count as part of its official count even though the coronavirus can be spread by people without symptoms.This comes after 11 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Shulan over the weekend, prompting the Chinese city to go into lockdown and be classified as high risk. After 76 days, Wuhan in early April lifted its lockdown that was imposed in January, allowing travel out of or into the city for those who are healthy and have been designated as such with a green QR code on their phones. CNN notes that although the new cases in China are "a far cry from the figures at the beginning of the crisis ... the apparent ability of the virus to continue spreading undetected — especially in a city as intensely surveilled and restricted as Wuhan — will lead to concerns about the viability of reopening." More stories from theweek.com The dark decade ahead 1 of these 7 women will likely be Joe Biden's running mate Hamilton performance with the original cast coming to Disney+ this July
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| Officials from the Bay Area county where Tesla reopened its factory say they're aware the company violated its lockdown rules and hope it will comply 'without further enforcement' Posted: 11 May 2020 05:18 PM PDT  Officials said in a press release that they're working with Tesla to develop a plan for the factory to reopen safely.
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| A Coronavirus Mystery Explained: Moscow Has 1,700 Extra Deaths Posted: 11 May 2020 11:58 AM PDT  MOSCOW -- Ever since the coronavirus took hold globally, researchers have been puzzled by Russia's mortality rate of only about 13 deaths per million, far below the world average of 36 in a country with an underfunded health system.With the arrival of data for April, however, the mystery appears to be clearing up.Data released by Moscow's city government Friday shows that the number of overall registered deaths in the Russian capital in April exceeded the five-year average for the same period by more than 1,700. That total is far higher than the official COVID-19 death count of 642 -- an indication of significant underreporting by the authorities.A similar picture has been observed in many other countries. In neighboring Belarus, for example -- where the authoritarian leader Aleksandr G. Lukashenko has rejected calls for a lockdown as "frenzy and psychosis" -- the reported death rate is about 10 per million. In Mexico, officials have recorded more than three times as many deaths in the capital as the government has acknowledged."Mortality figures in Moscow seem to be much higher than average for Aprils over the last decade," said Tatiana N. Mikhailova, a senior researcher at the Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in Moscow. "One thing is clear: The number of COVID-19 victims is possibly almost three times higher than the official toll," she said in an interview, adding that additional calculations needed to be made to come up with a precise number.The new figures contrast sharply with the line that has been peddled by the Kremlin.Speaking to President Vladimir Putin at the end of April, Anna Popova, the head of Russia's consumer rights and human well-being watchdog, boasted that the country's mortality rate was "among the lowest in the world." Russian state-run television channels have been relentlessly advertising the country's effort to fight the virus as superior to Western nations'.On Monday, claiming success at slowing the spread of the coronavirus despite a sharp rise in infections, Putin ordered the end of a nationwide "non-working period" in force since late March.Putin, speaking on state television shortly after health authorities reported the biggest one-day rise in infections, acknowledged that the pandemic had not yet been defeated but said it was now up regional governors to decide whether to lift or strengthen restrictions in their territories.While the official number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus in Russia stood at 1,124 for Moscow and 2,009 nationwide as of Monday, arriving at a more accurate estimate will be highly complicated.Thousands of people have left Moscow since the city government declared a lockdown in March, an exodus that would lower the number of deaths in the city. And many people could have died of other causes as at least 37 Moscow hospitals have been converted to treat only coronavirus patients.Overall, about 70% of coronavirus-related deaths have not been reported in Moscow and about 80% in the country's regions, said Aleksei I. Raksha, an independent demographer in Moscow. He was among the first to spot the April data, buried in an obscure government statistics website, as he has been studying mortality rates in the Russian capital and the country's regions and comparing them with official death tolls.The lower numbers, according to Raksha, can be attributed to the way that causes of death are registered in Russia."For most deaths, the registered cause will be the disease of the organ that directly caused it," he said in an interview. "This is the way the system has worked for a long time," he said, adding that he believes it is highly likely that the authorities at some level are manipulating this system to yield the result they want.Speaking to the Echo of Moscow radio station last week, Georgi A. Frank, a senior Russian coroner, acknowledged that health officials have wide leeway in registering causes of death."In a number of cases, COVID-19 might not be the main cause of death -- sometimes it can be just a background to the main disease," Frank said. "Of course, there can be some manipulations, but decent doctors never allow it."Russia reported its first coronavirus death March 19, when a 79-year-old woman died in Moscow. Shortly afterward, the death was reclassified as having resulted from a blood clot and the case was removed from the official COVID-19 death toll.More than 11,800 people died in Moscow this April, far more than during any other April since 1995, when Russia was engulfed in a post-Soviet economic crisis worse than the Great Depression. The number was posted by the Moscow government, which collects reports from the city's civil registration offices that record vital events, such as births, marriages and deaths.The death toll will be updated by the Russian State Statistics Service by the end of this month but is unlikely to change much. On average, the Russian capital has about 10,000 deaths each April.Being by far the busiest point of entry into the county, Moscow has been the first area in Russia to be hit by the coronavirus. Still, it has lagged behind most other European capitals, registering only a few deaths before the middle of April.Russian regions, in turn, have lagged behind Moscow. As of Monday morning, Moscow accounted for 52% of all reported coronavirus cases in Russia, with more than 109,000 people infected.An even clearer picture of the true coronavirus death toll is likely to be revealed in the mortality data for May, when the virus began to grip Russia in earnest, experts said. About 45 deaths and more than 5,000 new cases have been registered in Moscow daily over the past week.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Suspect arrested in 30 year old apparent homophobic cold case death of American man in Sydney Posted: 12 May 2020 07:31 AM PDT  An arrest has been made in a cold case killing of a gay man in Australia, more than 30 years after it occurred.American Mathematician Scott Johnson, 27, died in Sydney, Australia, in 1988 after falling off a cliff in what was categorised at the time as a suicide.
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| Afghan forces to resume offensive after infants, mourners attacked Posted: 12 May 2020 02:02 PM PDT  Afghanistan's floundering peace process appeared further in peril Tuesday, with security forces ordered to resume offensive operations after attacks targeted a maternity ward and mourners at a funeral. At least 14 people were killed -- including newborns and nurses -- when gunmen stormed the maternity hospital in Kabul early in the morning, officials said. Shortly after, a suicide blast in the country's restive east left two dozen mourners dead.
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| Fauci contradicts Trump's death toll prediction as Rand Paul slams top White House doctor Posted: 12 May 2020 09:32 AM PDT  The US government's leading infectious disease expert told a Senate committee on Tuesday that if states open too quickly, they could be dealing with new Covid-19 outbreaks "that you cannot control.""There is no doubt when you pull back on mitigation, you will see cases appear," Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pension Committee.
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| Joe Biden needs his Joe Biden. Here's a look at the women who could be on his vice presidential shortlist Posted: 11 May 2020 12:11 PM PDT  After Sen. Bernie Sanders' exit from the race, the former vice president will soon begin the process of selecting a running mate as the Democratic primary nears its end.
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| Germany's coronavirus reproduction rate dips below critical threshold Posted: 12 May 2020 10:32 AM PDT  The reproduction rate for the coronavirus pandemic in Germany fell below the critical threshold of 1 to an estimated 0.94 on Tuesday after a 1.07 reading on Monday, the Robert Koch Institute for public health and disease control said. "So far, we do not expect a renewed rising trend," the RKI said in its daily report, adding the overall number of cases in Germany was diminishing, meaning local outbreaks had a greater impact on 'R' than with higher case numbers. Confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased over the latest 24-hour period by 933 to 170,508, RKI data showed.
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| Gorsuch, likely key vote, seems to favor Oklahoma tribe Posted: 11 May 2020 09:23 AM PDT  Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared Monday to be a pivotal vote for the proposition that a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation, a question the Supreme Court failed to resolve a year ago. The justices heard arguments by phone in an appeal by a Native American man who claims state courts have no authority to try him for a crime committed on reservation land that belongs to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The reservation once encompassed 3 million acres (12,100 square kilometers), including most of Tulsa, the state's second-largest city.
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| China plans to test the entire city of Wuhan in just 10 days after new COVID-19 cases Posted: 12 May 2020 04:08 AM PDT  Wuhan, the Chinese city of 11 million where the COVID-19 pandemic originated, reported six new cases over the weekend, its first new infections in 35 days. None of the new cases were imported, and China plans to get to the bottom of this cluster, announcing a plan to test the entire city in 10 days, CNN reports. Wuhan authorities plan to use nucleic acid tests, which are more effective and complicated to perform than tests that look for a body's immune response.If all 11 million people in Wuhan are tested, that would require producing and processing tests for a population greater than the entire country of Greece — in 10 days. The U.S. has conducted 9.4 million tests during the entire pandemic, the COVID Tracking Project reported Monday.China's official coronavirus figures have always had an asterisk by them, and a large number of positive results from a city-wide testing program would reflect poorly on Wuhan's previously reported data, CNN notes. The head official of Wuhan's Changqing area, where the new cases were found, was already removed from his post for failing to prevent the outbreak, China Daily reported Monday.South Korea and Germany have also reported setbacks in their largely successful efforts to beat back the coronavirus, highlighting the tenacity of the new virus and the risks of relaxing mitigation efforts.More stories from theweek.com How Trump lost his Electoral College edge to Biden 1 of these 7 women will likely be Joe Biden's running mate Progressives may block Democrats' coronavirus bill after it leaves out payroll funding for small businesses
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