| Amid reports of White House clashes with CDC, experts raise alarms about lack of coronavirus screening at airports Posted: 16 May 2020 07:41 AM PDT  As the nation begins to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic, some people are looking to the skies — and experts don't necessarily like what they see, arguing there are not enough safeguards in place to protect passengers and crew.
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| Trump pushes 'warp speed' effort on coronavirus vaccine, ignoring lessons from a long-ago drug calamity Posted: 16 May 2020 07:03 AM PDT  Along with everyone else in the world, President Trump wants a coronavirus vaccine now. The most optimistic time by which a coronavirus vaccine might be ready, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease specialist on the president's coronavirus task force, is 12 to 18 months.
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| Biden plans to pick a female running mate. Would it make a difference if she's black? Posted: 17 May 2020 10:31 AM PDT  Analysis: The former vice president is undertaking a very public selection process.
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| Polish archbishop refers child abuse negligence case to Vatican Posted: 16 May 2020 11:29 AM PDT  The Polish Catholic Church's most senior archbishop notified the Vatican on Saturday of a Polish bishop accused of shielding priests known to have sexually abused children. The referral, unprecedented in the deeply religious country, will test procedures introduced by the Vatican last year to hold to account bishops accused of turning a blind eye to child sex abuse. The Vatican is now expected to assign an investigator to the case.
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| A tourist from New York was arrested after violating Hawaii's self-quarantine orders and documenting the breach on Instagram Posted: 16 May 2020 10:59 AM PDT  The 23-year-old from New York City was arrested after locals saw him posting photos of himself around Waikiki tanning and spending time at the beach.
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| Gedhun Choekyi Niyima: Tibetan Buddhism's 'reincarnated' leader who disappeared aged six Posted: 16 May 2020 04:58 PM PDT  Twenty-five years after the Panchen Lama disappeared, Tibetans abroad urge China to reveal his fate.
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| Merced County sheriff declares he won't enforce California's 'stay at home' order Posted: 16 May 2020 07:40 PM PDT  In a message posted to Facebook, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said he no longer believes the COVID-19 threat is as serious as Governor Gavin Newsom has stated.
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| Nevada Rep. Horsford acknowledges he had extramarital affair Posted: 16 May 2020 01:50 PM PDT  Democratic Congressman Steven Horsford of Nevada on Saturday acknowledged he had an extramarital affair with a woman who said the on-and-off relationship began in 2009 before ending last September. Horsford, 47, in a statement released to The Associated Press responded to a report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he had an affair with Gabriela Linder, who previously had shared her story on podcasts and Twitter posts through a pseudonym before she was interviewed Friday by the newspaper. "It is true that I had a previous consensual relationship with another adult outside of my marriage, over the course of several years," Horsford said the statement.
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| Top China expert warns of potential second coronavirus wave Posted: 17 May 2020 02:37 AM PDT  China faces a potential second wave of coronavirus infections due to a lack of immunity among its population, its government's senior medical advisor has warned. After months of lockdowns and curbs on travel China has largely brought the virus under control, but fears of a second wave have risen as clusters have emerged in northeast provinces and in the central city of Wuhan. "The majority of... Chinese at the moment are still susceptible of the Covid-19 infection, because (of) a lack of immunity," Zhong Nanshan, the public face of government's response to the pandemic, told CNN.
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| How Many COVID-19 Deaths Are There? Posted: 17 May 2020 02:45 PM PDT  Deborah Birx, the physician advising the White House's coronavirus task force, gave voice to a real concern earlier this month. She told officials from the Centers for Disease Control that some of its numbers on mortality and case count could be inflated by up to 25 percent. "There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust," the Washington Post reported Birx saying.We now know more about what she was talking about, since Colorado has become the first state to publish two different numbers. One number is derived using a definition mandated by the CDC, which issued guidelines on March 24 specifying that "COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death." (Emphasis in original.)The second is a narrower category called "deaths due to COVID-19," which is limited to people who actually died of the disease. Counting in this way results in a decline of 23 percent in reported COVID-19 deaths. What's going on here?There have been many outlandish examples of people dying of things bearing not the slightest connection to COVID-19, but, having tested positive for the coronavirus, they were added to the official COVID-19 death tally anyway.There was the Lehigh Valley, Penn., man who slipped and fell at home. The coroner said, according to LehighValleyLive.com: "The primary cause of the man's death was a head injury from a fall at home, but that the virus was listed as a contributing factor to his death."In April a 37-year old California man "died as a result of a drug overdose while infected with COVID-19, a significant contributing condition, according to county spokeswoman Ashley Bautista, per the Ventura County Star.Last week, there was the entry in the Cook County, Ill., medical-examiner ledger: "Complications of opiate (probably heroin) toxicity. Novel corona (COVID-19) virus, end stage renal disease, hypertension, ACCIDENT."Oddities, all, we were told. "Aberrations." Insignificant to the overall count.Except we know they were not.Republican State Representative Mark Baisley accused the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) of fraudulently altering death certificates in cases in which coronavirus-positive individuals died but the medical examiner did not list COVID-19 on the death certificate. Baisley, in his request for an investigation, cited a letter from the Someren Glen nursing home to staff, residents, and their families saying that CDPHE had overruled physicians and added COVID-19 to seven death certificates.CDPHE came under more fire when they added the death of a 35-year-old man who died of alcohol poisoning, who happened to be coronavirus-positive, to their official tally. Their defense was simple: They said they were just following the CDC definition. "We classify a death as confirmed when there was a case who had a positive SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) laboratory test and then died," CDPHE said in statement.Democratic governor Jared Polis could have circled the wagons. But to his enormous credit, he ordered the state to publish the two different numbers. He told Fox News Sunday that the new approach is "a better way to inspire confidence" in the data on the total number of virus victims.The numbers differ considerably. At the time of Colorado's announcement on Friday, the CDC-definition tally, used in CNN's "dashboard" and all the other media reports, stood at 1,150 statewide. But only 878 of those, more than 23 percent less, are identified as deaths due to COVID-19.This language appeared Friday on the state's website, along with the new numbers:> Beginning May 15, the department began reporting the number of deaths in two ways:> > The number of deaths among people with COVID-19. This represents the total number of deaths reported among people who have COVID-19, but COVID-19 may not have been the cause of death listed on the death certificate. This information is required by the CDC and is crucial for public health surveillance, as it provides more information about disease transmission and can help identify risk factors among all deaths across populations.> > The number of deaths among people who died from COVID-19: This represents the total number of people whose death was attributed to COVID-19 as indicated on a death certificate. This number is determined by the CDC and is updated daily for dates through the previous Saturday.There is no doubt this virus flashed through nursing homes with devastating effect. We have cataloged the death toll in these spreadsheets.But if we don't fix the definition, residents of nursing homes (which are now being tested wholesale for coronavirus) who have mild or asymptomatic infections will show up in the COVID-19death count when they die from any of the maladies from which people die. The median nursing-home stay before death is just five months. If this definitional problem isn't fixed, the tallies will lose all contact with reality, with attendant public panic and additional economic hardship.Colorado has taken the lead. Baisley lit the fire, and Polis stepped up to exercise genuine leadership. All governors, Republican and Democrat, should follow his lead and report both sets of numbers. And the CDC should fix its nonsensical definition -- which didn't even exist until March 24 of this year.John Fund is National Review's national-affairs reporter. Phil Kerpen is the president of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and the co-editor of its Hotline.
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| Governors across U.S. face tough choices as coronavirus takes its toll on state budgets Posted: 16 May 2020 01:46 PM PDT  Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged lawmakers to put politics aside and focus on helping New York and other states receive funding from the federal government.
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| Wisconsin nurse went to bar to help sister reopen, now apologizes Posted: 16 May 2020 02:30 PM PDT  "I let my guard down and apologize for making anyone feel uncomfortable or at risk," said nurse Katie Koutsky, who was not wearing a mask when interviewed on TV at the bar.
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| Felicien Kabuga captured: Africa's most wanted and the mastermind behind Rwandan genocide seized in Paris Posted: 17 May 2020 03:26 AM PDT  French police seized the man regarded as the intellectual and financial mastermind behind the Rwandan genocide on Saturday, ending a transcontinental 26-year manhunt for "the Eichmann of Africa". Félicien Kabuga, Africa's most wanted fugitive, was arrested in the northern outskirts of Paris after a dawn raid on his flat in the commune of Asnières-sur-Seine. Officers said the 84 year-old had been living there under an assumed identity. French authorities released few details about the operation, beyond hailing the capture of "one of the world's most wanted fugitives". It is believed that a series of simultaneous raids were carried out on addresses across France, some linked to Kabuga's children, to ensure that he did not escape. Those familiar with the investigation suggested that the operation, at least in terms of the painstaking intelligence work involved, had echoes of the Mossad mission to seize the Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann from Buenos Aires in 1960. The British security services played an "essential" role in the operation that led to Kabuga's capture, according to United Nations prosecutors. So, too, did investigators in the United States, which has long had a $5 million (£4.1m) bounty on his head, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Kabuga will not be sedated and spirited away to Rwanda in the way Eichmann was smuggled into Israel, where he was tried and hanged for his role as a primary architect of the Final Solution. Instead he will eventually be handed over to a United Nations tribunal to answer longstanding charges of crimes against humanity.
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| New Zealand's Ardern turned away from cafe under coronavirus rules Posted: 16 May 2020 10:32 PM PDT  Hailed for her leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner were turned away from a cafe on Saturday because it was too full under the physical distancing guidelines. Ardern's government relaxed many social distancing rules on Thursday, reopening cafes, cinemas and malls after two months of some of the tightest restrictions in the world to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Ardern and Clarke Gayford walked for a brunch to a cafe in the country's capital, Wellington, where they were initially told it was too full, New Zealand media reported.
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| Jorge Armenta: Mexican journalist killed in 'armed attack' Posted: 17 May 2020 04:25 AM PDT  Jorge Armenta, director of Medios Obson, had received threats and was under government protection.
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| ICE keeps kids detained because parents don't "wish to separate" Posted: 17 May 2020 06:07 AM PDT  A federal judge has ordered ICE to seek the prompt release of all minors in its custody. The agency detains migrant families with children.
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| US military's mystery space plane rockets back into orbit Posted: 17 May 2020 06:15 AM PDT  The previous mission lasted a record two years, with a touchdown shrouded in darkness at NASA's Kennedy Space Center last year. The winged spacecraft resembles NASA's old shuttles, but is just one-quarter the size at 29 feet (9 meters) long. The Air Force has two of these reusable space planes.
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| Iran's Khamenei says US will be expelled from Iraq, Syria Posted: 17 May 2020 12:43 PM PDT  Iran's supreme leader said Sunday that the United States will be expelled from Iraq and Syria and alleged that even Washington's allies "abhor" it now. The US "will not be staying either in Iraq or Syria and must withdraw and will certainly be expelled", said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to his official website. Both the US and Iran have weighed into Syria's conflict -- Tehran backing the Damascus regime, while Washington supported the Kurds against the Islamic State group -- and both have been major geopolitical players in Iraq since the toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
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| The CDC now forecasts 100,000 US coronavirus deaths by June 1 Posted: 15 May 2020 07:51 PM PDT  The estimate is based on an analysis of a dozen separate models, all of which predict an increase in the rate of death over the coming weeks.
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| Harry Dunn's mother says UK must 'stand up to US' and refuse extradition requests Posted: 17 May 2020 05:24 AM PDT  The mother of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn has urged the British government to "stand up to" the US amid a continuing diplomatic row.Donald Trump's administration has refused to extradite suspect Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence official, for prosecution over Mr Dunn's death.
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| 'No-knock' searches plus stand-your-ground laws: A deadly combo for civilians and police Posted: 16 May 2020 07:43 AM PDT  To keep suspects from flushing drugs down the toilet, police says they need to conduct no-knock searches. Is it worth the cost in injuries and deaths?
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| New COVID-19 cases in New York coming from people leaving home, Cuomo says Posted: 16 May 2020 10:14 AM PDT  "That person got infected and went to the hospital or that person got infected and went home and infected the other people at home," Cuomo said during his daily news conference on the coronavirus outbreak. State data showed the number of new cases statewide has fluctuated between 2,100 and 2,500 per day.
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| Texas reports largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases Posted: 17 May 2020 04:08 PM PDT  More than 700 cases were reported Friday in the Amarillo region, where meatpacking plants have been targeted for increased testing.
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| NY widens testing eligibility as social distancing hits snag Posted: 17 May 2020 09:15 AM PDT  New York City residents who flouted social distancing restrictions for a night on the town got the mayor's wrath Sunday. The city's embattled health commissioner is staying on the job. Gov. Andrew Cuomo played the part of a model patient, getting swabbed for coronavirus on live TV as he announced all people experiencing flu-like symptoms are now eligible for testing.
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| US ramps up military pressure on Beijing Posted: 16 May 2020 03:14 PM PDT  Gen. Jack Keane joins Arthel Neville to discuss U.S. military pressure on Beijing amid tensions in the South China Sea.
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| Egypt tightens measures during celebrations marking Ramadan's end Posted: 17 May 2020 07:36 AM PDT  Egypt on Sunday announced a lengthening of its night-time curfew and other measures to prevent large gatherings during Eid al-Fitr holidays marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "All shops, malls, restaurants, entertainment facilities, beaches and public parks will be closed for six days from May 24-29," said Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli. Public transport will be halted and the nationwide curfew in force from 5 pm during that period, he told a Cairo press conference.
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| Sanders says his supporters will vote for Biden but he needs to court them Posted: 17 May 2020 09:16 AM PDT  Sanders: Biden should focus on student debt relief, health insurance coverage, a living wage, climate change and racismFormer Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has said he thinks his supporters will vote for Joe Biden in November's US election, despite a former aide's warning that Biden was not consolidating Sanders supporters.In a memo released last week, former Sanders adviser Jeff Weaver said Sanders supporters were "currently unsupportive and unenthusiastic" about Biden and "there is a real and urgent need to help Biden consolidate Sanders supporters".Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, said on ABC News' This Week program on Sunday that Biden was "beginning" to make overtures to his supporters "And I think at the end of the day they will be voting for Joe Biden.""I think, at the end of the day, the vast majority of the people who voted for me who supported me will understand and do understand that Donald Trump is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country, he is a pathological liar, he's a racist and a sexist, a homophobe, etcetera," said Sanders."But I think what Joe is gonna have to do – and he's beginning to move in that direction – is to say to those working class people, say to those young people, say to those minorities, 'Listen, I understand your situation'."Sanders said Biden's message should focus on student debt relief, health insurance coverage, a living wage, climate change policy and racism in the criminal justice and immigration systems.Biden, who has run on his record as Barack Obama's vice-president, is regarded as a moderate who appeals to more centrist Democrats, and his policy platform has been criticized by some progressive groups who see it as overly cautious and lacking ambition."I think they are going to reach out to our supporters and come up with an agenda that speaks to the needs of working families, of young families and minority communities," Sanders said.Sanders withdrew from the Democratic presidential primary race in April and conceded to Biden, the presumptive nominee.An analysis by CNN on Sunday of the latest state polls found Biden holding a national lead over Trump of about eight points and also leading Trump in key swing states.Democrats had difficulty corralling Sanders supporters behind the 2016 Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, with about 12% of Sanders supporters that year voting instead for Trump, according to a 2017 Cooperative Congressional Election study.Sanders supporters in the 2020 cycle appear much less likely to back Trump in the general election, however, according to polling. A Suffolk University/USA TODAY survey conducted last month found that 4% planned to vote for Trump.The Sanders and Biden campaigns have been working together to encourage supporters to join the common cause of defeating Trump. In a joint campaign memo released last month, they announced that the Biden camp would appoint some Sanders supporters as delegates at the national convention and invite the Sanders camp to help craft the official party platform.The 2020 Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be held in late August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but the party has made contingency plans for a virtual convention if warranted by coronavirus concerns.
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| Germany's far-Right AfD party splinters as Chancellor Angela Merkel climbs in the polls Posted: 17 May 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Bitter divisions within Germany's far-Right AfD party spilled out into the open over the weekend, when the party's more moderate faction succeeded in ejecting a high-profile extremist from their ranks. The rift comes as Angela Merkel's popularity climbs due to what is seen as her calm and efficient handling of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the AfD's popularity sinks. Andreas Kalbitz, AfD leader in Brandenburg, was stripped of his party membership on Friday after the national leadership voted narrowly to dispel him after discovering his previous association with an extremist movement. Mr Kalbitz was found to have concealed from the party that he once attended meetings of the Loyal German Youth, a movement considered by Berlin to be neo-Nazi. His ejection signalled victory for the moderates under party co-leader Jörg Meuthen who have been attempting to position the party as a conservative alternative to Mrs Merkel's centre-Right Christian Democrats.
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| Chinese state media slams "lawless" Hong Kong schools after history test row Posted: 16 May 2020 09:01 PM PDT |
| India extends coronavirus lockdown by two weeks Posted: 17 May 2020 07:48 AM PDT  The country's major cities will remain under strict restrictions, with some relaxation elsewhere.
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| 3 clues in coronavirus patients' blood could help doctors predict their risk of death 10 days in advance, with 90% accuracy Posted: 16 May 2020 04:51 AM PDT  A study suggests three biomarkers in blood can be used to predict which coronavirus patients have the highest risk of death, with 90% accuracy.
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| Tibetans demand China disclose fate of boy taken away in '95 Posted: 16 May 2020 10:51 PM PDT  Tibet's self-declared government-in-exile marked the 25th anniversary of the disappearance of a boy named as Tibetan Buddhism's second highest figure by calling on China on Sunday to account for his whereabouts. The Tibetan parliament in northern India, known as the Kashag, said the boy named the 11th Panchen Lama who was taken away at age 6 along with his family in 1995 continued to be recognized as the sole legitimate holder of his title. China, which claims Tibet as its own territory, named another boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, to the position and he is believed to live under close government control in mainland China and is rarely seen in public.
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| In NYC, indigenous Mexicans battle virus and language bias Posted: 16 May 2020 07:25 AM PDT  After the deaths of several community members from COVID-19, "their greatest fear is to end up in a mass grave in New York City, far from home."
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| Chinese envoy to Israel found dead, 'health reasons' likely cause: Beijing Posted: 17 May 2020 08:57 AM PDT  China's ambassador to Israel, Du Wei, died at his home in Tel Aviv on Sunday, apparently from natural causes, a statement from Beijing said. The 57-year-old envoy, who had arrived in Israel in mid-February, was found dead in his home in Herzliya, north of the city, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.
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| Bernie Sanders supporters reluctantly turn to Joe Biden, fueled by their dislike of President Trump Posted: 17 May 2020 01:55 PM PDT  In 2016, 12% of Bernie Sanders supporters backed Donald Trump in the general election. Polls and interviews suggest that number will shrink in 2020.
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| Beaches in N.Y., N.J., Connecticut, Delaware to open Memorial Day weekend Posted: 17 May 2020 05:46 PM PDT  They will open on the Friday before Memorial Day, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
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| 13 People Shot, With One in Critical Condition, at Louisiana Memorial Service Posted: 17 May 2020 11:18 AM PDT  The memorial service was apparently for Dominique James, who was recently murdered
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| Australia says China ignores calls to ease trade tension Posted: 16 May 2020 09:48 PM PDT |
| Trump news – President backs protesters who harassed reporter, after firing watchdog investigating Pompeo Posted: 16 May 2020 05:07 AM PDT  With the president in Camp David for the weekend and no official engagements on his agenda, he took the opportunity to spend much of the day on Twitter.After retweeting his several of his followers (and himself) this morning, he also took time to ominously threaten government action to "remedy" the command and control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google by "the radical left". He also described protesters filmed harassing a reporter as "Great people!"
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| Law enforcement officials fear that the US will see an increase in arson and violence linked to 5G conspiracy theories, according to reports Posted: 17 May 2020 07:08 AM PDT  The unfounded theory has made its way from the UK where there have been more than 70 arson attacks on phone masts around the country.
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| Coronavirus: Why Taiwan won't have a seat at the virus talks Posted: 17 May 2020 03:11 PM PDT  As the world meets to tackle the coronavirus crisis, one of the most successful countries is not invited.
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| Tensions rise as Germans clamour to return to Mallorcan homes Posted: 16 May 2020 08:13 PM PDT  Germans with holiday homes in Mallorca are clamouring to return to the sun-soaked island as the coronavirus lockdowns ease, but Spanish authorities are pushing back. Several hundred Germans have in recent weeks sent pleading, sometimes angry letters to the regional government of the Balearic Islands asking them to allow foreign property owners to return to their second homes. The campaign was started by German national and Mallorca resident Ralf Becker, 55, who believes the travel restrictions aimed at halting the pandemic are "completely over the top".
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| House passes $3T 'HEROES' aid package as U.S. death toll nears 90,000 Posted: 16 May 2020 12:08 AM PDT  Here are the latest coronavirus updates from around the world.
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| Pole dancing and hand sanitizer: Wyoming strip club reopens with 'masks on, clothes off' party Posted: 17 May 2020 10:42 AM PDT  Welcome to The Den, one of the first strip clubs in the country to reopen. The club on Friday night threw a "masks on, clothes off" party.
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| How many people are dying of coronavirus in Mexico? It's hard to say Posted: 16 May 2020 02:11 PM PDT  In cities across Mexico, morgues are full and funeral homes are jammed but nobody knows for sure how many people have died in the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| NYC beaches will be closed for Memorial Day Posted: 17 May 2020 08:11 AM PDT  New York City beaches will not be open for Memorial Day, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Sunday saying, "It's not safe. It's not the right thing to do."
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