| Trump now says if 100,000 Americans die from coronavirus he will have done 'a very good job' Posted: 30 Mar 2020 08:33 AM PDT  The president repeatedly cited a projection that as many as 2.2 million people would have died if the administration had "done nothing" to mitigate COVID-19's spread.
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| Are pot and guns essential in a pandemic? Posted: 30 Mar 2020 12:44 PM PDT  As states and cities shut down all nonessential businesses to stop the spread of coronavirus, pot shops and gun stores are staying open in some places. Are they really essential?
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| Suspected SARS virus and flu samples found in luggage: FBI report describes China's 'biosecurity risk' Posted: 30 Mar 2020 07:45 AM PDT  An FBI report about China's involvement with scientific research in the U.S. has raised alarms. While the report refers broadly to foreign researchers, all three cases cited involve Chinese nationals.
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| Open coffins are left on roads to remind people to stay inside while soldiers shoot disinfectant from water cannons. Here's what lockdown for 57 million people in the Philippines looks like. Posted: 30 Mar 2020 08:12 PM PDT  Despite the lockdown, on Sunday the Philippines reported a daily increase of 343 new coronavirus cases — its highest one day increase yet.
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| Rep. Velazquez has presumed COVID-19 infection, was near Pelosi, other lawmakers last week Posted: 30 Mar 2020 12:28 PM PDT  Rep. Nydia Velazquez spoke on the House floor Friday and stood near Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the signing of the $2 trillion stimulus bill.
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| 28 Texas spring breakers who just returned from Cabo have tested positive for the coronavirus Posted: 31 Mar 2020 02:28 PM PDT  The spring breakers reportedly got on a chartered plane with 70 people. It shows why spring break is such a problem during the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Stabbing of Asian-American 2-Year-Old and Her Family Was a Virus-Fueled Hate Crime: Feds Posted: 31 Mar 2020 12:03 PM PDT  The vicious stabbing of an Asian-American family, including a 2-year-old girl, at a Sam's Club in Texas earlier this month has been deemed a hate crime by the feds, as authorities continue to raise alarm bells about a potential surge in racially motivated crimes amid the coronavirus outbreak.Jose L. Gomez, 19, confessed to authorities that he attempted to murder three Asian-American family members, including the toddler and a 6-year-old, on March 14 at the Midland, Texas store, according to the Midland Police Department. Gomez, who stabbed the individuals and a Sam's Club employee, is now facing several charges, including three counts of attempted capital murder and one count of aggravated assault. He is being held on several bonds totaling $1 million."The suspect indicated that he stabbed the family because he thought the family was Chinese, and infecting people with coronavirus," according to an FBI analysis report obtained by ABC News.Inside the Ugly Uber and Lyft Driver Freakout Over CoronavirusThe Texas incident was used in the report as one example of a recent surge in hate crimes and racially fueled violence targeting Asian-Americans as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep the United States. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Midland Reporter-Telegram, Gomez attempted to kill the Asian-American family of four inside the wholesale store at about 7:30 p.m. When a Sam's Club employee and another patron intervened, Gomez allegedly stabbed the patron in the leg and fingers with a knife. At one point, the customer was able to knock the knife away from Gomez during the struggle before the teenager was finally subdued by Border Patrol Agent Bernie Ramiez, who was off-duty and just leaving the store after shopping for groceries, the affidavit states.Ramirez later told CBS7 that during the altercation, he saw the store employee had managed to put Gomez in a chokehold after he had stabbed multiple people."My initial thought was it was just the shortage of items that they were fighting over," Ramirez told the local outlet. "So I just started making my way over there to break it up."The agent added, "I've got close to 19 years in law enforcement. It's crazy and it's sad the way certain individuals think, their mindset. It's a sad deal."When authorities arrived at the Sam's Club, investigators immediately began to question Gomez. The teenager then admitted to trying to kill the family and assaulting the patron with a knife, the affidavit states. Ramirez did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment and a spokesperson for Midland Mayor Patrick Payton's office declined to comment, stating that the case has now been turned over to the FBI. According to the intelligence report that was compiled by the FBI's Houston office and distributed to local law enforcement agencies across the nation, federal officials believe hate crimes will only increase as COVID-19 continues to spread.'We're Scared': Doctors in New Coronavirus Hotspots Brace for 'Tsunami' of Patients"The FBI assesses hate crime incidents against Asian Americans likely will surge across the United States, due to the spread of coronavirus disease... endangering Asian American communities," the report states. "The FBI makes this assessment based on the assumption that a portion of the US public will associate COVID-19 with China and Asian American populations."To date, more than 3,416 people have died and 174,467 individuals have been infected with the virus nationwide—a death toll that has eclipsed China's official count and put much of the United States on lockdown.Since then, several political and media commentators, including President Donald Trump, have adopted the practice of calling the pandemic the "China virus" or the "Wuhan virus.""It did come from China," Trump said at a March 19 White House briefing. "It is a very accurate term."Many experts and political figures believe that officials using racial terms for the virus has contributed to discrimination against members of the Asian-American community. "This is a global emergency that should be met with both urgency and also cultural awareness that COVID-19 is not isolated to a single ethnic population," Jeffrey Caballero, executive director of the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, said in a statement to The Daily Beast. "Xenophobic attacks and discrimination towards Asian American communities are unacceptable and will not make our families safer or healthier."California Gov. Gavin Newsom reiterated the FBI's report findings, stating he has seen a "huge increase" in assaults targeting the Asian-American community in his state. In New York, Attorney General Leticia James launched a hotline for victims of coronavirus-related bias crimes. Since the surge, even Trump tried to backtrack on his language, tweeting on March 23, "It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all around the world. They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to get rid of it. WE WILL PREVAIL TOGETHER!"'This Is a War': Cuomo Pleads for Help From Doctors Across U.S. as Coronavirus Death Toll SurgesAccording to one New York City medical social worker, racism is also rampant in the health-care system as Asian-American doctors and nurses struggle to care for patients who don't want to be touched. "I get yelled at down the street coming into work from people in their cars saying all these really nasty things and telling me I should be punished for bringing the virus here," the social worker told The Daily Beast last week. "Inside the hospital, I have heard from several Asian-American doctors and nurses that some patients don't want to be treated by them because they think they already have the virus. It's like we are the virus or something.""It's scary and it's dangerous. We're already putting ourselves on the line to help others. Don't make it harder for us than it is," she added. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Justice Department audit finds widespread flaws in FBI surveillance applications Posted: 31 Mar 2020 07:56 AM PDT  The finding by Inspector General Michael Horowitz came after an earlier inquiry found numerous errors in court submissions seeking surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser.
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| Venezuela prosecutor's office summoned Guaido for 'attempted coup' Posted: 31 Mar 2020 08:16 AM PDT  State prosecutors in Venezuela have summoned opposition leader Juan Guaido for an alleged "attempted coup d'etat" and attempted assassination, Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced Tuesday. In a statement broadcast on state television, Saab said Guaido had been summoned to appear before prosecutors next Thursday following an investigation last week into the seizure of a weapons cache in neighboring Colombia that he said was to be smuggled into Venezuela.
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| 12 Buildings That Show the Beauty of Deconstructed Architecture Posted: 31 Mar 2020 03:59 PM PDT |
| Trump, Cuomo and the mystery of the missing masks Posted: 30 Mar 2020 12:08 PM PDT  Earlier this month, Cuomo said that people were stealing face masks and other equipment needed to fight the coronavirus from area hospitals. On Monday, the New York governor dismissed a similar claim by the president.
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| China zeroes in on coronavirus patients with no symptoms as new infections rise Posted: 30 Mar 2020 05:54 PM PDT  SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China will start releasing information from Wednesday on coronavirus patients who show no disease symptoms, ordering them into quarantine for 14 days, a health official said, after the mainland witnessed its first rise in infections in five days. As local infections peter out and new cases surface among travelers returning home, the existence of virus carriers with no symptoms is fuelling public concern that people could be spreading it without knowing they are ill. From April 1, the daily report of the National Health Commission will include details of such cases for the first time, Chang Jile, a commission official, told a briefing.
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| One country is refusing to shut down to stop the coronavirus Posted: 31 Mar 2020 09:35 AM PDT  "It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees!" Lukashenko, who hit the ice for a weekend hockey game, said.
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| UK scientists developed a breathing aid for coronavirus patients in less than 100 hours. Some say the device can spread the virus. Posted: 31 Mar 2020 09:13 AM PDT  Although the team won praise for creating the device amid a gaping shortage, some health officials say it's not an easy solution.
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| 3 nutritionists show what they are eating during the coronavirus lockdown, and how to make the meals yourself Posted: 30 Mar 2020 12:36 PM PDT  As social distancing and coronavirus lockdowns continue, here are top tips from nutritionists and what meals and recipes they're cooking at home.
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| AOC Drifts Away from Activist Left, Toward a More Conventional Staff and Political Strategy Posted: 30 Mar 2020 06:59 AM PDT  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has taken steps recently to collaborate more with the Democratic establishment, taking a less contentious approach and allying with fellow Democratic members.After urging fellow progressives in 2018 to run for office with the support of the progressive group the Justice Democrats, which supported her, the New York Democrat has declined to endorse most of the candidates the group is backing to oust incumbent Democrats in 2020.Of the six candidates the group is backing this time around, Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed Jessica Cisneros in Texas and Marie Newman in Illinois, both of whom are running against conservative Democrats who oppose abortion and were subsequently supported by several other high-profile Democrats.The move comes as the Justice Democrats are recruiting progressive candidates to run against liberals and moderate Democrats."We don't usually endorse so far out," Ocasio-Cortez's communications director, Lauren Hitt said of the congresswoman's lack of endorsements for the group of candidates, according to Politico.Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez, who shot to notoriety in 2018 when she ousted powerful Democratic congressman Joe Crowley, is also replacing some of her more radical, progressive top aides with more conventional political professionals, Politico reported.The freshman congresswoman has also struck a more conciliatory tone towards Democratic leadership in recent months, in February calling Pelosi the "mama bear of the Democratic Party."She also criticized supporters of her progressive ally, 2020 presidential contender Bernie Sanders, for their antagonistic behavior online."There's so much emphasis on making outreach as conflict-based as possible," she said. "And sometimes I even feel miscast and understood. Because it's about what tools you use, and conflict is one tool but not the only tool."Nevertheless, Ocasio-Cortez has largely maintained her status as a progressive standard-bearer. Earlier this year, she endorsed a group of progressive women running for Congress on Friday through her political action committee, Courage to Change.In January, she announced that she would not pay dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to the House.
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| US outlines plan for Venezuela transition, sanctions relief Posted: 31 Mar 2020 04:08 AM PDT  The Trump administration is prepared to lift crippling sanctions on Venezuela in support of a new proposal to form a transitional government requiring both Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaidó to step aside in favor of a five-person governing council, U.S. officials said. The one-page "Democratic Transition Framework for Venezuela" was presented Tuesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It echoes a proposal made over the weekend by Guaidó that shows how growing concerns about the coronavirus, which threatens to overwhelm the South American country's already collapsed health system and economy, are reviving U.S. attempts to pull the military apart from Maduro.
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| A Doctor Who Met Putin Just Tested Positive, and Russia’s COVID-19 Crackdowns Could Get Real Ugly. Posted: 31 Mar 2020 01:49 AM PDT  MOSCOW—Amid a growing uproar in newly locked-down Russia, news broke on Tuesday that a doctor President Vladimir Putin met with just a week ago during a highly publicized visit to a coronavirus treatment facility has now tested positive for the infection himself. Widely disseminated photos of the visit showed Putin donning an orange hazmat suit, but he had also talked to Dr. Denis Protsenko extensively without protection and photographs show them together with very little "social distancing."Putin's spokesman says the Russian president is tested frequently for coronavirus infection and is just fine. But the news is bound to shake a country already racked by uncertainty, fear, and not a little anger."You should find abandoned cells used to punish prisoners, cold ones with no food in them, lock them up there," Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov declared as the Russian Federation went into a nationwide lockdown over the weekend. He was telling his security force commanders how to treat those who disobeyed the curfew and quarantine orders. "Throw them in a big hole, bury them, let them die in it."Most Russian officials are not as blunt and brutal as Kadyrov, a Putin protégé and the point man for some of the more ruthless actions carried out in support of the president. But the coronavirus crisis has brought to the fore the grim authoritarian instincts of several leaders in what was once the Soviet Bloc. As their people try to find masks and rubber gloves to protect themselves, dictators are raising their iron fists, not least, to protect their regimes. Others are still trying to pretend there's no problem at the moment. The crackdowns will come later.One of the most stunning moves was taken in Hungary, a member of the European Union, where the parliament passed a bill giving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—one of Putin's closest EU soulmates—virtually unlimited powers to rule by decree; suspending parliament; canceling elections; threatening up to five years in prison for those who spread "fake new" and rumors (read, criticism of the regime); and up to eight years in prison for those who break the quarantine. All this for as long as Orbán wants. "And there it is," tweeted historian and columnist Anne Applebaum, "The European Union's first dictatorship. None of these powers is needed to fight the virus. But they will help distract and deter opposition, especially when it becomes clear that the government has no better plan."Here in the Russian capital the picture is more mixed, because Putin himself has sent messages to the public almost as confusing and contradictory as those of President Donald J. Trump in the United States.For weeks and months, as thousands began dying from the disease in China—then Italy, France, Spain, around the world and now with a vengeance in the United States—many epidemiologists warned COVID-19 will kill millions if drastic measures are not taken to stop it. But Russia delayed the actions needed to prevent the worst outbreak scenarios.Putin Worries Coronavirus Could Screw Up His Constitutional 'Coronation'It was obvious, as we reported, that President Vladimir Putin and his supporters did not want anything to interfere with a planned April 22 referendum to ratify his continued rule for at least another 16 years. It was also apparent that Russia did not want to let anything interfere with its May 9 Victory Day celebrations marking 75 years since the defeat of the Nazis. So the official number of infections in this country that borders the Chinese and European epicenters of the spreading plague remained implausibly low.Last week, the numbers caught up with the Kremlin, as cases became too numerous to deny, and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said flatly the infection rate was much higher than the government was admitting. The number of officially diagnosed Muscovites now exceeds 1,000, with at least nine people killed by the virus. On Tuesday last week, Russia's Channel One announced: "Our president is on the front lines of the main war on the planet, the war with coronavirus." Over the last two decades, Russians have seen Putin as a self-styled man of action mobilizing resources to make Russia stronger, richer, greater. TV channels showed the commander-in-chief in the cockpit of a fighter jet wearing a pilot's uniform. His shirtless shots became iconic. He even appeared to guide migrant birds as he flew an ultra-light aircraft. And now the country watched Putin in a bright yellow hazmat suit touring Moscow's new coronavirus hospital, although it appears he did not actually meet any coronavirus patients. Putin was giving the public its cue, once again, to follow the leader. And he did meet with the hospital's chief physician, Dr. Denis Protsenko, whose positive test for coronavirus was just announced this Tuesday.Protsenko, 44, sounded straightforward when he spoke to the BBC last week. He said he was convinced that Russia should be ready for the "Italian scenario," and that he personally was prepared to put diapers on and work 12 hours a day in intensive care units, like Chinese doctors did at the peak of the epidemic. "I personally would put Moscow on quarantine," he declared, adding with tact worthy of Trump advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, "The question is about the price for closing down."But in Putin's address to the nation the next day, he did not use the word "quarantine" at all. To the relief of many, he announced that nobody would have to go to work until April 5, but they would be paid, and nobody would have to go to the polls to vote for constitutional changes on April 22. The referendum would be postponed."If Putin made Russians go to polling stations next month, that would threaten thousands of lives; he is careful choosing his words now, he tries to secure his reputation," Ilya Yashin, a Moscow municipal deputy, told The Daily Beast.After coronavirus cases tripled in many Russian regions on Thursday, Putin ordered most public places closed, including city parks."If Russia's epidemics develop like the Italian scenario, which is quite possible, there will be no way for him to secure his reputation—the entire responsibility will be on the government," said Yashin. If that happens, one can expect even Putin himself to show the iron fist. But for the moment in the nation's capital that has not yet hammered down. And many Russians, a famously fatalistic people, appear unimpressed with the twin threats of tyranny and pandemic.On Sunday, most of the Russian capital's downtown was still open, and public transport as well. Bars were closed, but young people continued to hang out in hidden corners. Skateboarders focused on their kickflips, as if no epidemic mattered. A group of hipsters outside a still-open bookstore listened to a girl read aloud, her face pink in the light of sunset. The poem was one of Joseph Brodsky's: "They loved to sit together on a hillside..." Then on Sunday night, Russia slammed its doors a little harder, in a pattern now familiar to countries around the world: governments first try to persuade, and when that fails, as it usually does, they try to enforce the quarantines and distancing. A few hours before midnight Sunday night, authorities finally announced a complete lockdown for the capital and its 11 million residents. Police cars with loudspeakers began to order pedestrians to hurry back home: everyone in the city now had to stay in their apartments, leaving only for the closest grocery or drug store, or to walk a dog no more than 100 meters from home—the kinds of restrictions imposed in much of Western Europe for weeks now, and in Italy for more than a month. Moscow was joining the club of almost three billion self-isolating people around the globe. Moscow Mayor Sobyanin declared that the epidemic was entering "a new phase."Yet, as of Monday, authorities reported every fifth Muscovite violated the new regime. Even pro-Kremlin Russian experts said the measures came too late—with all the terrifying examples in the West to prove the point. "It was great we closed down Russia's border with China in January, but Moscow should have given people a week off from work earlier this month, and authorities should have banned all travel by trains and airplanes from Moscow to other regions," pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov told The Daily Beast on Monday morning. "That would have protected more than 55 regions, which are now also infected." By Monday afternoon, 71 out of 85 Russian regions had reported coronavirus cases—the epidemic is spreading around the world's largest country like windblown fire through dry grass, affecting its poorest and most vulnerable people even in remote corners of the federation.An infected resident who apparently contracted the disease on a trip to Cuba brought it to the remote town of Apatity, about 1,000 miles north of Moscow, in the Murmansk region. By the weekend, according to television reports, dozens of people in Apatity and nearby Kurskiy were checking into hospitals with coronavirus symptoms, so authorities had to shut down both towns for self-isolation on Monday.The sale of alcohol, wine as well as vodka, has jumped by at least 20 percent compared to March 2019. As for protection from the virus, there was none available. As happened in so many other countries, every pharmacy in town was out of masks and hand sanitizer. Yet many Russians found a kind of perverse courage by comparing what seemed the hypothetical threat of the virus with all too substantive difficulties and dangers of everyday life.A video clip of a song steeped in slavic fatalism mocked the pandemic. Russia is used to nightmares, it proclaimed: "First, our blood is full of alcohol, the whole of life is folded into a black hole; Authorities hypnotize us and sell us out, but we have no infected fellas in our favelas." Why be worried about COVID-19 if you risk being eaten by a bear or getting killed by a policeman, the authors say. "We lost all our ability to be afraid," the song concluded: "We don't give a shit." The polls reflect that sort of attitude. According to social research by Romir Holding, 54 percent of Russians do not believe in the danger of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, even now, the only man Russians listen to, commander of the coronavirus war Vladimir Putin, still has not given clear instructions about the deadly outbreak, or how to avoid getting infected. Nobody clearly predicted the scale of the epidemic's storm coming to Russia, nobody talked about the exponential growth of the outbreak in the United States and Europe except to crow as if Russia somehow were exempt.In announcing the week off, Putin did ask Russians not to rely on traditional "avos," the typical carelessness and fatalism traditional in the nation's approach to the dark promise of the future, but the message seems to have been taken with, well, fatalism and carelessness.Moscow is still in the early stages of the inevitable nightmare, when confusion and defiance mingle with fear. So hairdressers are still working, and without masks. Women are going to them without taking the slightest precautions. This, even as thousands of people who suspect they've been infected are calling a coronavirus hotline.Russia Claimed It Created a Coronavirus Cure, but It's an American Malaria DrugEarlier this week Yulia Galyamina, a Moscow politician and scientist lost her sense of smell, developed a fever, and felt weak. Those are all signs of infection. But as in other countries, she found it impossible to get a test unless she could prove she was at death's door. She called a doctor and the agency supervising tests, but they said they could do nothing for her. "A district [government] doctor said since I was not terribly sick, I could not get tested," Galyamina told The Daily Beast. "Private labs ask you not to show up if you have had symptoms in the past week." On Saturday, authorities admitted that 166,000 Russians are on a coronavirus watch list—not confirmed with infection, but suspected of having the contagion or of being at risk. That's a worrisome number. It suggests the observable cases are vastly higher than those confirmed, and again raises the question of why no clear determination had been made about many of them weeks ago."Moscow Mayor Sobyanin had guts to tell Putin right into his face on Tuesday that the real situation is much worse than the official reports say," Vladimir Ryzhkov, professor at the Higher School of Economics, told The Daily Beast. Earlier this month, Putin said that the situation with coronavirus was "under control." Authorities told Russians not to spread fake news about the pandemic threat. When there were still just a few cases of COVID-19 in Russia, Anastasia Kirilenko, The Insider's investigative reporter, heard tragic news from Novosibirsk: her 34-year-old cousin died of pneumonia. The Russian health system is in miserable shape in the regions, dozens of district clinics closed in rural remote towns all across the country in the past few years."Regional paramedics diagnosed my cousin, a young and healthy man, with acute respiratory viral infection but did not do an x-ray to check why he had a high temperature during the last month of his life," Kirilenko told The Daily Beast. "Now we wonder if my cousin had coronavirus just like thousands of other Russians who are said to have only pneumonia." Christopher Dickey also contributed to this article.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| India’s coronavirus emergency just beginning as lockdown threatens to turn into human tragedy Posted: 31 Mar 2020 12:08 PM PDT  A week after Narendra Modi ordered the largest national lockdown the planet has ever seen and Delhi's Bhogal market is little quieter than usual. Rather than being confined to home to stop the spread of Covid-19, large groups of residents instead huddle together in the shade, drinking tea and playing cards. Street vendors continue to hawk fresh fruit and vegetables and the police watch as daily life in the capital's backstreets continues, apparently content to enforce movement restrictions only on the capital's major thoroughfares. The failure to abide by the prime minister's decree is due to necessity, rather than defiance, said Muhammad Asif, 21, a cycle-rickshaw driver scanning the crowd for customers. The three-week-long social distancing precautions ordered by Mr Modi are an unaffordable luxury for tens of millions of daily-wage labourers.
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| Trump says Democrats' push for expanded voting threatens Republicans Posted: 30 Mar 2020 10:26 AM PDT  President Trump on Monday criticized attempts by Democrats in Congress to expand voting access for the presidential election in the fall, saying increased voter turnout would keep Republicans from getting elected.
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| Why Taiwan has become a problem for WHO Posted: 30 Mar 2020 10:23 PM PDT  Taiwan is effectively locked out of the World Health Organization - and tensions are rising.
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| The coronavirus is spreading quickly through Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities Posted: 30 Mar 2020 11:07 PM PDT  In Israel, the coronavirus is spreading in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities up to eight times faster than anywhere else in the country.Ultra-Orthodox Jews account for 12 percent of Israel's population, but they make up 40 to 60 percent of coronavirus patients at four of the country's largest hospitals, officials told Israeli media. Health experts said the virus is moving so quickly in these communities because the ultra-Orthodox have large families, don't trust the government, and pay little to no attention to secular media. Many are also still gathering for prayers and funerals, despite all Israelis being ordered to stay home.Bnei Brak is a suburb of Tel Aviv, and 95 percent of the population is ultra-Orthodox. On Friday, there were 267 confirmed coronavirus cases, and by Monday, that number climbed to 508. Several hundred mourners gathered in Bnei Brak on Saturday night for the funeral of a rabbi, prompting furious secular Israelis to call on the government to place Bnei Brak under curfew. On Monday, a New York Times journalist and photographer were told to leave a synagogue in the suburb where morning services were being held, and they walked past several groups meeting furtively for prayers.Bnei Brak has just one hospital, and its director general, Dr. Moti Ravid, told the Times he would like authorities to prohibit residents from leaving for at least one week, to slow down the coronavirus' spread. There are lots of small children living in the town, and "if they help to infect others, the result will be that many old people will die," he said.More stories from theweek.com Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is what real coronavirus leadership looks like Trump invoked the DPA 'hundreds of thousands of times' in his presidency before forcing GM to make ventilators USS Theodore Roosevelt captain says 'decisive action' is required to keep sailors safe from coronavirus
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| 'Sailors do not need to die': Captain of aircraft carrier hit by coronavirus outbreak begs Navy for more help Posted: 31 Mar 2020 08:47 AM PDT  The commanding officer told the Navy that the outbreak was worsening and called for the removal of almost the entire crew as soon as possible.
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| Some doctors are telling patients to switch from contact lenses to glasses to lower their risk of contracting the coronavirus Posted: 30 Mar 2020 09:23 AM PDT  Evidence suggests the coronavirus can enter the body through the eyes, so some eye doctors say glasses are safer.
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| Boy, 5, found dead near hiking trail after mother said they got lost Posted: 31 Mar 2020 07:24 AM PDT  After spending the night outdoors, the boy's mother left him to seek help on her own, authorities said.
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| US calls on Maduro and Guaidó to stand down in Venezuela transition plan Posted: 31 Mar 2020 10:56 AM PDT  * Plan includes five-member council and sanctions relief * Sceptics see little incentive for government leadersThe US has proposed a political transition plan for Venezuela, offering to lift sanctions if the president, Nicolás Maduro, and his opponent, Juan Guaidó, step aside and pass power to an interim government made up of their supporters.Under the "democratic transition framework", all political prisoners would be released, and all foreign – principally Cuban – forces would leave. A five-member council of state would be selected, with two members chosen by the opposition, two by Maduro's Socialist party, and the fifth member picked by the other four. The military high command would remain in place."The hope is that this set-up promotes the selection of people who are very broadly respected and known as people who can work with the other side," the US special representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, told the Associated Press.The US and EU would then lift sanctions on the current leadership. Broader sanctions on the country's oil business would be lifted after all foreign forces had left the country. All sanctions would be lifted after free elections, to be held within six to 12 months.The proposal comes five days after the US indicted Maduro and top members of his government and army for drug trafficking and money laundering, and as Venezuela faces blanket sanctions, a collapse in the price of oil, its main export, and the coronavirus pandemic, with a crippled health system."The United States has long been committed to finding a solution to the manmade crisis in Venezuela," the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said. "The urgency for this has become all the more serious in light of the Maduro regime's failure to adequately prepare for and address the global Covid-19 pandemic. This framework demonstrates our commitment to helping Venezuela fully recover and ensures that the voice of the Venezuelan people is respected and included."Sceptics of the plan said it provided few incentives for the incumbent officials to give up power, days after they were charged with serious offences and multimillion-dollar rewards put on their heads.Eliot Engel, the Democratic chair of the House foreign affairs committee, said: "Essentially, Maduro regime officials are being told on one hand that nothing they do will stop the US [Department of Justice] from pressing charges against them while on the other hand, they are being asked to agree to a transition government for unrelated sanctions relief.""The people of Venezuela cannot afford such a ham-handed approach. It's time to get serious about our Venezuela policy," Engel said.David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the deal was very similar to what was discussed by Maduro and Guaidó representatives in Oslo and Barbados last summer, with one major difference."Coming less than a week after indicting all the main figures of the Maduro government it would seem the Trump administration is trying to hardwire in who they think should be part of a transition," Smilde said on Twitter. "This was a main point of contention during last summer's negotiations, with the US reluctant to endorse any transition plan that allowed Maduro to preside over new elections."Briefing journalists on the new plan, a senior administration official said the US was prepared to negotiate with Maduro about the terms of his departure from office.But the official referred to the fate of Gen Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian dictator, who was indicted on drug smuggling charges in 1988 and then removed in a US invasion the next year."History shows that those who do not cooperate with US law enforcement agencies do not fare well, " the official said. "Maduro probably regrets not taking the offer six months ago. We urge Maduro not to regret not taking it now."
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| EU urges countries to open borders to seasonal farm workers Posted: 30 Mar 2020 06:59 AM PDT  EU countries should allow the hundreds of thousands of seasonal migrant workers who plant or harvest crops to cross borders despite national measures to contain the coronavirus, the European Commission said on Monday. Countries across the 27-nation European Union have set up border controls to stem the spread of the virus, but with the side effect of delaying food and medical supplies, as well as cross-border workers. The EU executive last week urged EU countries to limit to 15 minutes the time it takes for goods traffic to cross a border, reporting some success on Monday, although some crossings into and out of Hungary had jams of up to 4 km (2.5 miles).
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| China's Huawei warns more US pressure may spur retaliation Posted: 31 Mar 2020 01:06 AM PDT  Huawei's chairman warned Tuesday that more U.S. moves to increase pressure on the Chinese tech giant might trigger retaliation by Beijing that could damage its worldwide industry. Huawei Technologies Ltd., which makes smartphones and network equipment, reported that its 2019 sales rose by double digits despite curbs imposed in May on its access to U.S. components and technology. Huawei is at the center of tensions with Washington over China's technology ambitions and possible spying that helped to spark Trump's tariff war with Beijing in 2018.
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| India manhunt after Islamic gathering becomes virus hotspot Posted: 31 Mar 2020 06:08 AM PDT  A large religious gathering in New Delhi has sparked a manhunt across India for suspected coronavirus cases after being linked to dozens of infections and several deaths. The gathering emerged as one of India's major virus hotspots after thousands flocked to an Islamic religious centre in the Nizamuddin West neighbourhood of Delhi. Some returned home to other states after the gathering, but many remained in the vicinity, saying they were trapped because public transport had been shut down due to the virus.
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| Meet Candy Sterling, a fierce drag queen at night and a corporate professional by day Posted: 31 Mar 2020 11:26 AM PDT  This is Candy Sterling – a fierce drag queen who lights up the New York City nightlife while maintaining a professional day job. Get to know her both in and out of drag on this week's episode of Behind the Drag.
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| Editorial: California's wildfires aren't going to stay quarantined for coronavirus Posted: 31 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT  What's worse than power shutoffs during the coronavirus quarantine? An unplanned outage that sparks a wildfire.
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| Saudis Start to Unleash Oil Wave Despite U.S. Pressure Posted: 31 Mar 2020 06:47 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia has made good on its pledge to ramp up oil exports in April, with a first wave of crude already on its way toward Europe and the U.S., a clear sign the price war remains in full swing.The kingdom has loaded several of the supertankers it hired earlier this month to boost its ability to increase exports, according to ship-tracking data. In addition, Riyadh has used the last few weeks to shuttle large amounts of crude into storage in Egypt, a stepping stone to the European market.The movements suggest that Riyadh is ramping up its oil production toward its target of supplying a record 12.3 million barrels a day in April, up from about 9.7 million in February, despite American pressure to end the price war.Saudi Arabia earlier this month slashed its official selling prices and announced the output hike after Russia refused to join other nations inside the OPEC+ alliance to cut output. The announcement, interpreted in the market as an oil price war, sent Brent and West Texas Intermediate crudes tumbling. Since then, the collapse in oil demand due to lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus has depressed prices even more.In a sign that Riyadh is opening the valves, oil shipments have already surged in late March. For the first three weeks of March, Saudi Arabia was exporting at a rate of around 7 million barrels a day, but that jumped to more than 9 million barrels a day in the fourth week of the month.With oil prices at the lowest in nearly two decades, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo last week directly asked the kingdom to "rise to the occasion and reassure" the energy market, diplomatic language for ending the oil price war.American President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, agreed in a phone call Monday that "current oil prices aren't in the interests of our countries," according to a Kremlin spokesman, though he declined to say what might be done to change the situation.Trump earlier indicated that he was concerned about the impact of low oil prices on the American petroleum industry. In an interview on "Fox & Friends," he said Russia and Saudi Arabia "both went crazy" and started an oil price war.Despite the diplomatic pressure, Saudi Arabia is preparing to export more in the next few days. At least 16 very large crude carriers, collectively able to carry about 32 million barrels, are stationed near the Saudi oil terminals of Ras Tanura and Yanbu, according to shipping data tracked by Bloomberg."Regardless of the recent headlines about the U.S. pressuring Saudi Arabia, we do not see any change in Saudi or Russian policy for now," said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd., a London-based consultant.Riyadh has already loaded three supertankers that are likely to head to the U.S., and it's loading a fourth right now, according to oil market intelligence firm Vortexa Inc. The tankers, all hired by the Saudi national tanker company in the past few weeks to boost its shipping capacity, include the Dalian, the Agios Sostis I, the Maran Canopus, and the Hong Kong Spirit.Shipments to EgyptAlready through March, Saudi Arabia has exported about 1.3 million barrels a day into Egypt -- the highest level in at least three years -- to pre-position crude for re-export into Europe, according to shipping tracking data compiled by Bloomberg and people familiar with the operation.The surge in shipments to Egypt was so large that the African nation may become the largest destination for Saudi crude in March, displacing China and Japan, which traditionally top the ranking every month.The cargoes have gone to a terminal at the south end of the Suez Canal before getting pumped via pipeline across the country to a storage and export facility called Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean Sea. From there, the crude will then get re-exported as part of Saudi Arabia's plan to supply as much as it can, at deep discounts, into a market that doesn't need the supply. The world's largest oil tankers, known as VLCCs, cannot sail the Suez Canal fully loaded due to draft limitations.The next sign of whether the oil price war continues will come around April 5, when state-owned Saudi Aramco is expected to release its monthly official selling prices for May. Oil refiners and traders believe that Riyadh will have to deepen its discounts to sell all the oil the kingdom wants. If Aramco does indeed deepen the discounts, it will trigger a fresh round of tit-for-tat actions with other oil producing nations, piling further pressure on prices.(Updates with statement from Kremlin in seventh paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Women who left N.Y. for China amid U.S. coronavirus outbreak document their journey Posted: 31 Mar 2020 11:20 AM PDT  "Because we're kind of in between these two cultures, we also understand both. So it feels like our experience could speak to both of the audiences."
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| 'Best they can get' or more 'politics than policy?' U.S. offers Venezuela a deal Posted: 31 Mar 2020 02:00 PM PDT  A former senior U.S. government official says it's the "best" deal they can get, while an analyst said this is more about "politics than policy."
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| U.S. House Speaker Pelosi will not take coronavirus test Posted: 31 Mar 2020 06:09 AM PDT  U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday she does not plan to be tested for coronavirus despite her proximity to the latest lawmaker diagnosed with the illness. U.S. Representative Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat from New York, said on Monday that she had been diagnosed with a presumed case of coronavirus after developing symptoms of the ailment on Sunday, although she had not been tested. Velazquez was in the Capitol on Friday and attended a ceremony at which Pelosi signed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus response plan.
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| Syria: Air defenses down missiles from Israeli warplanes Posted: 31 Mar 2020 11:22 AM PDT |
| Putin sending medical supplies to help U.S. fight coronavirus: IFX Posted: 31 Mar 2020 12:47 PM PDT  Russia is sending the United States medical equipment to help fight the coronavirus outbreak, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. President Vladimir Putin made the proposal in a phone conversation with President Donald Trump on Monday, when they discussed the coronavirus and oil markets, directing their energy ministers to speak. "Trump gratefully accepted this humanitarian aid," Interfax quoted Peskov as saying.
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| What comes after social distancing? Scientists are proposing a massive test-and-trace effort requiring 'tens of thousands of people' Posted: 30 Mar 2020 10:50 AM PDT  Scientists are certainly on board with social distancing as a method to put a dent in the novel coronavirus pandemic, but they also acknowledge other measures will eventually have to take over as restrictions ease, Vox reports."The classic epidemiological approach to controlling disease is not to shut down society; it's to target the people you know to have the disease and understand who they're spreading it to," said Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development. Right now, that's not possible in the United States, because there isn't an adequate amount of testing, but "once you bring the numbers back to a manageable level," Konyndyk said, expansive testing and contact tracing should become the prominent methods for suppressing the virus' spread. It won't be easy, however. Caitlin Rivers, a professor at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said "it's very labor-intensive to find contact of people who are sick" in part because one aspect of contact tracing is continually checking on people to see if they've become sick themsleves. Kondynyk said such an enterprise would take "tens of thousands" of health care workers, if not more. That likely means at least some social distancing measures should remain in place simultaneously.Scientists, though, are concerned that they're not seeing a test-and-trace vision coming from the federal government, so it remains unclear if "textbook epidemiology" will have its day. Read more at Vox.More stories from theweek.com Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is what real coronavirus leadership looks like Relax about Biden Fox News reportedly fears its early downplaying of COVID-19 leaves it open to lawsuits
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| More than 70% of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 had at least 1 underlying health condition, the CDC says — here's the breakdown Posted: 31 Mar 2020 02:37 PM PDT  Diabetes, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease were the most commonly reported preexisting conditions among US coronavirus patients.
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| Mexican president flouts coronavirus protocol to shake hands with mother of 'El Chapo' Posted: 30 Mar 2020 04:22 PM PDT  Mexican President Andres Lopez Obrador angered many when he shook hands with the mother of notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
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| Coronavirus: 'I don't want a flight voucher, where's my refund?' Posted: 31 Mar 2020 07:34 AM PDT  The airlines' trade body wants to give vouchers for cancelled flights but passengers are unhappy.
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| India cracks down on Muslim groups emerging as coronavirus clusters Posted: 31 Mar 2020 08:04 AM PDT 
India is in a state of national lockdown and authorities are now clamping down on religious gatherings, some of which have continued despite the strict health warnings. The headquarters of a Muslim missionary group were the latest to be sealed off on Tuesday (March 31) after the country's health minister revealed at least 24 people who took part one such gathering at a mosque New Delhi tested positive for the coronavirus. As many as 1,500 Muslims from India and other countries had attended a congregation of Islamic preachers amid the nationwide lockdown, out of which several developed coronavirus-like symptoms. Authorities evacuated over 1,000 people from the area where the congregation was held, health authorities said. The area was later cordoned off by police. Prior to the health crisis, Muslims in India were already facing tense times, due to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's controversial citizenship bill which critics have described as anti-Muslim. Last week, Modi ordered the country's 1.3 billion people to remain indoors until at least April 15, saying the lockdown would hopefully stop the coronavirus pandemic. However, tens of thousands of out-of-work migrants are apparently undermining the restrictions by fleeing cities and heading to the countryside.
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| The stimulus check won't be in the mail for Americans who owe child support Posted: 31 Mar 2020 05:55 AM PDT  But back taxes or late student loan payments don't disqualify people from getting the full amount they're eligible for.
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| U.S. is swiftly deporting migrant children at the border Posted: 30 Mar 2020 07:23 PM PDT  "Despite everything I experienced along the way, they deported me the next day," one indigenous teenager from Guatemala told CBS News.
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| Defense lawyer in death of 7 motorcyclists: Biker at fault Posted: 31 Mar 2020 10:33 AM PDT  One of the motorcyclists in a crash that killed him and six fellow bikers on a north woods highway was drunk and actually was the one who hit a pickup and caused the accident, the lawyer for the truck driver charged with homicide said in a document made public Tuesday. A New Hampshire State Police account of the June 21 crash in the community of Randolph "was deeply flawed," the lawyer for truck driver Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 24, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, said in a motion filed Friday that seeks a hearing to set him free on bail. State police initially determined that the flatbed trailer he was hauling was 1 1/2 feet over the center line at the time of impact, the motion said.
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| Britain names new MI5 chief: the spy who investigated 2018 Novichok attack Posted: 30 Mar 2020 03:30 AM PDT |
| The FBI Can’t Be Trusted With the Surveillance of Americans Posted: 31 Mar 2020 02:05 PM PDT |
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