- WorldYahoo News
A timeline of Trump's missed opportunities on coronavirus
U.S. intelligence officials with the National Center for Medical Intelligence issued a report in November warning that a virus was taking root in China, ABC News reported Wednesday. Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,” a source inside the government told ABC, and the report was shared with the White House, the Pentagon's Joint Staff and the Defense Intelligence Agency. It is unclear whether Trump was ever briefed on the NCMI report, but sources who spoke to ABC described multiple briefings about the report throughout December for “policymakers” as well as officials at the National Security Council and the White House.
- WorldYahoo News
Coronavirus is ushering in a new wave of racially motivated attacks, warns intelligence bulletin
Federal agencies are concerned that domestic extremists could use the coronavirus pandemic to attack Asians and Jews, according to a joint intelligence bulletin obtained by Yahoo News. That bulletin mirrors what organizations that monitor online hate content are also finding. The bulletin, a joint effort of the Department of Justice, the National Counterterrorism Center and the Department of Homeland Security, is dated April 7.
- U.S.Yahoo News
Doctors rethinking coronavirus: Are we using ventilators the wrong way?
One doctor who has been treating COVID-19 patients at a New York-area hospital says there's no reason to believe it would work. Marik acknowledged that the World Health Organization has advised against the use of corticosteroids to treat viral pneumonia in patients with COVID-19 (except in clinical trials) citing previous studies on other viral diseases like SARS and MERS, which found insufficient evidence that the drugs were effective. But Marik's view encapsulates a growing suspicion among doctors treating COVID-19 that the disease has some novel features that may require a unique approach.
- U.S.Associated Press
As virus kills, NYC shortens deadline for claiming dead
As New York City deals with a mounting coronavirus death toll and dwindling morgue space, the city has shortened the amount of time it will hold unclaimed remains before they are buried in the city's public cemetery. Under the new policy, the medical examiner's office will keep bodies in storage for just 14 days before they're buried in the city's potter's field on Hart Island. In recent days, though, burial operations have increased from one day a week to five days a week, with around 24 burials each day, said Department of Correction spokesman Jason Kersten.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
Navy secretary's flight out to an aircraft carrier to bash its fired captain cost taxpayers $243,000
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Jake McClung The former acting Navy secretary's trip out to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt to deliver a speech critical of its former captain to the crew cost taxpayers $243,000, USA Today first reported. The carrier is currently at port in Guam, where the crew is working to get a coronavirus outbreak aboard the ship under control. The acting Navy's secretary's 35-hour round-trip flight aboard one of the service's executive jets cost $6,946.19 per hour, bringing the exact total to $243,116.65.
- U.S.BBC
Coronavirus: New York has more cases than any country
New York state now has more coronavirus cases than any other country outside the US, according to latest figures. While New York state leads the world in coronavirus cases, its death toll (7,000) lags behind Spain (15,500) and Italy (18,000), though it is more than double the official figure from China (3,300). Photos have emerged of workers in hazmat outfits burying coffins in a mass grave in New York City.
- WorldReuters
Cases of novel coronavirus in Russia surge past 10,000 after record daily rise
Russia on Thursday reported a record one-day rise in cases of novel coronavirus, pushing the official tally to more than 10,000, a day after President Vladimir Putin said the coming weeks would prove decisive in the fight against the virus. The number of cases jumped by 1,459 and 13 more people died, the national coronavirus crisis response centre said on its website. Moscow, the worst-affected region, and many other regions are in their second week of a partial lockdown.
WorldAFPPakistan shoots down Indian drone as Kashmir tensions rise
Pakistan's army said Thursday it had shot down a small Indian surveillance drone in Kashmir, as tensions rose over continued cross-border shelling in the disputed territory. According to a statement from the army media wing, the Indian quadcopter -- about the same size as a commercially available hobby drone -- had crossed 600 metres (650 yards) over the de facto border known as the Line of Control (LoC). "This blatant act was aggressively responded to by Pakistan Army troops shooting down Indian quadcopter," the statement read.
- WorldNBC News
U.K. truck driver pleads guilty in deaths of Vietnamese migrants found in container
A truck driver accused in the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants whose bodies were found inside a refrigerated container that had been hauled to England pleaded guilty to manslaughter Wednesday. Maurice Robinson, 25, of Craigavon in Northern Ireland, entered the plea at Central London Criminal Court. Police investigating the case found the 31 male and eight female victims were all from Vietnam and ranged in age from 15 to 44, including 10 teenagers.
- U.S.Yahoo News
New Yahoo News/YouGov coronavirus poll shows Americans turning against Trump
With more than 400,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 14,000 deaths in the United States, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Americans are souring on President Trump's leadership during the pandemic. After a brief period during which some polls found more Americans approving of Trump's coronavirus response than not, half of them (50 percent) now disapprove, according to the Yahoo News/YouGov survey, compared to only 42 percent who approve. The public figure who has earned the highest approval ratings for his work on the pandemic is Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert on the White House coronavirus task force.
- WorldYahoo News Video
Wuhan ends its coronavirus lockdown, but another Chinese city shutdown emerges
The Chinese city where the new coronavirus emerged ended its more-than two-month lockdown on Wednesday, even as a small northern city ordered restrictions on residents amid concern about a second wave of infections.
- HealthYahoo News
This is what I want my friends to do if they have COVID-19 symptoms and are asked to go to the ER
Ashita S. Batavia, MD, MSc, is a board-certified infectious diseases specialist and public health expert with extensive experience in treating epidemics. In my state, New York, our hospital systems are being strained in unprecedented ways. As a frontline infectious diseases doctor, this is what I want my friends and neighbors to do if they have COVID-19 symptoms and are asked to go to the emergency room.
- BusinessAssociated Press
Hamas arrests Gaza activists after Zoom call with Israelis
Hamas-run security forces have arrested several peace activists in the Gaza Strip on treason charges after they took part in a web conference with Israeli activists, officials said Thursday. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the activists are accused of “holding a normalization activity with the Israeli occupation.” “Holding any activity or contact with the Israeli occupation under any cover is a crime punishable by law and a betrayal for the people and their sacrifices,” it said in a statement.
- WorldBusiness Insider
In South Africa, a government minister lost her salary for eating lunch in the wrong place
Jeffrey Abrahams/Gallo Images via Getty Images South Africa has been under strict lockdown since March 27, despite only a small number of Covid-19 deaths in that country. No-one is allowed out for exercise, and the sale of alcohol, cigarettes, and clothing has been banned. The country's president has just sanctioned a government minister for visiting a friend's house.
- WorldNational Review
Japan to Pay Companies to Move Production Out of China
Japan will devote more than $2.2 billion of its coronavirus economic stimulus package to incentivize its manufacturers to move their production out of China as relations fray between the neighboring countries in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The record stimulus plan provides $2 billion for manufacturers to transfer production to Japan and over $216 million to help companies move production to other countries. Imports from China, Japan's biggest trading partner, were down by nearly 50 percent in February as facilities in China closed while the coronavirus ripped through the country.
- WorldReuters
India says lockdown has spared it from overwhelming number of coronavirus cases
The Indian government on Thursday claimed initial success in its fight against the coronavirus epidemic, saying it would have been hit with 820,000 cases by next week had it not imposed a nationwide lockdown. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to order 1.3 billion Indians indoors for three weeks in the world's biggest lockdown has helped slow the infection rate, foreign ministry additional secretary Vikas Swarup said, even though it has exacted a heavy toll on the economy and on the hundreds of million of poor. By the middle of April, the caseload would have touched 820,000, he said, citing an internal assessment of the government's Indian Council of Medical Research, far more than the country's underfunded and decrepit public health system could handle.
- WorldBBC
EU agrees €500bn coronavirus rescue package
EU finance ministers have agreed a €500bn (£440bn) rescue package for European countries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. The chairman of the Eurogroup, Mário Centeno, announced the deal, reached after marathon discussions in Brussels. It comes as Spain's prime minister said the country was close to passing the worst of its coronavirus outbreak.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
Tour More of the Toronto Home of Superstar Recording Artist Drake
Superstar Drake goes home to Toronto to build his eye-popping pleasure dome Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- U.S.The Daily Beast
Trump’s Fox News Cabinet Tells Him the Coronavirus Crisis Is Over
Throughout Tuesday night's primetime stretch, Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham were in lockstep in telegraphing to Trump a message that the pandemic's threat has been overstated, death counts have been inflated, and the U.S. is already on the downside of the curve. Carlson, who received mainstream plaudits for his “admirable” early coronavirus coverage, kicked off his show by declaring that the crisis “may have passed,” noting that health-care systems across the country haven't come close to collapsing—“except in a handful of places. Patients are not dying alone in the hallways of emergency rooms with physicians too overwhelmed to treat them,” he asserted.
WorldAFPTaliban protest as Kabul releases another 100 insurgents
The Afghan government said it would release another 100 Taliban inmates Thursday, even though the insurgents have walked out of talks over a comprehensive prisoner swap and dismissed Kabul's piecemeal freeing of captives as "unacceptable". The administration of President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday released 100 low-risk Taliban prisoners who had vowed never to return to the battlefield, and officials said the same number of insurgents with similar profiles would be set free Thursday. The releases come as Ghani faces an ongoing political crisis, US fury over a floundering peace process and a growing coronavirus epidemic in Afghanistan, where officials fear the disease could run riot through the country's prisons.
- U.S.NBC News
Texas teen accused of threatening to spread coronavirus is charged
A Texas teenager who police said announced on social media she would intentionally spread the coronavirus has been arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat. Police in Carrollton, near Dallas, arrested Lorraine Maradiaga, 18, late Tuesday morning after arranging her surrender to the city jail. "Maradiaga has stated that she is COVID-19 negative, and we currently have no proof that Maradiaga has tested positive," Carrollton police said in a statement.
- U.S.Associated Press
California governor encouraged by drop in ICU placements
California saw its first daily decrease in intensive care hospitalizations during the coronavirus outbreak, a key indicator of how many health care workers and medical supplies the state needs, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday. The rate of all virus hospitalizations has slowed this week. Those in the ICU need the highest level of care, and so it was particularly encouraging that the number of patients in those rooms actually dropped 1.9% on Wednesday to 1,132.
- HealthBusiness Insider
Experts warn that there is no proof the coronavirus will stop spreading in warmer weather
A recently released report indicates that the studies published so far on potential seasonal effects have conflicting results and are hampered by weak data. While springtime may bring hope of life returning to normal in the Northern Hemisphere, scientists don't think people should bet on warm weather alone being enough to stop the coronavirus from spreading at alarming rates. There have been several studies on how a change in temperature could affect the coronavirus.
- ScienceCBS News
This is how coughing can spread coronavirus in a store, according to researchers
Research from Finland attempts to show how fast and far a single cough can spread the kind of aerosol particles that carry the new coronavirus through a typical grocery store. A digital model built by Aalto University in Finland, using data gathered by researchers there and at three other research institutes, was released with a warning: "It is important to avoid busy public indoor spaces." Aalto University, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the University of Helsinki all conducted the same digital modeling experiment independently, and they all got pretty much the same preliminary data.
- WorldReuters
New York state reports more coronavirus cases than any country except the U.S.: Reuters tally
The U.S. state has 149,316 reported cases compared with Spain at 146,690. In total, the United States has recorded over 417,000 cases and 14,100 deaths, according to the Reuters tally. European countries, including hardest-hit Italy and Spain, have started looking ahead to easing lockdowns but their coronavirus-related fatality rates have fluctuated after initially showing a decline.
“The bleakest one-time jobs data in American history shows why even a $2 trillion rescue bill can't save the economy.”
“Lawmakers got it roughly right with the fiscal stimulus deal. It will go a long way to cushion the economic blow from COVID-19.”
“The bill plunges the nation into a crash course on experimental economics — and we’re the lab rats.”
“The new measure may be incomplete, but it offers stability to Americans who desperately need it.”
“To prevent a depression, the relief payments have to get to workers and business owners fast.”
