| Pressure grows on Trump to invoke Defense Production Act for coronavirus response Posted: 17 Mar 2020 05:47 PM PDT  President Trump said Tuesday he was not prepared to invoke the authorities to allow the government to ensure that the private sector can ramp up production of emergency medical supplies, despite a growing chorus of voices urging him to do so.
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| One chart shows how South Korea got its coronavirus outbreak under control in less than a month Posted: 18 Mar 2020 11:43 AM PDT  South Korea seems to have curbed its coronavirus outbreak. The number of daily confirmed cases peaked on February 29 and has decreased ever since.
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| Coronavirus travel restrictions lead to a new record for world's longest flight in distance Posted: 18 Mar 2020 06:25 AM PDT  The coronavirus has resulted in the world's longest flight in distance: Air Tahiti Nui's one-off nonstop flight from Papeete to Paris on Sunday.
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| Hawley Calls for ‘Full, International Investigation’ into China’s Coronavirus Coverup Posted: 18 Mar 2020 08:22 AM PDT  Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) on Wednesday warned the Chinese Communist Party that it would have "to pay" for its attempts to coverup the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, and called for a "full, international investigation" to get to the bottom of the situation."There needs to be a full, international investigation of China Communist Party's actions that helped turn coronavirus COVID19 into a global pandemic," Hawley tweeted Wednesday morning.> There needs to be a full, international investigation of China Communist Party's actions that helped turn coronavirus COVID19 into a global pandemic - and China needs to be prepared to pay other countries for the havoc the CCP has unleashed https://t.co/u1Uo0H0PTj> > -- Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 18, 2020The freshman senator was referencing a story that Beijing has attempted to drown out with a propaganda campaign. China on Tuesday stripped press passes from reporters at the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post who were stationed in China and Hong Kong, its latest action to escape accountability and international censure over its handling the outbreak.In December, genomics laboratories in Wuhan sequenced coronavirus and discovered it closely resembled the deadly SARS virus which broke out in 2002-2003, but were subsequently gagged by authorities, who ordered them to turn over or destroy the samples.Hawley, a China hawk who slammed the regime for its crackdown on Hong Kong protestors in the fall, has been vocal in recent months as the coronavirus pandemic grew. He sent a letter in January to the heads of four government agencies to ask whether the Trump administration was considering any potential Chinese travel ban to prevent an American outbreak of the coronavirus — a move the White House made soon after.Last month, the senator introduced legislation to reorient medical supply chains and to reduce reliance on China for the manufacture of certain prescription drugs and other medical supplies.
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| The Best Gifts Like a Smart Coffee Machine for Mom on Mother’s Day Posted: 17 Mar 2020 12:18 PM PDT |
| Putin is being protected from coronavirus around the clock, says Kremlin Posted: 18 Mar 2020 05:17 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin is being protected from coronavirus around the clock, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, saying all Kremlin staff involved in his events schedule were undergoing mandatory testing for the virus. "Everything needed to protect the president from viruses and other illnesses is being done around the clock," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov has previously declined to say whether Putin has been tested for coronavirus, but has said that the president's medical care is of an exceptionally high level.
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| Embattled Netanyahu Makes a Coronavirus Power Grab Posted: 18 Mar 2020 12:39 PM PDT  JERUSALEM—Using the coronavirus crisis as cover, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making a power grab unprecedented in Israeli history, and the example may be relevant to other countries as the crisis grows.Japan Shows Coronavirus May Be a Gift—for Would-Be DictatorsHis government effectively shut down the Israeli judiciary in the dead of night last Sunday when Justice Minister Amir Ohana, a Netanyahu confidant, decreed that the court system would operate at a reduced capacity, as it would in a state of emergency, which has not yet been declared nationwide. The first consequence of Ohana's move was to postpone by two months Netanyahu's trial on corruption charges, which had been scheduled to open on March 17.On Wednesday, Yuli Edelstein, the speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, refused to convene the house on the grounds that doing so could harm efforts to establish a government of national unity to solve the political stalemate which has paralyzed Israel for over a year.With the judiciary and the parliament effectively neutralized, Netanyahu—who failed to win reelection in the Israeli elections after his third try, on March 2—is ruling the nation more or less by fiat.At 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Netanyahu used emergency powers to order unilaterally the Israeli internal security agency, the Shin Bet, to deploy cellphone monitoring technology to trace the movements of citizens diagnosed with the coronavirus— or those suspected of being carriers.The extent of the decree is not fully detailed, but it allows the government access to an unknown amount of information regarding an unknown number of citizens. It's supposed to be reviewed—maybe a few weeks from now.Netanyahu has served as a caretaker prime minister since December 2018, through three unresolved elections which left him and his top opponent, the centrist former armed forces chief of staff, Benny Gantz, without sufficient parliamentary support to establish a government.In the most serious political reversal Netanyahu has faced yet, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday tasked Gantz with forming Israel's next government, after Gantz assembled a greater number of parliamentary supporters than the prime minister in the last round of elections, two weeks ago.On Wednesday, a majority of Gantz's fragile alliance of 61 seats out of the 120-member Knesset barricaded themselves in the building—respecting health ministry recommendations on social distancing—as Edelstein refused to seat the house.Historian Gershom Goremberg, the author of The Unmaking of Israel on the crisis of Israeli democracy, tweeted that "the only recorded death so far in Israel from this virus was the already aging, highly vulnerable democracy."The Israeli government has been widely lauded for its handling of the crisis, which included severe border restrictions and widespread quarantines from the start. Israel has suffered no fatalities, and for now has reported 347 diagnoses.On Wednesday, Israel barred all foreign citizens from entering the country.As Easter and Passover Approach, the Holy Land's Coronavirus Lockdown BeginsIn an interview with The Daily Beast, Goremberg was blunt: "The prime minister and the Knesset speaker are using the health crisis to evade the outcome of the election and remain in power despite the fact that a majority voted to remove them from power.""The caretaker prime minister is using the crisis to postpone his own trial," said Goremberg. "These are pretty serious challenges to basic democratic order. It feels like the combination of a global health crisis, and the negative electoral results, from Netanyahu's point of view, not to mention his upcoming trial, have pushed Netanyahu and his cronies to lose all inhibitions about undermining the democratic process."In a statement Wednesday night, Gantz announced that his Blue and White party would file a supreme court petition demanding the Knesset be convened. "However big the health and economic crisis, we cannot allow it to eat away at the foundations of our democracy," he said.Gantz accused Netanyahu and Edelstein, both members of the right-wing Likud party, of a naked power grab."The Likud doesn't have a majority in the Knesset, so they want to shut it down."The Israeli Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the electronic tracking order this week, and is expected to expedite its hearing on the matter of the Knesset.President Rivlin, also a Likud member, warned Edelstein that stopping regular parliamentary order was harming Israel's ability to function during an emergency.The coronavirus crisis, Rivlin said, should not be used "to critically damage our democratic infrastructure.""Blue and White want to commandeer the Knesset to undemocratic ends," Netanyahu claimed in a statement.Noting that Israel was traversing "a very difficult, unprecedented moment," Mordechai Kremnitzer, a professor of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an expert on constitutional law, cautioned against the use of the words "coup d'état" in Israel's case. He defined Netanyahu's power grab instead as "an attempt to hold on to power, and remain in power, for as long as possible, with the ultimate aim of ridding himself of the trial."Netanyahu was not using violent means, Kremnitzer said in an interview."I don't think that a group of people including Netanyahu and Edelstein gathered around and said, 'Let's take control of the Israeli government through illegal means.' I don't think there was a meeting." So, in that sense not a conspiracy. "They are still trying to cover their actions with a mantle of legality," said Kremnitzer. "They care that it all looks proper."At least, for now.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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| Jalisco New Generation drug cartel spreads nationwide across Mexico Posted: 18 Mar 2020 07:31 AM PDT  A fast-rising criminal cartel in Mexico is expanding nationwide after beginning from the outskirts of Mexico City.
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| 'I'm married to an Asian': Kellyanne Conway responds to criticism of a White House official reportedly calling the coronavirus the 'Kung-flu' Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:15 AM PDT  Conway made the remark in response to reporters questioning Trump's use of the term "China virus" and a White House official calling the virus "the Kung-flu."
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| India political activist arrested for selling cow urine to combat virus Posted: 18 Mar 2020 05:06 PM PDT  An activist with India's ruling party has been arrested after a volunteer fell ill from drinking cow urine at a party to combat the novel coronavirus, police said Wednesday, as interest grows in home remedies amid the pandemic. Narayan Chatterjee, a Bharatiya Janata Party activist, was arrested by West Bengal state police late Tuesday for "organising the cow urine consumption event and compelling a civic volunteer to drink cow urine", Kolkata police chief Anuj Sharma told AFP. Many in the Hindu-majority nation of 1.3 billion consider cows sacred and believe drinking cow urine is a panacea for all manner of ailments, from arthritis and asthma to cancer and diabetes.
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| Editorial: Coronavirus makes jails and prisons potential death traps. That puts us all in danger Posted: 18 Mar 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Soap is restricted and hand sanitizer is contraband at correctional facilities. We need to stop admitting people accused of low-level crimes.
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| Farewell to the Pro-Life Democrats Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:33 AM PDT  In Illinois last night, abortion-rights advocate Marie Newman unseated pro-life representative Dan Lipinski in the Democratic primary for the third congressional district. Based on ratings from anti-abortion groups, Lipinski was the last remaining stalwart pro-lifer among Democratic politicians in Congress.It is a symbolic end to an era that really ended a long time ago, a time when Democratic politicians could vote against taxpayer-funded abortion and in favor of abortion restrictions without being ousted from their seats, and when the party's leadership acknowledged and welcomed pro-life voters whose views on other issues aligned them with the party.With Lipinski's loss, there is no longer even the slightest bit of room for Democrats to give themselves cover on this issue, and they appear not to mind. The Democratic Party is, at the national level, filled with politicians who support abortion on demand, at any stage of pregnancy, for any reason, funded by the U.S. taxpayer.This is dramatically out of step with most Americans, only 13 percent of whom favor allowing elective abortion in the last three months of pregnancy and nearly three-quarters of whom would limit abortion to the first three months or to cases of rape or incest, or not permit it at all. It is also out of step with most Democrats, only 18 percent of whom would allow third-trimester abortion. A full 30 percent of Democrats call themselves pro-life.Instead of being accommodated or reassured, these Democrats are explicitly told by the politicians seeking to represent them that their views have no place in their own party — a curious election strategy.In 2017, Democratic leaders derided Bernie Sanders when he endorsed Heath Mello for mayor of Omaha, Neb., after abortion-advocacy groups dubbed Mello "anti-choice" for having backed a law requiring doctors to give women the option to view a fetal ultrasound prior to abortion (hardly a stringent anti-abortion law, though it is revealing that abortion supporters opposed it).A lot can change in three years. Last month, Sanders declared during a town hall that "being pro-choice is an essential part of being a Democrat." Former presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg made the same assessment in January, telling Kristen Day, director of the beleaguered Democrats for Life, that he would not budge an inch on the issue. (Day, for the record, did not ask Buttigieg to change his position on abortion but rather to "support more-moderate platform language . . . to ensure that the party of diversity, of inclusion really does include everybody." It took him several minutes to get around to saying, in essence, "Keep dreaming.")What, then, is a pro-life Democrat to do? And what happened to the party that used to feature men like Dan Lipinski and his pro-life Democratic father Bill, one or the other of whom has represented the third congressional district in Illinois since 1983?Here an anecdote might be helpful. In 1992, Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Bob Casey Sr., was slated to speak at the party's national convention in New York City but in the end was not permitted to do so. Though Democrats have since contended that this was because he had not endorsed the presidential ticket, contemporaneous reporting shows that it was in fact because he intended to speak about his opposition to abortion, at a time when the party was beginning more uniformly to embrace abortion rights. It was Casey who went to the Supreme Court in 1992 to defend his state's regulations on abortion clinics, losing in the landmark case Planned Parenthood v. Casey that currently governs abortion jurisprudence.Today, Casey's son, Bob Casey Jr., serves as a Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, and in recent years has received a 100 percent score from NARAL Pro-Choice America for his voting record on abortion rights.The Democratic Party has been on this trajectory for a long time, driven in no small part by its desire for the financial backing and public-relations acclaim of powerful actors such as NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and the conglomerate of women's media groups that writer and former editor of Ladies' Home Journal Myrna Blyth christened the "Spin Sisters.""Reproductive rights is the issue that all women must care and agree about," Blyth wrote in her 2004 book Spin Sisters of these publications and their ability to drive public opinion. "To keep the support of the Spin Sisters, politicians may not stray even a hair from the Planned Parenthood position."Though the Democratic allegiance to unlimited legal abortion surely has something to do with the millions of campaign dollars that flow from abortion-advocacy groups, it has perhaps even more to do with the optics of the issue, with the fact that Planned Parenthood and its media allies could sound the death knell for a campaign by deeming a Democrat "anti-choice" for doing something as anodyne as supporting a woman's right to be offered the chance to view an ultrasound. (It was, for instance, primarily these groups that funded and championed Newman's campaign to unseat Lipinski.)State politics confirm this theory, where pro-life Democrats continue to reelect pro-life Democratic politicians who enact anti-abortion laws, out of reach of the national abortion-advocacy apparatus. In Louisiana, Democratic legislator Katrina Jackson sponsored a bill, currently facing a challenge at the Supreme Court, to extend existing safety measures to abortion clinics. That bill, along with a heartbeat bill banning abortion after six weeks' gestation, was signed into law by the state's Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards. In West Virginia earlier this month, Democratic lawmakers helped to pass a born-alive bill, requiring doctors to care for newborn infants who survive an abortion procedure.These proposals have no hope of passing Congress, where the consistent leftward shift of the Democratic Party has left pro-life liberals like Dan Lipinski, and all the voters who valued his leadership, without a home.
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| Nigeria bans entry to arrivals from 13 countries to combat coronavirus Posted: 18 Mar 2020 04:19 AM PDT |
| Israel parliament speaker shuts Knesset, enraging opposition Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:21 AM PDT  Israel's Knesset speaker Wednesday abruptly adjourned all parliamentary meetings until next week, apparently a response to the new coronavirus, in a move that froze opposition efforts to discuss bills seeking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ouster. The decision drew angry accusations from Netanyahu's opponents that the embattled prime minister is using the coronavirus crisis to cement his hold on power. Netanyahu's rival vowed to challenge the parliamentary delay in the Supreme Court, while Israel's president warned the country's democratic system was being threatened.
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| 'Dark moment': Delta, United, JetBlue slash more flights as coronavirus crisis deepens Posted: 18 Mar 2020 11:49 AM PDT  The coronavirus travel fallout is deepening so rapidly airlines are increasing their flight cuts and making plans to park planes.
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| New York mayor says 'shelter in place' decision coming in next 48 hours Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:34 AM PDT  Mayor Bill de Blasio in recent days has made sweeping declarations to close schools through April 20, limit restaurant service and halt other forms of entertainment.
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| California governor tells the state's National Guard to prepare as coronavirus cases in the state hit 740 Posted: 18 Mar 2020 08:10 AM PDT  The action is not a mobilization order but instead directs troops to prepare in case of activation into local communities.
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| Samoan chief guilty of slavery in New Zealand Posted: 17 Mar 2020 11:53 AM PDT  Joseph Auga Matamata lured victims with promises of a better life but beat them and kept their money.
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| Bernie Sanders to ‘assess’ his campaign after suffering yet another bruising defeat to Joe Biden Posted: 18 Mar 2020 08:24 AM PDT  Bernie Sanders has announced he will "assess his campaign" for the Democratic presidential nomination after suffering bruising losses in Tuesday's primaries against former vice-president Joe Biden, who won all three states that cast ballots.The Vermont senator's campaign said in a statement on Wednesday morning that he was "going to be having conversations with supporters" about his bid for the Democratic nomination as Mr Biden appeared to gain a formidable lead in delegates over Mr Sanders.
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| Iran defends response as virus deaths surpass 1,000 Posted: 18 Mar 2020 08:45 AM PDT  Iran said its novel coronavirus death toll surpassed 1,000 on Wednesday as President Hassan Rouhani defended the response of his administration, which has yet to impose a lockdown. The COVID-19 outbreak in sanctions-hit Iran is one of the deadliest for any country outside China, where the disease originated. Rouhani's government reported another 147 deaths -- a record high for a single day in the month since it announced the emergence of the disease.
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| At least 13 US journalists facing expulsion from China Posted: 17 Mar 2020 11:38 PM PDT  At least 13 American journalists stand to be expelled from China in retaliation for a new visa limit imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese state-owned media operating in the U.S. The Chinese government announced Wednesday that Americans working at three major U.S. newspapers would have to surrender their press cards within 10 days. The number of affected journalists at the papers — The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post — is at least 13 and could be higher depending on how broadly the group is defined, said the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China, or FCCC.
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| After coronavirus school closings, will states need to hold kids back, institute summer school? Posted: 18 Mar 2020 04:01 PM PDT  Schools are thinking about how to make up for the time students are losing during the coronavirus outbreak, asking if online school will be enough.
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| What coronavirus? Mexico's president touching people, holding rallies Posted: 17 Mar 2020 06:34 PM PDT  AMLO, as he is called, has been called "irresponsible" and a "source of contagion" as he defied guidelines on social distancing.
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| Duncan Hunter, an early Trump supporter who vaped in a Congressional hearing, gets 11 months in prison Posted: 17 Mar 2020 10:53 AM PDT  The former California congressman pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations after a fall from grace forcing him out of his seat.
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| Coronavirus justifies moving ex-Trump lawyer Cohen home from prison - letter Posted: 17 Mar 2020 12:20 PM PDT  Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, risks catching coronavirus while serving his three-year prison sentence, justifying his release into home confinement, Cohen's attorney said on Tuesday. In a letter to U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan, Cohen's lawyer Roger Adler accused the Federal Bureau of Prisons of being "demonstrably incapable" of safeguarding inmates who live in close quarters and face an "enhanced risk" of catching coronavirus. Adler urged Pauley "to consider my client's exposure to the coronavirus," and act "thoughtfully and decisively" given the "absence of Presidential leadership" in protecting federal prisoners from COVID-19.
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| California Lawmakers Approve $500 Million Coronavirus Package Posted: 16 Mar 2020 06:14 PM PDT |
| Coronavirus: Plan to get Americans longer paid sick leave blocked - here's why Posted: 17 Mar 2020 02:04 PM PDT  Democrats went big with their proposal to include 12 weeks of paid sick leave for those affected by coronavirus, only to have those hopes dashed by old fashioned Washington deal-making.The initial version of a second emergency virus bill awaiting a Senate vote called for 12 full weeks of paid leave for employees with COVID-19, workers with symptoms or ones caring for loved ones who have the novel virus. That proposal, however, rattled Republicans and business groups, who worried it would put a heavy burden on business and cost too much.
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| Israel slaps virus closure on Palestinian-ruled areas of West Bank Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:33 AM PDT  Israel closed off Palestinian-administered areas of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to limit the spread of the coronavirus, officials from both sides said. "From today, a closure has taken place in the West Bank," said Yotam Shefer, who heads the international department of COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories. Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Melhim said all Palestinians would be affected, though goods would still be allowed to pass.
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| Detroit man convicted in killings of 2 gay men, transgender woman Posted: 18 Mar 2020 10:16 AM PDT  A 19-year-old Detroit man has been convicted of gunning down two gay men and a transgender woman who authorities believe were targeted because of their sexual orientation last year following a house party.
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| Senate coronavirus vote delayed after Rand Paul pushes doomed amendment Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:03 AM PDT  Sen. Chuck Schumer called the Paul amendment "ridiculous" and "a colossal waste of time"
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| The US Army is rethinking how to do its largest European exercise in 25 years amid a coronavirus lockdown Posted: 17 Mar 2020 02:09 PM PDT  The Army wants to continue with Defender-Europe 20 in some form, but what it will look like amid the spread of the coronavirus isn't yet clear.
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| A White Nationalist Has Rebranded Himself as Coronavirus Expert. And People Are Flocking to Him. Posted: 18 Mar 2020 01:47 AM PDT  At first glance, Maine resident Tom Kawcyznski seems like just another person talking about the coronavirus pandemic. His daily "Coronavirus Central" podcast has consistently been in the top 20 podcasts on the Apple charts for "Health & Fitness," and at one point earlier this month it hit the fifth spot in the category. But anxious listeners flocking to Kawcyznski's podcast for more information about the disease's spread may not be aware of his background. Before he rebranded himself as a coronavirus expert, Kawcyznski was a notorious white nationalist advocating for a nearly all-white monarchy in New England—with himself as its king. Kawcyznski's surprising reinvention and his success on podcast apps demonstrate the degrees to which concerned Americans are turning to anyone on the internet for coronavirus information, without much consideration of the source. As rumors about coronavirus and the government's response circulate via text message and hoax cures proliferate online, extremist figures like Kawcyznski have seen an opening of their own. "I think the coronavirus is creating a brand new world," Kawcyznski told The Daily Beast, when asked about his new role as a would-be coronavirus expert. Fox Host Trish Regan Goes on Batsh*t Rant Against 'Coronavirus Impeachment Scam'Kawcyznski advocates for the creation of the "Arboreal Kingdom of New Albion," a currently fictional, 95-percent white monarchy he imagines cobbling out of parts of Canada and New England after social collapse. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists his New Albion group as a white nationalist hate group. In 2018, Kawcyznski was fired from his job as the town manager of Jackman, Maine, after the discovery of his posts on fringe social network Gab. In the posts on his now-private account, Kawcyznski wrote that "the average black in America has less intellectual aptitude" and advised white supremacists on how to recast their message in more appealing terms. "I'm putting a happy face on AltRight thinking that brings normies in," Kawcyznski wrote in 2017.Now Kawcyznski has brought the same apocalyptic thinking that turned him into a figure on the racist right to worried coronavirus podcast listeners. He's built an entire coronavirus media empire in the space of two months, including a coronavirus prep book he's selling on Amazon that promises to help people prepare for the disease "on any budget." By publishing a hastily written book on Amazon about the coronavirus, Kawcyznski joined a flood of dubious experts self-publishing coronavirus books on the internet retail giant. In Kawcyznski's book, which he initially published under a pseudonym, he doesn't discuss his background in the white nationalist movement. He also promotes conspiracy theorists like frequent InfoWars guest Mike Adams as reliable sources of information on the disease and envisions a world of societal collapse brought on by the coronavirus, writing that "toilet paper will be more valuable than dollars."Kawcyznski's podcast has drawn more people to him since he started it in February, as cases started to appear in the United States. A Vulture review of coronavirus-related podcasts called the show a "spitting image of caricatures about crackpots and charlatans who vie for attention during crises." But it also noted that his podcast ranks highly in searches on podcast apps for "coronavirus."Kawcyznski claims his daily podcasts, which range from between an hour to two-and-a-half hours, each receive roughly 20,000 listens. It's impossible to independently verify podcast listenership. In his episodes, Kawcyznski positions himself as a sort of guru of the coronavirus era, urging in a Tuesday episode to "refocus your life around the virus." "Stop worrying about what comes after the virus so much, and worry about how you're going to survive it," Kawcyznski said in one. Kawcyznski has also used the coronavirus to gather a community of adherents around himself online. In a chat group on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app popular with extremist right-wing personalities, Coronavirus Central has amassed more than 1,400 members. Kawcyznski claims it's not fair to describe him as a white nationalist, even as he advocates for the creation of a majority-white splinter nation. But as recently as January, Kawcyznski went on a podcast hosted by Chris Cantwell, the neo-Nazi who became infamous in the 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally as the "crying Nazi." Kawcyznski presented Cantwell with a fictional flag for New Albion, describing it as a "blood flag"—a reference to a swastika flag used by Adolf Hitler."It's a sign of my respect to you," Kawcyznski said, as he handed Cantwell the flag.Later that month, Cantwell was arrested on federal interstate threat charges.Kawcyznski, who says he maxed out his credit cards in an attempt to prepare for the coronavirus, has positioned himself for a rebranding in the coronavirus era. In an apparent attempt to distance himself from his white nationalist comments, Kawcyznski said he doesn't "really get into politics" when discussing the coronavirus."I hope people take their opportunities to approach this world with open minds and open hearts," he said. 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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| What to expect if schools close for the rest of the year Posted: 17 Mar 2020 09:39 PM PDT  Parents are already scrambling to cope with kids staying home – for some, it could last the rest of the school year.
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| Trump's tweets show his dramatic 9-day shift toward actually taking coronavirus seriously Posted: 18 Mar 2020 06:53 AM PDT  President Trump is apparently worried about coronavirus now.In a Wednesday tweet, Trump said he'd "always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously," using the offensive and medically incorrect term for COVID-19 in a possible attempt to further distance himself from any blame over its spread. Trump has "done a very good job from the beginning" staving off the virus, he maintained -- despite acting totally unbothered by it as recently as last week.> I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the "borders" from China - against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2020Contrast that with a tweet from nine days ago in which Trump downplayed the virus and compared it to the everyday flu.> So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020That's not to mention the many comments Trump made out loud about how unthreatening he perceived COVID-19 to be.Fox News, home to some of Trump's closest allies and confidantes, also majorly changed its tune on coronavirus in the past few weeks, as The Washington Post documented in this whiplash-inducing video. > How Fox News has shifted its coronavirus rhetoric https://t.co/tTUOIV0tUi pic.twitter.com/q4FdGdduDX> > -- The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 18, 2020More stories from theweek.com Bernie Sanders is focused on the 'f---ing global crisis' CDC investigation reveals why coronavirus likely hit Seattle-area nursing homes so hard The U.S. is temporarily blocking all refugee admissions
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| ‘Perhaps that’s been the story of life’: Trump on why professional athletes are getting tested for coronavirus and others aren’t Posted: 18 Mar 2020 10:54 AM PDT  At a Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the White House, President Trump was asked if it's right for professional athletes and other well-connected people to get tested for the coronavirus while others can't. Trump said, "No, I wouldn't say so, but perhaps that's been the story of life. That does happen on occasion."
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| Schools complain of 'total confusion' over White House, CDC guidelines on coronavirus Posted: 17 Mar 2020 03:06 PM PDT  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly canceled a briefing with the school superintendents today that they hoped would provide clarity.
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| Commandant directs Marines on how to prepare for coronavirus Posted: 17 Mar 2020 10:59 PM PDT  The letter instructs commanders on the ground to make force preservation and risk mitigation decisions based on new information.
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| COVID-19 Is the Chinese Government’s Curse upon the World Posted: 17 Mar 2020 02:27 PM PDT  The World Health Organization and other sensitive souls have instructed us to stop referring to the new strain of coronavirus as the "Wuhan" or "Chinese" flu because of the racist connotations. I'm disinclined to curb my speech to placate Chinese propagandists — and it seems to me the aversion to those terms is less about racism than about averting blame. But in the spirit of comity, and avoiding disparaging an entire nation, I'm happy to call it the ChiCom Flu moving forward.There are many traditional naming conventions that don't really make that much sense. Somewhat weirdly, for example, we often name diseases after the people who "discover" them -- Hodgkin's disease after Thomas Hodgkin, Parkinson's disease after James Parkinson, and so on.But naming viral diseases after places — Guinea Worm, West Nile Virus, Ebola, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, etc. — is probably just intuitive. Viruses "come" from someplace, after all, and thus people gravitate to those names. I doubt we came up with "Lyme disease" because of some deep enmity towards Connecticut.Anyway, "COVID-19" or "H1N1" don't exactly roll off the tongue.The latter was, until very recently, widely referred to as the "Spanish flu," a virus that killed around 675,000 Americans and tens of millions of others around the world in the early 1900s. "Spanish flu" has now retroactively fallen into disfavor as well. And to be fair, there is some historical evidence that the virus may actually have originated in China or France, so if we must call it the French flu moving forward, so be it.But while the Spanish have a good case to be annoyed, the Chinese government does not. As Jim Geraghty notes, the Communist Chinese have been far more effective in stopping the spread of information about the coronavirus than in stopping the spread of the coronavirus itself. Today, for example, China expelled most American journalist from the country.Early on, the Communists destroyed samples and suppressed vital information that could have helped mitigate the damage of this new strain of coronavirus. The government also silenced doctors who warned about the disease. Some were censured for "spreading rumors" or sharing test results with colleagues, and some were forced to write a self-critical public letters — a Marxist mainstay — admitting that the warning "had a negative impact." The Chinese Communists probably let five million people leave Wuhan without screening, according to the Wall Street Journal.The Chinese Communists, like all Communists, hide their societal problems. There is no crime, disease, or addiction in the collectivist state. This kind of secrecy and dishonesty can be disastrous, especially in a highly interconnected world.Though millions of Chinese have been lifted out of extreme poverty through free trade, with modernity comes some basic responsibilities — like, for instance, not killing everyone in the world with preventable zoonotic diseases.The Chinese regime is perfectly capable of administering an array of authoritarian policies to suppress the rights of its own people. But it's apparently unable to exert even mild cultural pressure warning them that their eating habits can be extraordinarily dangerous, and hold the potential of creating massive socioeconomic problems.If reports are correct, it was in Wuhan's popular "wet markets" that vendors were selling the bats — and possibly snakes — that may have caused the COVID-19 outbreak. "Wet" because the meat sold in its unsanitary stalls was only recently slaughtered.This kind of thing happens quite often. And not always in China, of course. But the avian influenza was likely transmitted to humans from chickens in a "wet" market. Scientists have been warning for years that the eating of exotic animals in southern China "is a time bomb." Acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) also originated in China, and probably jumped to humans through bats. Other coronavirus strains are also likely connected to bats.I hate to thrust my Western cultural values on anyone, but maybe it's time to stop eating bats.It's important to stress that it's not the Chinese people who are the problem. Just look at their success in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, or the United States. The ChiComs are the problem. If the Chinese government spent as much time working on educating its people and regulating dangerous markets as it does on secrecy and propaganda efforts, maybe it wouldn't have to worry as much about diseases being named after it -- or about the catastrophic death and economic pain their negligence helps cause.
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| Iran's supreme leader to pardon 10,000 prisoners, including political ones Posted: 18 Mar 2020 01:40 PM PDT  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will pardon 10,000 prisoners including political ones in honor of the Iranian new year on Friday, state TV reported. "Those who will be pardoned will not return to jail ... almost half of those security-related prisoners will be pardoned as well," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told state TV on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Esmaili said Iran had temporarily freed about 85,000 people from jail, including political prisoners, in response to the coronavirus epidemic.
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| 'This is the first time NASA has been in this situation': NASA is forcing nearly all 17,000 of its staff to work from home after coronavirus cases appear at 2 space centers Posted: 17 Mar 2020 08:46 PM PDT  "All employees and contractors will move to mandatory telework until further notice," NASA's administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said Tuesday.
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| Warrant issued for Mexico's ex-head of investigations Posted: 18 Mar 2020 03:42 PM PDT  A Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for the former head of investigations for the Attorney General's Office for alleged violations in the investigation of the case of 43 college students who disappeared in 2014, officials said Wednesday. Tomas Zerón and five other former officials face charges including torture, forced disappearance and judicial misconduct. Three have been arrested and three, including Zerón, are still at large.
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| Op-Ed: Can Biden beat Trump? Michigan's swing districts offer good clues Posted: 17 Mar 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Biden won the Michigan primary with a big turnout, including in districts that went heavily for Donald Trump in 2016.
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