| Trump ties coronavirus outbreak to Democratic state leadership, potentially jeopardizing federal aid Posted: 23 Apr 2020 06:26 PM PDT  President Trump suggested that there was a correlation between Democratic leadership of states and the scope of the coronavirus outbreak in those states.
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| China 'sought to block EU report that claimed it was spreading coronavirus disinformation' Posted: 24 Apr 2020 07:03 PM PDT  China sought to block a European Union report alleging that Beijing was spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak, according to four sources and diplomatic correspondence reviewed by Reuters. The report was eventually released, albeit just before the start of the weekend Europe time and with some criticism of the Chinese government rearranged or removed, a sign of the balancing act Brussels is trying to pull off as the coronavirus outbreak scrambles international relations. The Chinese Mission to the EU was not immediately available for comment and China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to faxed questions about the exchange. An EU spokeswoman said "we never comment on content or alleged content of internal diplomatic contacts and communication with our partners from another countries." Another EU official said the disinformation report had been published as usual and denied any of it had been watered down. Four diplomatic sources told Reuters that the report had initially been slated for release on April 21, but was delayed after Chinese officials picked up on a Politico news report that previewed its findings. A senior Chinese official contacted European officials in Beijing the same day to tell them that, "if the report is as described and it is released today it will be very bad for cooperation", according to EU diplomatic correspondence reviewed by Reuters. READ MORE: How China is rewriting the coronavirus narrative to distract from mistakes at home Will the coronavirus crisis tear the European Union apart? Donald Trump warns of consequences if China was knowingly responsible for coronavirus Trump's top diplomat claims China not sharing Covid-19 sample with world scientists The correspondence quoted senior Chinese foreign ministry official Yang Xiaoguang as saying that publishing the report would make Beijing "very angry" and accused European officials of trying to please "someone else" - something the EU diplomats understood to be a reference to Washington. The four sources said the report had been delayed as a result, and a comparison of the internal version of the report obtained by Reuters and the final version published late on Friday showed several differences. For example, on the first page of the internal report shared with EU governments on April 20, the EU's foreign policy arm said: "China has continued to run a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and improve its international image. Both overt and covert tactics have been observed." The public summary posted on Friday to the bloc's disinformation portal, euvsdisinfo.eu, attributed the disinformation to "state-backed sources from various governments, including Russia and – to a lesser extent – China". The public summary did note "significant evidence of covert Chinese operations on social media", but the reference was left to the final six paragraphs of the document. Disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak is emerging as a flashpoint between the United States and China, and officials on both sides have traded allegations of hiding information about the pandemic.
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| Judge: California can't require background checks for ammo Posted: 24 Apr 2020 11:07 PM PDT  "California's new ammunition background check law misfires," wrote U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez.
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| Judge says government is violating protections for migrant kids Posted: 25 Apr 2020 12:58 PM PDT  The judge ordered officials to promptly release children with sponsors from immigrant detention facilities, where the coronavirus has spread in recent weeks.
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| Thousands gather at Wisconsin state Capitol to protest coronavirus restrictions Posted: 24 Apr 2020 04:40 PM PDT  The crowd stood shoulder to shoulder in defiance of the Wisconsin governor's order to keep businesses and schools closed.
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| The U.S. has a quarter of the world's confirmed coronavirus deaths despite having less than 5 percent of its population Posted: 24 Apr 2020 06:51 AM PDT  Americans are disproportionately dying from COVID-19, at least according to current statistics.The U.S.'s coronavirus death toll surpassed 50,000 on Friday, with 15,000 of those deaths coming from New York state. That means the U.S. has been home to more than a quarter of the world's 192,000 deaths from COVID-19 despite the U.S. only making up about 4.25 percent of the world's population, writes The Washington Post's Greg Miller.It's important to note that it's hard to put a number on fatalities from a disease that has lacked widespread testing. U.S. municipalities have only recently started counting probable coronavirus deaths among their official tolls, while other countries haven't done the same. The New York Times recently estimated there are likely at least 25,000 additional deaths around the globe that can be attributed to COVID-19, whether those people died of the disease itself or because they didn't go to a hospital to receive medical care for another issue.China has also recently been updating its coronavirus death toll to include people who died at home or who likely died from the disease but were untested. A recent study also indicated the country's coronavirus case count could be four times what it reported.More stories from theweek.com Cuomo says New York's coronavirus situation is back to where it was 21 days ago The president is unwell Trump wants praise for his coronavirus response. Here it is.
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| China sent team and medical experts to advise on North Korea’s Kim Posted: 25 Apr 2020 07:49 AM PDT  China has sent a team to North Korea, including medical experts, to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.
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| Police Photos Show Crystal Meth in Hotel Room Where Andrew Gillum Was Found Posted: 24 Apr 2020 07:54 AM PDT  New photos from the Miami Beach Police Department confirm the presence of crystal meth in the hotel room where former Democratic candidate for Florida governor Andrew Gillum was found after a suspected overdose incident in March.Early in the morning on March 13, Miami Beach Fire Rescue were called to the hotel room by an associate of Gillum's who found the former Tallahassee mayor and another man in the room in an intoxicated condition. The man told police that he suspected Gillum and the other man to be under the influence of an unknown substance."Gillum was unable to communicate with officers due to his inebriated state," the police report stated, but was found to be in stable condition when authorities returned for a checkup later. Fire rescue crews treated the second man, Travis Dyson, for a suspected overdose, and he was taken to the hospital in stable condition. Gillum was not arrested and was allowed to return home.According to local reports, Dyson said he was a "pornstar performer" and solicited business as a gay male escort.Police confirmed they found three small clear plastic bags of crystal meth lying in plain sight on the bed and floor. Other prescription drugs are also visible in the police photos, including Citalopram, Gabapentin, Xanax, and a vial containing a mixture of papaverine, phentolamine, and alprostadil, a combination used to treat erectile dysfunction.The former Tallahassee mayor, who in 2018 narrowly lost Florida's gubernatorial race, apologized in a statement, saying he was in town for a wedding and had too much to drink but denied he has ever used crystal meth. Asked about Gillum's explanation, Dyson said Gillum did not mention a wedding to him. Friends of Gillum said he was expected to officiate at a wedding but did not show up.Later, Gillum, who is married with three children, announced he would seek rehab treatment for alcohol abuse. He has also taken a leave of absence from CNN, where he serves as an on-air political commentator."After conversation with my family and deep reflection, I have made the decision to seek help, guidance, and enter a rehabilitation facility at this time," he said. "This has been a wake-up call for me."
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| 'When He Gets New Information, He Likes To Talk That Through Out Loud,' Dr. Birx Says of Trump's Comments on Ultraviolet Light, Disinfectants as COVID-19 Treatments Posted: 25 Apr 2020 09:24 AM PDT  Dr. Deborah Birx defends Trump's comments on ultraviolet light, injecting disinfectants as coronavirus treatments
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| Saudi Arabia bans flogging as a punishment after human rights activist dies in detention Posted: 25 Apr 2020 04:32 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging as a punishment, the state human rights commission said on Saturday hailing a "major step forward" in the reform programme launched by the king and his powerful son, days after a human rights activist died in custody. Court-ordered floggings in Saudi Arabia - sometimes extending to hundreds of lashes - have long drawn condemnation from human rights groups. But they say the headline legal reforms overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have brought no let-up in the conservative Islamic kingdom's crushing of dissent, including through the use of the death penalty. The state human rights commission said that the latest reform, which was reported by Saudi media including the pro-government Okaz newspaper, would ensure that no more convicts were sentenced to flogging. "This decision guarantees that convicts who would previously have been sentenced to the lash will from now on receive fines or prison terms instead," its chairman, Awad al-Awad, said.
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| Top Pentagon leaders split on next steps for fired captain who warned of coronavirus Posted: 25 Apr 2020 02:18 PM PDT  The unprecedented decision to reinstate Crozier would be a rebuke to former acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly.
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| Two transgender women found burned to death in Puerto Rico Posted: 25 Apr 2020 07:02 AM PDT  Their killings would be the third and fourth against transgender people in the last two months.
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| Boris Johnson is under pressure from his own party to reset the UK's relationship with China after Beijing 'consistently lied' about the coronavirus pandemic Posted: 25 Apr 2020 01:10 AM PDT  Conservative members of the UK Parliament tell Business Insider that there is growing unease about China within Boris Johnson's party.
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| Cuomo says New York's coronavirus situation is back to where it was 21 days ago Posted: 25 Apr 2020 09:54 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) continued to express cautious optimism that his state, the epicent of the outbreak in the United States, is on the right trajectory amid the coronavirus pandemic.During his daily briefing, Cuomo, aided by a graph showing the amount of COVID-19 hospitalizations throughout the state, said New York is "back to where we were 21 days ago."> NEW: Hospitalizations in New York State continue to decline. "We are back where we were 21 days ago," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "We want to know how fast that decline continues and how low that decline gets." https://t.co/3aqHgmUAFZ pic.twitter.com/hUNnJY6wX8> > — ABC News (@ABC) April 25, 2020The next step, he said, is to see "when we will back to the point where only several hundred people" show up at the hospital every day with COVID-19 infections. So while the current slope of the graph is trending in the right direction, Cuomo believes it's vital to see how low it can get, and at what speed.New York reported 1,184 new coronavirus infections Saturday, while the number of fatalities remained mostly stead at 437, a slight uptick from Friday's 422, which was the lowest number of deaths in the state since April 1.> @NYGovCuomo Sat COVID-19 briefing > Total hospitalizations, intubations continue to ⬇️ > New COVID cases 1,184> > "Only in this crazy reality would 11-hundred new cases be good."> > NYS sees another 437 deaths due to COVID-19 > Previous 4-days: 422, 438, 474, 481 pic.twitter.com/ebgd1uDQvp> > — Jeff Kulikowsky (@JeffNC9) April 25, 2020More stories from theweek.com The president is unwell Trump wants praise for his coronavirus response. Here it is. Some lawmakers, White House officials reportedly concerned by new joint Trump-Putin statement
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| Michigan senator apologizes for wearing Confederate flag face mask Posted: 25 Apr 2020 11:23 AM PDT  Dale Zorn initially defended his actions, saying it was part of 'our history', but eventually apologized after widespread outrageA Republican politician in Michigan has apologized after wearing a face mask that appeared to depict the Confederate flag, an image offensive to many Americans as a symbol of racism and slavery.Michigan state Senator Dale Zorn wore the mask during a Senate vote at the state capitol in Lansing on Friday. He initially defended his actions, saying his wife had made the mask and that it depicted the flag of Tennessee or Kentucky."I told my wife it probably will raise some eyebrows, but it was not a Confederate flag," Zorn told Lansing TV station WLNS on Friday.He went on to add: "Even if it was a Confederate flag, you know, we should be talking about teaching our national history in schools and that's part of our national history and it's something we can't just throw away because it is part of our history."When Zorn was asked what the meaning of the Confederate flag is, he replied "the Confederacy".> This is Dale Zorn. He is an elected member of the Michigan Senate. He wore a Confederate Flag mask on the floor of the Michigan Senate. Then he tried to tell us he didn't. > > THIS IS MICHIGAN, NOT MISSISSIPPI! > > Get that trash outta here. pic.twitter.com/uTOaBzweTO> > — Bryan Newland (@RealBNewland) April 25, 2020In fact, displaying the Confederate flag, or other symbols of the slave-owning south during the American civil war, is usually seen as racist. While some advocates claim they are celebrating southern identity and heritage, it is widely seen as a racist symbol deeply offensive to black Americans. Nor is it just flags. There is an ongoing campaign to remove Confederate war statues from public display or rename streets and buildings which commemorate Confederate generals or politicians.After sparking widespread outrage, Zorn issued an apology on Saturday."I'm sorry for my choice of pattern on the face mask I wore yesterday on the Senate floor. I did not intend to offend anyone; however, I realize that I did, and for that I am sorry. Those who know me best know that I do not support the things this pattern represents," he wrote on Twitter. "My actions were an error in judgment for which there are no excuses and I will learn from this episode."A spokesperson for Michigan's senate majority leader, Republican Mike Shirkey, said that Shirkey "would not support or encourage any senator to display an insensitive symbol on the Senate floor".The leader of the Democrats in the Michigan senate, Jim Ananich, said: "I'm just really disappointed to see him make a choice that is deeply hurtful to so many people. When he was called out for it, he didn't seem to even understand or acknowledge what the problem was."Zorn was in Lansing on Friday to vote on measures that would increase oversight of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer's powers during the Covid-19 pandemic.Michigan is one of a number of states that have attracted protests against stay-at-home orders during the pandemic. Zorn said he supported bipartisan oversight of Whitmer's actions.
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| How Does a Harvard Professor Think It’s ‘Authoritarian’ to Allow Parents to Teach Their Kids? Posted: 24 Apr 2020 09:51 AM PDT  A Harvard University law professor has called for a "presumptive ban" on homeschooling -- claiming that the freedom to do so under our current laws is "authoritarian.""The issue is, do we think that parents should have 24/7, essentially authoritarian control over their children from ages zero to 18? I think that's dangerous," Elizabeth Bartholet said in an interview with Harvard Magazine."I think it's always dangerous to put powerful people in charge of the powerless, and to give the powerful ones total authority."Bartholet stated that there is "an essentially unregulated regime in the area of homeschooling," with "very few requirements that parents do anything.""[P]eople can homeschool who've never gone to school themselves, who don't read or write themselves," she said.Bartholet also stated that homeschooling can make it easier for parents to get away with abusing their children and/or indoctrinating them with white supremacy and misogyny:> [I]t's also important that children grow up exposed to community values, social values, democratic values, ideas about nondiscrimination and tolerance of other people's viewpoints.I do not, of course, want to minimize the absolute horror of child abuse. It's disgusting; it's heartbreaking; and anyone who isn't a sociopath agrees that it's necessary to protect our children.Unfortunately, however, it's also true that abuse is hardly something that can occur only in a child's home. In fact, as Harvard grad and homeschooler Kerry McDonald pointed out in a letter to Harvard Magazine in response to its article, "many parents choose to homeschool their children to remove them from abuse at school, whether it's widespread bullying by peers or, tragically, rampant abuse by teachers and school administrators themselves.""Banning homeschooling, or adding burdensome regulations on homeschooling families, who in many instances are fleeing a system of education that they find harmful to their children, are unnecessary attacks on law-abiding families," McDonald continues.What's more, another of Bartholet's suggestions -- that the freedom to homeschool equals masses of children being painfully undereducated by illiterate parents -- is as offensive as it is inaccurate. In fact, many, many children don't simply receive an adequate education through homeschooling but an exemplary one that sets them up for greater success than any traditional school could have. As McDonald pointed out in her letter, although "there may always be outliers and more research is needed, most peer-reviewed studies on homeschooling outcomes find that homeschoolers generally outperform their schooled peers academically, and have positive life experiences."In any case, and even apart from all of this, Bartholet's characterization of the freedom to homeschool as "authoritarian" is nothing short of absurd. A government allowing its citizens the freedom to educate their own children is not only not authoritarian, it is also the exact opposite of authoritarian. That's a fact, and you don't even need to know the first thing about homeschooling to understand that -- really, you just need to know what the word means.In terms of knowing about homeschooling, though, I can also say that I personally do know more than the average person. I was homeschooled for fourth and fifth grade, and can confidently say that the two years I spent with my father as my teacher were responsible for countless positive outcomes in my life -- ones that I wouldn't have had otherwise. For example: Before I was homeschooled, I was struggling to learn math the way that the public school had been teaching it, and getting the chance to learn some fundamentals in a way that worked for my own particular brain was instrumental in making the subject much easier for me in the future.But that wasn't all. See, unlike math, I loved reading and writing. Those subjects had always come easily to me, and I enjoyed them. Homeschooling provided an advantage for me in this area, too. It allowed me to learn advanced aspects of grammar. I had the liberty to read works of literature that I wouldn't have studied in a traditional school because they would have been "above" the designated level for my classroom. I wrote poetry and short stories about subjects of my own choosing. When I returned to public school in the sixth grade, the English lessons were things that I'd already learned -- but fortunately, having had the opportunity to develop a love of writing and curiosity about books is something that kept me reading and writing what I wanted in my own time. Hell, I'm still doing it now.Finally, it's also patently ignorant how Bartholet aims to use the fact that children must be exposed to varying viewpoints and people while they're growing up as some kind of argument against homeschooling. McDonald states that "research on homeschoolers finds that they are tightly connected with their larger community and may have more community involvement and participation in extracurricular and volunteer activities than schooled children due to their more flexible schedules and interaction with a wide assortment of community members," and I'm not surprised. In fact, this was my experience exactly.I mean, does Bartholet think not attending a traditional school somehow means that I never left the house at all? Because honestly, that couldn't have been less true. I was quite active in my community, even participating in activities such as Girl Scouts with my friends from public school. I didn't miss out on any of that.In fact, I was actually exposed to far more experiences and perspectives specifically because I was homeschooled. I was able to act in community theater plays at multiple venues, interacting with all kinds of interesting people from various walks of life, without having to worry that a late-night dress rehearsal would make me too exhausted to learn in the morning because my schedule revolved around me. For the same reason, my family was able to take a random trip to New York City to see my father's friend's play -- and within hours of arrival, I decided I was definitely going to move here when I grew up and work either on a stage, in front of a camera, or both. I had the luxury of learning from truly transformative, unique experiences, ones that I certainly wouldn't have had if I'd been forced to spend that time square dancing in a gymnasium.Harvard Magazine points out that "rapidly increasing" numbers of Americans are choosing to homeschool their children. (By "choosing," by the way, I mean that this was true before coronavirus essentially forced this lifestyle on everyone.) Bartholet apparently sees this as some kind of tragedy that will lead to a future generation full of sexist Nazis who don't know how to read, but this simply isn't fair. No, homeschooling isn't perfect for everyone, but it can and has worked uniquely well for many people, myself included. We shouldn't be taking that option away, and certainly not in the name of stopping authoritarianism. It isn't hard to see how completely a**-backwards that "logic" is -- after all, even a former homeschooler like me was able to figure it out.
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| Trump claims his dangerous disinfectant claims were meant 'sarcastically', as US coronavirus death toll passes 50,000 Posted: 24 Apr 2020 09:37 AM PDT  After promoting the idea that both sunlight and injecting disinfectant could help tackle Covid-19, Donald Trump claimed his comments were sarcastic."I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters ... to see what would happen," the president said on Friday as he signed another coronavirus relief bill into law. He had faced a torrent of ridicule for his comments, which were directed at doctors on his coronavirus taskforce, not at reporters.
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| On Anzac Day, services in lockdown replaced by home vigils Posted: 24 Apr 2020 07:25 PM PDT  Traditional crowds at dawn services for the Anzac Day memorial holiday in Australia were replaced Saturday with candlelit vigils in driveways and neighbors gathering to listen to buglers play "The Last Post." Restrictions on crowds and social distancing due to the coronavirus meant that the usual packed dawn services in cities and towns across the country were not held. The holiday, also celebrated in New Zealand, marks the anniversary of New Zealand and Australian soldiers, known as Anzacs, landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915.
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| Factbox: Global reaction to WHO coronavirus initiative Posted: 24 Apr 2020 07:23 AM PDT  French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were among leaders taking part in a videoconference to announce the plan. "From the moment we win this battle, we must make this vaccine accessible to all populations as soon as possible and everywhere.
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| Grocery stores are portioning flour from industrial bags to deal with demand Posted: 24 Apr 2020 09:55 PM PDT  Baking has become a favorite hobby of homebound, stir-crazy Americans.
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| Retailer charged with hoarding, price gouging on sanitizer Posted: 25 Apr 2020 08:49 AM PDT  Federal prosecutors charged a New York retailer on Friday with hoarding tons of disposable masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer in a Long Island warehouse and selling the items at huge price markups.
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| Larry Summers Advising Biden Campaign on Economic Recovery Posted: 24 Apr 2020 06:21 AM PDT |
| Marc Benioff's Salesforce scores a 370% return on Zoom after investing $100 million last year Posted: 24 Apr 2020 09:16 AM PDT  Zoom's stock price has skyrocketed as the coronavirus pandemic continues to drive users to its video-conferencing app.
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| Photos show how one woman tried to give birth at home during the coronavirus pandemic Posted: 24 Apr 2020 01:03 PM PDT  A growing number of pregnant women across the US have attempted to switch to home births amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This is Nancy Pedroza's story.
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| Austria Ski Resort Ishgl, Europe’s Coronavirus Super-Spreader, Reopens Without Party Tourism Posted: 24 Apr 2020 03:10 AM PDT  Before the coronavirus pandemic, the Alpine ski resort of Ischgl, widely known as the "Ibiza of the Alps," knew how to throw a party. The village, which is nestled in the snowy mountains where the borders of Austria, Italy, and Switzerland intersect, billed itself as the winter capital of "party tourism," where après-ski bars were packed every night of the week all season long. Ischgl locked down on March 13, after nearly 800 coronavirus cases, from Iceland to Ireland and beyond, were traced back to the adult playground. That was five days after a bar closed down after one of its staffers tested positive for COVID-19 a week earlier (the bar was disinfected but not shuttered), and nine days after Iceland declared the resort town a hot spot (the bad kind). At the time, local authorities in the Tyrol government, which has jurisdiction over the resort area, shot back that the Icelandic skiers undoubtedly contracted the virus on the flight home, which went through Milan. The ski season brings in revenue of around $120 million a year to Ischgl. Its chalets and hotels are booked years in advance, so authorities feared that raising the alarm would have left many in financial ruin—a fate they suffered anyway.Authorities now say the über-contagion took place over a 14-day period that was left unchecked even as health authorities warned that it was fast-becoming the epicenter of European spread after infected skiers passed it from one to another on the slopes, in the spas and at the bars. The German magazine Der Spiegel traced how the contagion was left unchecked, and how authorities ignored the warning signs that could have helped mitigate the spread to other countries. The investigation focuses on a single traveler from Ireland who brought it back from his ski holiday, and on 14 cases in Iceland involving people who did not all travel together, and who stayed in five different hotels in the resort town. On Thursday—post-quarantine—the village reopened, but not as the party town it once was. "We will question developments of the past years and, where necessary, make corrections," Ischgl Mayor Werner Kurz said in a statement as he unlocked the village, which still has several weeks of good snow left. "That means more quality and less party tourism, prioritizing skiers and fewer day-trippers on buses who only come to party."Reinventing the town that thrived on fast fun is not going to be easy—or cheap. "We are also thinking with all businesses about what an upmarket après-ski culture can look like," Kurz's statement says.But many of the town's businesses lost tens of thousands of euros in the pandemic and just won't have resources to start over to attract more discerning guests. The rebranding also garnered a mea culpa from Tyrol's governor, Guenther Platter, who called the spread "not serious" back in March. Platter has now launched a government review of the handling of the situation in response to a lawsuit brought on by an Austrian consumer-rights group and admitted that "mistakes were made."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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| Jack Ma: The billionaire trying to stop coronavirus (and fix China’s reputation) Posted: 25 Apr 2020 04:24 PM PDT  How Jack Ma's growing clout during the coronavirus crisis may put him in the sights of China's jealous leaders.
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| Fed reports financial details on 3 key support programs Posted: 24 Apr 2020 09:23 AM PDT  The Federal Reserve had $85.8 billion in loans outstanding last week in three of the programs it rolled out last month to protect the economy during the coronavirus pandemic. In a report to Congress that provided a look at the three programs as of April 14, it said Friday that it had $51.1 billion in loans outstanding for a program to support money market mutual funds and another $34.5 billion outstanding in loans to the giant Wall Street financial institutions that serve as primary dealers in the Treasury bond market. For the third program, the Fed said it had $249 million in loans outstanding to support the commercial paper lending market.
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| Fauci's absence from recent coronavirus briefings draws notice Posted: 25 Apr 2020 01:14 PM PDT  The national health expert was in attendance for just one of this week's seven briefings.
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| Unprecedented virus lockdown as Muslims mark sombre Ramadan Posted: 24 Apr 2020 10:08 AM PDT  Mosques stood empty and fast-breaking feasts were cancelled as Muslims around the world began marking Ramadan under coronavirus lockdown on Friday, while a pushback in some countries sparked fears of a surge in infections. Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, was among those devoid of worshippers as the holy month got under way amid unprecedented bans on family gatherings and mass prayers. A stunning emptiness enveloped the sacred Kaaba -- a large cube-shaped structure in the Grand Mosque towards which Muslims around the world pray -- in the most potent sign of how the daytime fasting month will be a sombre affair across Muslim-majority nations.
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| The president is unwell Posted: 24 Apr 2020 09:20 AM PDT  The only thing worse than a pandemic is having Donald Trump as your president during a pandemic. Tens of thousands of Americans have died. Tens of millions have lost their jobs. President Trump, meanwhile, has indulged in self-pity, touted an unproven drug, bragged about the TV ratings of his press briefings, and expressed interest in the idea of people injecting disinfectants into their lungs — or, as we used to call it, committing suicide.Every day, we have to worry about the president's mental health when he should be worrying about our physical health.After saying he wanted "the governors to be running things," Trump said his authority was "total." "The president of the United States calls the shots," he explained. Three days later, he told governors, "You're going to call your own shots."To the extent that Trump has a plan, it is to take credit for everything the governors do well and to blame them for everything he does poorly. On Wednesday, he faulted Georgia's Republican governor for reopening businesses too soon. This was five days after Trump called for several states to be "liberated" from the guidelines he himself had issued the day before. Governors can't do anything right. If they reopen businesses, Trump will blame them for deaths. If they keep businesses closed, he will blame them for a bad economy as well as deaths. By doing nothing, Trump hopes to be blamed for nothing.Too late. He failed to prepare for the pandemic even though — and also because — there was a book outlining how to prepare for a pandemic. Trump doesn't read much, know much, or learn much. He feels much and talks much."I'm not a doctor," Trump said, "but I'm a person with common sense."Apparently, it's common sense to call hydroxychloroquine "a very special thing" and to say that "a lot of people are saying" that patients should take the unproven drug. According to a White House official, these people include "so many people in New York — friends, Wall Street guys, real estate guys."When not heeding the medical advice of real estate guys, Trump relies on his own epidemiological clairvoyance. He told Fox News' Sean Hannity he had a "hunch" about the coronavirus death rate. "Personally, I would say the number is way under 1 percent," he said, adding, "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators." As Joel Stein said, "Sometimes you just know in your gut how many ventilators each hospital will need in a pandemic."Trump's "war against the invisible enemy" is a war against the scientific method. We cannot attack the coronavirus. We can only hide from it and defend ourselves with gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer. This takes time. The only way to win is to wait.Trump doesn't want to wait. Just six days after he called himself "a wartime president," he said the war had "been going for a while" and that it should end by Easter (19 days later). Why Easter? Because, he said, "Easter is a very special day ... for me." Trump makes everything about him, even the resurrection of Jesus Christ.The president's subordinates are tasked with protecting his ego first and Americans' lives second. His trade advisor Peter Navarro said on Fox & Friends, "I bet on President Trump's intuition on this." He said "this" because hydroxychloroquine was too hard to pronounce. Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House's coronavirus task force, said that Trump is "so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data." This is true if Fox News chyrons count as scientific literature.In the Trump administration, telling the truth is a fireable offense. Dr. Rick Bright, the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was removed for questioning the president's recommendation of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus. Now medical researchers have to worry about getting fired for not recommending ingesting bleach.While visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month, Trump boasted, "I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president."He should have. Our hospitals would be in much better shape if Trump were in one of them.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com Cuomo says New York's coronavirus situation is back to where it was 21 days ago Trump wants praise for his coronavirus response. Here it is. Some lawmakers, White House officials reportedly concerned by new joint Trump-Putin statement
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| Cuomo says he'll decide in a week whether to keep schools and businesses closed past May 15 as the coronavirus ebbs Posted: 24 Apr 2020 01:00 PM PDT  New York coronavirus deaths fell to the lowest level since April 1, Cuomo said on Friday.
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| IMF to Recommend $3.4 Billion Emergency Funding for Nigeria Posted: 24 Apr 2020 05:52 AM PDT |
| Six new symptoms have been added to the CDC's COVID-19 list, including muscle pain, chills and headaches Posted: 25 Apr 2020 09:07 AM PDT  The CDC has added 6 new recognized symptoms to its list for COVID-19: sore throat, headache, chills, muscle pain, loss of smell or taste, and shaking.
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| Casting aside its precedents, Supreme Court moves inexorably toward abortion rights Posted: 24 Apr 2020 02:00 AM PDT  A more conservative court is increasingly willing to reverse the work of its predecessors. And no issue hangs in the balance more than abortion.
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| High court declines to revisit immigrant issue during virus Posted: 24 Apr 2020 04:22 PM PDT  The Supreme Court on Friday declined a request by states who cited the coronavirus pandemic in asking the justices to reverse course and temporarily halt a Trump administration policy that makes it harder for legal immigrants to become permanent residents if they use public benefits. The justices in January voted 5-4 along ideological lines to allow the Trump administration to implement its policy while lawsuits against it continued. The order from the Supreme Court on Friday was brief, with no justice noting disagreement.
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| Serbia sends four planes carrying medical equipment to Italy Posted: 25 Apr 2020 04:59 AM PDT  Serbia sent four planes carrying medical equipment including gloves, masks and protective suits to Italy on Saturday as a donation to help the EU member state tackle the spread of coronavirus. Another four equipment-laden planes will be sent in the next two days, also donated by the Serbian government, President Aleksandar Vucic said. "We will win together, be brave Italy, Serbia is with you," Vucic wrote on one of the boxes of equipment before it was loaded on to a plane.
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| Nova Scotia shooting: 'They had no idea the hell they were going to face' Posted: 25 Apr 2020 04:15 AM PDT  Canada's deadliest shooting is pieced together by the people swept up in its path of terror.
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| America Can’t Face China Alone Posted: 25 Apr 2020 03:30 AM PDT  You can't beat something with nothing. But America seems determined to try.America's attempt to integrate China into the global economy as a "responsible stakeholder" failed. China's economy has become more statist, its political system more repressive, its foreign policy more bullying, its ambitions more outsized than they were 20 years ago. China did not challenge American leadership directly. It altered the character of international institutions from within.The multilateral institutions that comprise the American-led liberal international order have been decaying for some time. Coronavirus has accelerated the deterioration. NATO, the United Nations, the European Union, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization — they are unresponsive, unaccountable, divided, demoralized, defunct. The world is a more dangerous place.We are used to autocratic domination of the U.N. General Assembly and the secretariat's various commissions. No one bats an eye when Russia or China vetoes a Security Council measure. Less publicized were the concessions made to China as part of the Paris Climate Accord. Or the fact that the World Trade Organization treats the world's second-largest economy as a "developing" nation. But the way Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the WHO, caviled and covered for Beijing as the coronavirus spread throughout the world is impossible to ignore. Drift, confusion, and chaos result.There are three options. The first is to work within the system to revitalize the existing structures. The second is to build alternative institutions. The third option is to do nothing.President Trump has tried a hybrid of options one and three. But with a twist. Where others might try a kind word or some quiet diplomacy to inspire reform and collaboration, he turns against the very institutions America created to force them to live up to their commitments. He browbeats NATO members into spending more on defense. He cheers for Brexit and supports the EU's internal critics. He cripples the WTO's arbitration mechanism and threatens to withdraw entirely. He suspends funding for the WHO.It's the "America First" foreign policy Trump promised. And the results have been mixed. NAFTA was replaced. NATO budgets are up (for now). Mexico agreed to have asylum-seekers wait on its side of the border while their claims are adjudicated. China signed a "Phase One" trade deal.But there's a cost. Allies may accede to your demands, but resentment builds. The foundations of the alliance weaken. Unpredictability inspires fear and caution. If sustained for too long, though, it conveys irresoluteness and fecklessness. Adversaries begin to probe. They buzz flights and collapse the oil price, resume shelling U.S. troops and harassing U.S. naval vessels, begin tailing container ships in the South China Sea.The democracies look inward. NATO is silent, the EU split, America distracted and distressed. China exploited this strategic vacuum. It launched a global disinformation campaign falsely assigning responsibility for the pandemic to the United States. Its agents pushed scurrilous and panic-inducing messages to U.S. cellphones saying that President Trump was about to impose a national lockdown policed by the National Guard. Its diplomatic "Wolf Warriors" enforce the party line whenever foreign governments challenge Beijing's preferred narrative.Chinese propaganda used to amplify achievements and repress criticism. Now it attacks directly overseas enemies of the state. The strategy, writes Laura Rosenberger in Foreign Affairs, "aims not so much to promote a particular idea as to sow doubt, dissension, and disarray — including among Americans — in order to undermine public confidence in information and prevent any common understanding of facts from taking hold." It's working.China isn't invincible. It is reaping the economic whirlwind of the coronavirus it hid from the world. None of its neighbors are thrilled about the growth of Chinese power. Its internal political situation may be unstable. But the speed with which it has used the pandemic for geopolitical advantage is extraordinary. Look at how it plays favorites with its distribution of pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment, how it stepped into the breach with a new flow of cash for its friend Dr. Tedros. Confronting China's rise requires "a common understanding of facts," and partners with whom to share those facts in common. These days, America is lacking in both.By all means, punish the World Health Organization for collaborating with China. But also be prepared to stand up another mechanism to do the good work its founders intended. Go ahead, demand allies live up to their commitments. But also recognize that partnerships of like-minded nations were critical to success in the First Cold War. This is the time to build new institutions that reflect the realities of a 21st century that pits liberal democracies against an authoritarian surveillance state. For every moment that passes without American leadership brings us closer to a world where the sun never sets on the five golden stars.
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| Gov. Cuomo says novel coronavirus can live on bus and subway surfaces for 72 hours, posing an ongoing concern for transit employees and riders Posted: 25 Apr 2020 10:59 AM PDT  "Think about this from a transit point of view or from your car point of view," NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said of the virus' threat in high-traffic areas.
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| B-1 Returns to Pacific in 'Dynamic Force Employment' Posted: 24 Apr 2020 02:58 PM PDT  The U.S. Air Force this week flew a B-1B Lancer to the Pacific as part of its new unpredictable deployment experiment.
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| Lebanon bank attacked with explosive amid economic crisis Posted: 25 Apr 2020 05:03 PM PDT  Assailants lobbed an explosive device at a bank in Lebanon Saturday, in the latest attack on financial institutions in a country facing its worst economic crisis in decades. The official National News Agency said the night-time assault targeted a branch of Fransabank in the southern port city of Sidon, damaging its glass facade. The attack came a day after Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Lebanese bank deposits had plunged $5.7 billion in the first two months of the year, despite curbs on withdrawals and a ban on transfers abroad.
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| I'm a postal worker. In the coronavirus crisis, I am my customers' link to the world. Posted: 25 Apr 2020 02:59 PM PDT  While Washington debates the fate of the Postal Service and the fiscal hit it's taken from the coronavirus pandemic, a remarkable shift has occurred in how people view the mail and their mail carrier in the COVID-19 era.
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| Thousands demonstrate against Israeli coalition deal Posted: 25 Apr 2020 11:35 AM PDT  Several thousand Israelis rallied Saturday to demonstrate against a unity government deal reached last week that leaves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in power as he prepares to go on trial for corruption charges. The protesters oppose having Netanyahu as prime minister as long as he is a criminal suspect. The protesters say the unity government agreement, which gives Netanyahu influence over the appointment of judges and legal officials, "crushes democracy" and is meant to rescue Netanyahu from his legal troubles.
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| Coronavirus: 'I faked having Covid-19 on Facebook and got arrested' Posted: 24 Apr 2020 12:55 AM PDT  Across the world police are chasing down alleged symptom-fakers who are being accused of triggering panic.
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