| Florida curtails reporting of coronavirus death numbers by county medical examiners Posted: 01 May 2020 10:35 AM PDT  Florida health officials have halted the publication of up-to-the-minute death statistics related to the coronavirus pandemic that have, by law, been compiled by medical examiners in the state.
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| Trump wants to deliver 300 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year. Is that even possible? Posted: 01 May 2020 07:11 AM PDT  The expectation is the U.S. won't return to normal until there's an effective vaccine against COVID-19 — and almost everyone in the country has been vaccinated.
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| Biden accuser Tara Reade 'not sure' what complaint she claims was filed with Senate says Posted: 02 May 2020 02:05 PM PDT  Reade has said that the complaint, if it's found, would not include the sexual assault allegation that she came forward with in March.
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| Iran says Germany to face consequences over Hezbollah ban Posted: 01 May 2020 12:53 AM PDT  Iran has slammed Germany's ban on the activities of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement on its soil, saying it would face consequences for its decision to give in to Israeli and US pressure. Germany branded Hezbollah a "Shiite terrorist organisation" on Thursday, with dozens of police and special forces storming mosques and associations across the country linked to the Lebanese militant group. In a statement issued overnight, Iran's foreign ministry said the ban ignores "realities in West Asia".
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| New Yorkers cannot be evicted for not paying rent through June, says Cuomo Posted: 02 May 2020 07:35 AM PDT  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that no one in the state can be evicted for non-payment of rent through June.In his daily coronavirus response press briefing, the governor said: "A landlord cannot evict a person for non payment of rent ... that is a law in place through June."
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| Could These Rivals Stop Kim Jong Un’s Little Sister From Taking Power? Posted: 01 May 2020 01:43 AM PDT  SEOUL—Whatever the condition of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the moment—and supposedly informed speculation ranges from dead, to comatose, to just chilling at his personal resort in Wonsan—his absence from public view for more than two weeks now is a reminder that his demise could plunge his country and the region, maybe even the world, into a huge new geopolitical crisis. For now his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, looks like the understudy waiting in the wings to take the lead if her brother cannot function. He's positioned her for that role, and groomed her for it. But if Kim Jong Un dies, it's fair to say all hell could break loose.Many analysts believe China would move swiftly to consolidate control over North Korea if Kim Jong Un is no longer able to govern effectively. Chinese concerns, like those of the U.S. and just about every other country with a stake in the region, focus not only on who's in charge of North Korea but more specifically on what happens to North Korea's nukes. If there is a chaotic battle for succession, who will secure them?A Chinese medical team known to be in the North right now presumably is looking after Kim, and looking out for Beijing's interests. If Kim is indeed in grave condition, Chinese Leader Xi Jinping will be the first to know.And then what? "I'm very sure the Chinese will send their army into North Korea," says defector Ken Eom, who served 10 years in Pyongyang's military and is now a prominent analyst in the South. "They have already planned what they will do."Chinese concern about Korea goes deep into history, and was never more evident than in the Korean War, when half a million Chinese died driving U.S. and South Korean troops out of North Korea after they reached the Yalu River border between Korea and China in the early months of the war in 1950.It's not as though North Korea would threaten China, the source of all its oil and half its food, but the Chinese want to be sure the Americans don't get there first in the confusion of a power vacuum if Kim is no longer around, factions compete to succeed him, and the fate of his nuclear missile arsenal hangs in the balance.The results could be very bloody.Choi Jin-wook, former director of the Korea Institute of National Unification, believes it's "very unlikely" that North Korean authorities would invite the Chinese into their country as in the Korean War. "That is very dangerous," he says. "They will face a tough response from the North Korean side, probably an exchange of fire," he predicts, but if U.S. or South Korean troops enter North Korea, "that is a different story."It's been more than eight years since Kim Jong Un inherited the family dynasty, and North Korea's relations with China may never have been better since Kim first journeyed to Beijing—his first trip outside the country as North Korea's leader—in March of 2018. With sister Yo Jong always hovering nearby, he spent three days seeing President Xi Jinping and other top officials on a mission that set the course for future close ties.The encounter had much to do with Kim agreeing to see President Donald Trump for the first U.S.-North Korean summit in Singapore in June 2018. Xi hosted Kim again in May, a month before the summit, in the industrial port city of Dalian, agreeing to send him and his entourage to Singapore on a Chinese plane. And one week after the summit, as if reporting back to his patron, Kim again called on Xi in Beijing.The presence of Kim Yo Jong, present for many of these encounters, would seem to guarantee continuity. She could pick up where her brother left off, but it's likely that long-suppressed rivalries will explode if Kim Jong Un is not, in fact, on one of his yachts lying low during the COVID-19 pandemic, and really is at death's door, or through it."If factions face off, a vicious internal conflict is certain, and a civil war not unthinkable," writes Michael Auslin at Stanford University's Hoover Institution in the journal Foreign Policy. "With North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile sites potentially falling into the hands of whoever acts most quickly, Asia could face an unprecedented nuclear crisis."Kim Yo Jong now owes her role as number two to him and to the authority that she's believed to exert over the North's Organization and Guidance Department, the entity with life-or-death power over all aspects of North Korean society. She's the de facto leader of the OGD as well as Bureau 39, the office that controls the North's money, including counterfeit U.S. currency printed on a press imported from Switzerland."She's in charge," says Ken Eom, but "that doesn't mean she'll be in charge when her brother is no longer around."Assuming Kim Yo Jong will face trouble from powerful men who just can't accept the notion of a woman dominating them, at least two other figures are to be reckoned with.One is Kim Pyong Il, the much younger half brother of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. That makes him not only Yo Jong and Jong Un's uncle but also the son of Kim Il Sung, who founded the North Korean state after the Japanese surrender in 1945. At 65, he's still theoretically capable of carrying on the dynasty's bloodline.Kim Pyong Il faces, however, what may be insurmountable problems. He spent nearly 40 years in a kind of exile as ambassador to eastern European countries before he was summoned back to Pyongyang last November."Nobody knows him," says Shim Jae-hoon, who writes about Korea for Yale Global. "He's been away too long." But he still could serve as figurehead leader over restive, quarreling subordinates. "It's almost possible," says Ken Eom, "but he might not last long."And then there's the top non-family contender, Choe Ryong Hae, whose title as President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly makes him North Korea's titular head of state. Choe, who also is first vice chairman of the state affairs commission, through which Kim as chairman wields his power, has his own bloodline—his father fought with Kim Il Sung against Japanese rule as a guerilla in Manchuria.Choe, however, has had an up-and-down career, once having been forced out of the hierarchy for "reeducation" as a laborer for involvement in a scheme to sell scrap metal—a crime that sometimes merits execution. In his case, his father's old-time bond with Kim Il Sung saved him.On the plus side, Choe's son is rumored to have been married to Kim Yo Jong."Choe is next at the moment," says Choi Jin-wook, "but he is not a Kim, though from a guerrilla family." But would that lineage do the trick?"I cannot find any alternative to this Stalinist dynasty," says Choi. "This will lead to the end of the Kim dynasty. Enough is enough.There is no legitimate person, and it is going to be anybody's game. Maybe big chaos."Xi Jinping would like to stand above the fray, pressuring competing factions to get along.In that spirit Xi received Kim for the fourth time in extraordinary pomp and circumstance in Beijing in January last year, six weeks before Trump's second summit with Kim in Hanoi. Then, last June, after the failure of the Trump-Kim summit in February, Kim received Xi in Pyongyang—the first visit by a Chinese leader to the North Korean capital in 14 years.All those displays of mutual good-will, however, may have been for naught if Kim Jong Un is no longer around. "I do not think Kim is yet dead," says Ken Eom, but, "I think he's got a serious problem."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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| Georgia businesses reopen and customers start returning, but only time will tell if it's the right decision Posted: 01 May 2020 09:05 AM PDT  Exactly one week since Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp began reopening the state's economy, small businesses shared early success stories as customers welcomed their return. But at what cost? Business owners say only time will tell.
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| Russia's coronavirus cases hit new high, Moscow warns of clampdown Posted: 02 May 2020 01:47 AM PDT  Russia reported 9,623 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in the capital Moscow, where the mayor threatened to cut the number of travel permits. The death toll nationwide rose to 1,222 after 57 people died in the last 24 hours, Russia's coronavirus crisis response centre said, after revising the previous day's tally. Russia has been in partial lockdown, aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus, since the end of March.
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| Intelligence officials and disease experts are shooting down Trump's claim that the US has good reason to believe the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab Posted: 01 May 2020 04:35 AM PDT  Intelligence officials and disease experts told The Washington Post that there's no evidence to back up Trump's theory.
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| Biden's comments on Kavanaugh resurface as he faces his own sexual assault allegations Posted: 01 May 2020 04:59 PM PDT  During Kavanaugh hearings, Biden said: "you've got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she's talking about is real."
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| 'I think it's been overblown:' 32 people were arrested at a protest to re-open California Posted: 02 May 2020 09:25 AM PDT  California Highway Patrol has temporarily banned protests at the state Capitol because they violate stay-at-home orders.
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| 5.4-magnitude earthquake hits near Puerto Rico Posted: 02 May 2020 05:39 PM PDT  The quake caused damage in the city of Ponce and other southern towns on Saturday morning.
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| Sajid Hussain: Swedish police find body of missing Pakistani journalist Posted: 01 May 2020 07:55 AM PDT  Sajid Hussain fled Pakistan for Sweden in 2012 after receiving death threats connected to his work.
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| After Decades of Service, Five Nuns Die as Virus Sweeps Through Convent Posted: 01 May 2020 05:26 AM PDT  CHICAGO -- Our Lady of the Angels Convent was designed as a haven of peace and prayer in a suburb of Milwaukee, a place where aging, frail nuns could rest after spending their lives taking care of others.Songbirds chirped in the sitting area. A courtyard invited morning prayers and strolls for the several dozen nuns who lived in the facility, a low-slung cream-colored building with a turret.The quiet convent has become the site of a deadly cluster of the coronavirus. Four staff members have tested positive, a health official said. Since April 6, five nuns have died from the virus.COVID-19, difficult to contain in any circumstance, has spread within Our Lady of the Angels with a particular invisibility. All five nuns who died were only discovered to have the virus after their deaths.The women had moved into the convent after decades of service in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. They worked in parishes, schools and universities, teaching English and music, ministering to the aged and the poor and nurturing their own passions for literature and the fine arts. Our Lady of the Angels, which specializes in caring for people with dementia, was meant to be their final home.Officials say that this week, as alarm has grown surrounding the outbreak in the convent, medical staff quickly increased testing, ensuring that every resident was tested for the coronavirus. Earlier in April, the facility had temporarily stopped testing nuns for the coronavirus, according to investigative reports by the Milwaukee County medical examiner.Records show that administrators at the convent had reasoned that the process of testing the nuns, by inserting a long nasal swab through a nostril into the back of the throat, was too difficult for them to endure.In early April, Sister Mary Regine Collins was several weeks away from her 96th birthday. She had retired to Our Lady of the Angels after a life filled with religious service and education, according to a biography provided by her ministry, the School Sisters of Notre Dame.She taught in Catholic schools and at a university in Milwaukee; she earned a master's degree in art at the University of Notre Dame in 1962 and was known for her wood carvings.On April 3, she developed a mild cough. The next day she was short of breath. On April 6, she died.The convent staff had attempted to test Collins for the virus, but she had dementia and was "too combative to tolerate" the process, an investigator's report from the medical examiner's office said."Staff is treating her death as if she had COVID," the report said.A post-mortem coronavirus test, conducted by the medical examiner's office, came back positive.There have been at least 6,854 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Wisconsin, according to a New York Times database, and as of Thursday, at least 316 people had died.Most of the deaths have occurred in Milwaukee County, the most populous county in the state. In March, local health officials hosted conference calls with administrators of nursing homes and long-term care facilities, warning them that their residents -- in advanced age, with underlying medical conditions -- would be especially vulnerable."The convent administrator and staff have been following, and continue to follow, all the guidelines and recommendations of the local health department, the facility's infection control coordinator, and the sisters' primary care physician," said Michael O'Loughlin, a spokesman for the School Sisters of St. Francis, a co-sponsor of the convent."They are very aware that the convent's residents, who are elderly and receive specialized memory care, are a vulnerable population, which is why the convent suspended all communal activities and enforced social distancing long before any of the residents tested positive for COVID-19."Darren Rausch, director and health officer for the Greenfield Health Department, said Our Lady of the Angels was among the facilities in the small suburb of Milwaukee that had kept in close touch with his office.From the beginning of the outbreak, the convent staff followed the advice of his department, he said. Isolate positive cases. Make sure staff members are wearing personal protective equipment. Monitor the temperatures and symptoms of residents."It's definitely very challenging," Rausch said, noting that it can be more difficult for medical staff to detect symptoms of the coronavirus in patients with dementia. "They can't always vocalize what's going on."Health officials say that monitoring for COVID-19 is especially crucial in a residential setting full of older, medically vulnerable patients; about one-fifth of coronavirus deaths in the United States have been linked to nursing facilities.Nursing homes and long-term care facilities, which struggled with a widespread lack of tests in the early days of the outbreak, have significantly ramped up testing in recent weeks, even for residents who are asymptomatic.The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has asked long-term care facilities with an outbreak to test residents who appear sick; the specimens can then be sent to a state lab for free COVID-19 testing.Many people who undergo coronavirus tests using the most common method -- swabbing through the nose -- find the test uncomfortable or even painful. Other methods, using a sample of saliva that is spit into a vial, are being introduced in a small number of states but are not widely available yet.O'Loughlin, a spokesman for the ministry, said that since testing at the convent resumed, all of the residents have now been tested, some multiple times.As the convent staff fought to contain the coronavirus outbreak in early April, it took steps to protect the women inside, locking down the facility to visitors and keeping patients who had tested positive for the virus away from others. Each sister has a private room and bathroom, an arrangement that has helped to isolate the sick.But it was too late to stop the spread. A day after the first coronavirus death, another nun died: Sister Marie June Skender, 83, a former elementary schoolteacher and musician whose symptoms had begun with a fever a few days earlier.Sister Mary Francele Sherburne, 99, died two days later. Before retirement, she was a full-time college professor, a music teacher to elementary students and a volunteer instructor for decades to Milwaukeeans learning English as a second language. "Sister Francele had a passion for kite flying," said a biography provided by her ministry.When a doctor at the convent called the medical examiner's office in Milwaukee to report the death, she noted that no COVID-19 test had been performed.The facility "stopped testing as the patients are mostly dementia patients and it was too traumatic," an investigator wrote in the report. "Several other patients had tested positive before they stopped testing."Sister Annelda Holtkamp, 102, the fourth nun at the convent to die of the coronavirus, had been exposed to three people who had already tested positive, records show.Even when testing was performed, it was sometimes difficult to understand which patients were at risk. Early in April, Sister Bernadette Kelter, 88, tested negative for the coronavirus.She later developed a cough, fever and body aches, and lost her appetite. On Sunday, Kelter, a teacher and home health aide before retirement, became the fifth nun at the convent to die of COVID-19.Jane Morgan, the administrator of the convent, said in a statement that she was cooperating with health authorities to prevent further spread of the virus."We welcome prayers for the health and comfort of our residents and staff as we grieve the loss of our sister," Morgan said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| ICE detainees clash with Massachusetts jail officials over coronavirus Posted: 02 May 2020 03:00 PM PDT  It is the ninth time since a national emergency was declared that staff at detention centers used pepper spray on protesting ICE detainees.
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| Secret Service paid $33,000 to Trump's D.C. hotel to guard Mnuchin while he lived there Posted: 30 Apr 2020 10:34 PM PDT  In 2017, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spent several months living in a suite at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., with the Secret Service paying more than $33,000 to rent the adjoining room in order to screen his packages and visitors, three people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. Billing records show the Secret Service was charged $242 per night, which at the time was the maximum rate federal agencies were typically allowed to pay for a room. The room was rented for 137 nights, and the final bill, footed by taxpayers, was $33,154. Mnuchin stayed at the hotel while looking for a home to purchase in Washington. A Treasury Department spokesperson told the Post Mnuchin paid for his suite with his own money, and was able to negotiate a discounted rate.When asked by the Post if Mnuchin considered how much it would cost taxpayers to have the Secret Service rent a hotel room for an extended period of time, the spokesperson said, "The secretary was not aware of what the U.S. Secret Service paid for the adjoining room."Renting a room in order to guard a Treasury secretary is standard Secret Service practice, people familiar with the matter told the Post, but during other administrations, the president didn't own the hotel that was being paid. The Trump Organization has not revealed how much federal agencies have paid to the company since Trump's 2017 inauguration, but using public records, the Post has found more than 170 payments from the Secret Service to Trump properties, for a total of more than $620,000. Many of these payments stem from the Secret Service accompanying Trump on trips to his own hotels. Read more at The Washington Post.More stories from theweek.com The angst over Joe Biden's assault allegation has an easy resolution Mitt Romney sides with Democrats calling for $12 hourly raises for essential workers 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Mike Pence's unmasked hospital visit
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| Former Green Beret led failed attempt to oust Venezuela's Maduro Posted: 02 May 2020 09:11 AM PDT  About 300 heavily armed volunteers had planned to sneak into Venezuela from South America. Along the way, they would raid military bases in the country and ignite a rebellion that would end in President Nicolás Maduro's arrest.
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| WHO official says agency not invited to take part in China's coronavirus investigation Posted: 01 May 2020 07:17 AM PDT  "The priority is we need to know as much as possible to prevent the reoccurrence," Dr. Gauden Galea said.
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| Ten soldiers killed in bomb attack in north Egypt Posted: 01 May 2020 11:07 AM PDT  Ten Egyptian soldiers, including an army officer, died in a bomb attack during the holy month of Ramadan in the volatile northern Sinai region of the country. The region is known for its jihadist insurrection and it is suspected this attack was carried out by Islamic State although no one immediately claimed responsibility. A spokesman for the army said the soldiers were targeted as they travelled in convoy near the town of Bir al-Abed on Thursday. The Egyptian army has been fighting an insurgency from the Sinai branch of IS since 2013. Fighting has intensified since the ousting of Mohamed Morsi that year. Since the Egyptian military moved into the region, official figures show that more than 845 jihadists and nearly 70 members of the security forces have lost their lives. However, it is impossible to verify these figures, as the region is cut off from media access. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised the fallen soldiers as "heroes" and "martyrs." Footballer Mohamed Salah was among those commenting on the incident, as he wrote on Twitter: "May God have mercy on the martyrs of the homeland in the Sinai and my wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured."
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| Biden asks the secretary of the Senate to direct a search for an alleged sexual harassment complaint filed by a former staffer Posted: 01 May 2020 11:39 PM PDT  Biden allows access to his Senate records to see if there are documents to corroborate accusor's claims after previously denying access.
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| A man was found camping out on Disney World's abandoned Discovery Island park during coronavirus shutdown. He told police he didn't know he was trespassing. Posted: 02 May 2020 07:25 AM PDT  Richard McGuire, 42, was arrested on Thursday after security found him on Walt Disney World's Discovery Island.
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| U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl's parents challenge freeing of his convicted killers Posted: 02 May 2020 08:18 AM PDT  Slain U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl's parents have petitioned to the Pakistani Supreme Court seeking to overturn a ruling that freed four men who had been convicted in 2002 of involvement in his killing, their lawyer said on Saturday. "We're standing up for justice, not only for our son, but for all our dear friends in Pakistan so they can live in a society free of violence and terrorism," Pearl's father Judea said in an emotional video message posted on Twitter. Islamist militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a Briton of Pakistani origin who was sentenced to death in 2002 for masterminding Pearl's murder, had his sentence commuted last month and three of his aides who had been sentenced to life in prison were acquitted for lack of evidence by a high court in the southern port city of Karachi.
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| As weather warms amid coronavirus outbreak, states face new challenges Posted: 02 May 2020 11:22 AM PDT  Governors across the U.S. are encouraging people to continue practicing social distancing amid summer weather
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| "I'm starving now": World faces unprecedented hunger crisis Posted: 02 May 2020 04:03 PM PDT  There's "a real danger that more people could potentially die from the economic impact of COVID-19 than from the virus itself," says the U.N. food agency's chief.
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| Pence's office is selectively retaliating against reporters who disclosed its Mayo Clinic mask warning Posted: 01 May 2020 03:12 AM PDT  Vice President Mike Pence wore a mask at a ventilator plant in Indiana on Thursday, two days after he was criticized for flouting the Mayo Clinic's rules by declining to wear facial covering. But for some reason, Pence's office seems to want to keep the story alive.Karen Pence assured Fox News on Thursday that her husband had not been informed of the mandatory mask policy until after the Mayo tour concluded. This contradicted a since-deleted tweet from the Mayo Clinic, and two reporters tweeted after Karen Pence's interview that the vice president's office had informed them a day earlier about the Mayo Clinic's policy.> All of us who traveled with him were notified by the office of @VP the day before the trip that wearing of masks was required by the @MayoClinic and to prepare accordingly. https://t.co/LFqh27LusD> > — Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 30, 2020> also, everyone in the entire Mayo Clinic had a mask on, everyone, and we were all told the day before we had to wear a mask if we entered the clinic https://t.co/cNW4fJ87Q4> > — Gordon Lubold (@glubold) April 30, 2020Steve Herman, who covers the White House for VOA News, said the White House Correspondents' Association informed him Pence's office has banned him from further travel on Air Force Two, The Washington Post reports. Pence's office and VOA later said discussions are still ongoing about any possible punishment. Gordon Lubold, who works for The Wall Street Journal, has not been sanctioned by Pence's office for his tweet.The ostensible issue is Herman violating confidentiality rules. Monday's planning memo was marked "OFF THE RECORD AND FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY," but that standard requirement is typically for security purposes, the Post reports, and "there's some question about how long the obligation lasts — whether it is permanent or only applies to the period before and during the trip." Herman's tweet was nearly 48 hours after the trip. Pence's office declined to comment.More stories from theweek.com The angst over Joe Biden's assault allegation has an easy resolution Mitt Romney sides with Democrats calling for $12 hourly raises for essential workers 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Mike Pence's unmasked hospital visit
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| Unmasked Protesters Storm Huntington Beach After California Governor’s Closure Posted: 01 May 2020 05:18 PM PDT  Give them Vitamin D or give them death.Hundreds of demonstrators swarmed Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, on Friday to protest California Gov. Gavin Newsom's closure of the Golden State's sandy shores—an anti-lockdown display organized in part by the owner of a "health and wellness center."Reporters on the scene captured footage of banners for President Donald Trump's campaign, "Don't Tread on Me" flags, and homemade signs with slogans such as "Freedom is Essential." Overhead shots showed mounted cops corralling the demonstrators onto sidewalks and out of the road. It was clear that many protesters were not wearing masks that health officials say can help curb the spread of COVID-19.One of the organizers behind Friday's event is Vivienne Reign of an organization called "We Have Rights." She is also owner of the East Bay Health and Wellness Center and multiple companies marketing medical devices, corporate records show. Reign, however, refused to confirm her ties to the clinic, which specializes in chiropractic treatment and "regenerative medicine." In an interview hours before the protest began, Reign said she was not connected to Freedomworks, the right-of-center advocacy network which has backed other protests demanding shuttered states reopen, or to any groups bankrolled by libertarian billionaire Charles Koch, who has ties to Freedomworks.'Very, Very Scary': Officials Dumbfounded as Florida Beaches Reopen, 3 Days After Death SpikeShe claimed that We Have Rights had simply capitalized on the grassroots outrage Newsom provoked with his order, which he issued after crowds packed the coastline last weekend in defiance of the need for social distancing amid a global pandemic that has killed more than 2,000 Californians and another 60,000 Americans."'When that came out, people were pissed," she said, arguing the war with COVID-19 is effectively over, even though health experts say reopening could trigger a second wave. "The curve has essentially been beaten, so we decided we've gotta go do something about this."WeHaveRights.com, which calls itself without any backup "the biggest movement in California," was first registered just two weeks ago.Reign claimed her organization, which she characterized as an umbrella group encompassing multiple pro-reopening factions in California, has a wealthy benefactor—though she would not say who. "There's a lot of powerful people behind this, and we can get things done," she insisted.The East Bay Health and Wellness Center attracted criticism last year for marketing unproven stem cell injections as a treatment for joint pain.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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| Kim Jong-un: Trump 'glad' about reappearance of North Korean leader Posted: 02 May 2020 04:58 PM PDT  The reported appearance came after weeks of speculation over the North Korean leader's health.
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| China says it 'expelled' U.S. Navy vessel from South China Sea Posted: 02 May 2020 01:14 AM PDT  A spokesman for the Department of Defense disputed Beijing's account, saying "at no point were U.S. warships 'expelled.'"
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| No evidence of a second wave in Germany after lockdown lifted Posted: 01 May 2020 06:40 AM PDT  All eyes have been on Germany this week, amid claims the country is facing a second wave of coronavirus infections because it lifted its lockdown too soon. But the German government figures cited as evidence of a second wave show nothing of the sort. Even Dominic Raab got in on the act, telling a Number 10 press conference "Having relaxed restrictions in Germany over the past week, they have seen a rise in the transmission rate of coronavirus". The problem, as German government scientists have been at pains to point out, is that it's simply too early to know anything about the effects of lifting lockdown on transmission rates — because there is no reliable data yet. The figure that made international headlines this week was a brief rise in the German reproduction number, or R — the number of people each infected person passes the virus on to. The reproduction number had been falling for weeks, so when it rose above government targets to 1.0 on Monday, it was seized on as evidence of a second wave. But as Prof Lothar Wieler of Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) explained this week, the rise didn't include data on the effects of lifting lockdown. The only reliable data we have is the daily deaths and cases rate:
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| Fact Check: Reps. Omar and Ocasio-Cortez are not trying to ban Pledge of Allegiance Posted: 01 May 2020 05:30 AM PDT  There is no evidence in any public record or legitimate news report of either member of Congress regarding a purported Pledge of Allegiance ban.
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| The cardinal known as 'the Pope's 'Robin Hood' is helping transsexual prostitutes struggling in Italy's coronavirus lockdown Posted: 02 May 2020 10:49 AM PDT  "This is ordinary work for the Church, it's normal," Cardinal Konrad Krajewski told Reuters.
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| The Capitol's top doctor says there aren't enough coronavirus tests for all 100 senators, even though the White House rapidly tests anyone in contact with Trump and Pence Posted: 01 May 2020 07:26 AM PDT  Senate Democrats have been sharply critical of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's decision to reconvene next week.
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| Report says coronavirus pandemic could last for 2 years Posted: 02 May 2020 06:24 AM PDT  An estimated 70% of the human population may need to be immune to halt the pandemic, researchers say.
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| Wages Seized. Bank Accounts Frozen. The Poor Are Getting Poorer as Creditors Pursue Debts Posted: 01 May 2020 10:22 AM PDT  'Things were bad before the COVID emergency, they got worse with COVID, and they're going to get even worse.'
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| Biden may have incidentally provided Trump campaign with a new point of attack Posted: 02 May 2020 08:31 AM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden didn't seem to be doing himself any favors Friday when he refused to unseal the senatorial papers he sent to the University of Delaware amid accusations of sexual assault made by his former staffer, Tara Reade, Politico reports.Biden finally addressed the allegations Friday, claiming they weren't true. He went on to say that any complaint filed by Reade (Reade said she didn't mention the alleged assault in her complaint, but that he "made her feel uncomfortable") about the alleged incident wouldn't be found among his papers, but rather in the National Archives. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, asked the National Archives to release whatever they come across. But things got complicated when the National Archives said personnel records are actually held by the Senate, whose rules say they're actually held by the General Services Administration, which said they're actually held by, you guessed it, the National Archives.The confusion quickly lit a spark among President Trump's re-election campaign that will likely keep burning throughout the cycle. "The most transparent thing Joe Biden did this morning was admit that he is hiding documents so they can't be used against him," said Emma Vaughn, Florida press secretary for the Republican National Committee, in a statement.Of course, it's not only Biden's GOP opponents who want to know more about Reade's allegations — many Democrats are also pushing for the case to be scrutinized more closely, and opening up the Delaware archives would be one way to start. However, several people told Politico that it's standard to keep those documents under wraps while a politician is still active. Read more at Politico.More stories from theweek.com The angst over Joe Biden's assault allegation has an easy resolution Mitt Romney sides with Democrats calling for $12 hourly raises for essential workers 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Mike Pence's unmasked hospital visit
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| U.K.s Johnson names new son with tribute to doctors who treated him for COVID-19 Posted: 02 May 2020 07:38 AM PDT  Nicholas was inspired by the names of two doctors who had treated Johnson in hospital, his fiancée Carrie Symonds said.
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| More people hit China roads in first major holiday since coronavirus easing Posted: 02 May 2020 03:54 AM PDT  China's most populous cities saw a spike in outbound travellers, tourists and day-trippers on May 1, first day of a long holiday weekend, led by Wuhan, epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic that first struck the country late last year. The number of people travelling outside their home cities jumped 40% at the start of the Labour Day weekend, compared with the first day of the Tomb Sweeping holiday on April 4, according to Reuters calculations on data from China's internet giant Baidu Inc . The increase in outbound travel during the five-day holiday, one of China's peak tourism periods each year, would help lift the travel and hospitality sectors that have been hit hard by disruption from the coronavirus pandemic.
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| North Korea tries to end speculation over supreme leader's health with ribbon cutting pictures Posted: 02 May 2020 05:57 AM PDT  Most ribbon cutting ceremonies are unremarkable affairs, the stuff of local newspaper photographs at most. But this one was different. It involved North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un in his first reported appearance in 20 days, during which there has been intense speculation about his health and even whether he was still alive. The newly released footage of Kim glad-handing at a North Korean fertilizer production plant north of Pyongyang on Friday would appear to have put an end to that. He was even pictured standing in front of a banner reading May 1, to drive home the point, much in the way hostages are forced to hold up that day's newspaper for the camera as proof of life. The date is also written in the Latin alphabet, in case there were any doubts about which audience this 'proof ' is for (see picture below).
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| WH press secretary says she will 'never lie' to the media Posted: 01 May 2020 12:16 PM PDT  At her first briefing as White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany said she will never lie to reporters.
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| US pushing to punish Iran by invoking nuclear deal Trump abandoned Posted: 01 May 2020 08:13 AM PDT  The United States is pushing ahead with a scheme to extend a United Nations arms embargo on Iran that is due to be lifted in October as part of the nuclear deal that Washington abandoned two years ago.To force the extension, Washington will attempt to lobby the Security Council to continue the arms embargo, which bars weapons sales to or from Iran.
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| A woman fell 115-feet to her death after posing for a cliffside photo to celebrate the end of a lockdown Posted: 02 May 2020 12:40 AM PDT  Tour guide Olesya Suspitsyna, from Kazakhstan, died after slipping on grass and falling off a cliff in the Duden Park in Antalya, Turkey.
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| DOJ began investigating a doctor promoting unproven COVID-19 treatments after Roger Stone's former associate accidentally emailed a federal prosecutor instead of the doctor Posted: 01 May 2020 08:12 AM PDT  Corsi meant to email the doctor and instead emailed Aaron Zelinsky, one of the prosecutors who spent months investigating him in the Russia probe.
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| High school seniors are changing their college plans because of coronavirus Posted: 01 May 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Some students are taking gap years, attending schools closer to home, transferring to community colleges or even forgoing college altogether.
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| Top E.U. Official Confirms China Objected to Coronavirus Report, Denies Revisions Were Result of Pressure Posted: 01 May 2020 07:23 AM PDT  The European Union's foreign policy chief admitted Thursday that China "expressed their concerns" over an EU report on Chinese disinformation regarding coronavirus, after allegations that his team had watered down their initial findings "to appease the Chinese Communist Party."Speaking to the European Parliament in Brussels, Josep Borrell denied that Beijing had coerced him to soften the report's verdict. Drafts of the report showed that language condemning China for "a global disinformation campaign" was removed, while an analyst in the EU administration warned her superiors of "self-censoring.""I can assure you that no changes had been introduced to the report published last week to align the concerns of a third party, in this case, China. There is no watering down of our findings. We have not bowed to anyone," he said.But Borrell admitted that it was "clear and evident" China was unhappy with the leaked report, first reported by the New York Times, stressing that the Chinese "expressed their concerns through the diplomatic channels."The admission did not satisfy some lawmakers. Thierry Mariani, a French politician, told Borrell that his team had been "caught with their hand in the cookie jar," while a Beligan member, Hilde Vautmans, demanded further answers. "Who interfered? Which Chinese official put pressure? At what level? What means of pressure?" she asked. "I think Europe needs to know that. Otherwise you're losing all credibility."Borrell did not go into details over his contact with China over the report. "The Chinese were not happy," he stated. "They were not happy at the beginning and they are still not happy now."
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