Posts

Showing posts from March, 2020

Open coffins are left on roads to remind people to stay inside while soldiers shoot disinfectant from water cannons. Here's what lockdown for 57 million people in the Philippines looks like.

Image
Despite the lockdown, on Sunday the Philippines reported a daily increase of 343 new coronavirus cases — its highest one day increase yet. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3dJFHSo

'I don't know what he's trying to say': Cuomo on Trump's accusation that medical PPE is being stolen by health workers

Image
At a coronavirus press briefing, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he didn’t know what President Trump was talking about with regard to his accusation that medical personnel were stealing personal protective equipment. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3bAd1cM

Justice Department audit finds widespread flaws in FBI surveillance applications

Image
The finding by Inspector General Michael Horowitz came after an earlier inquiry found numerous errors in court submissions seeking surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3dMSZOm

Venezuela rejects a U.S. offer to ease sanctions in exchange for transitional government

Image
A former senior U.S. government official says it's the "best" deal they can get, while an analyst said this is more about "politics than policy." from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2w3wzat

10 cruise ships that are still at sea as the coronavirus shuts down the cruise industry

Image
Ships from cruise lines like Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and Cunard Line are still at sea. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2xGzp5r

Huawei warns China will strike back against new U.S. restrictions

Image
Huawei warned on Tuesday that 2020 would be its most difficult year yet due to American trade restrictions which dealt a blow to its overseas sales in 2019, and predicted the Chinese government would retaliate against the United States. It said Beijing could hit back against U.S. measures to restrict chip sales to Huawei, by restricting sales of American products in China and by shifting to alternative suppliers in China and South Korea. "The Chinese government will not just stand by and watch Huawei be slaughtered on the chopping board," Chairman Eric Xu told reporters at the launch of Huawei's annual report. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2UxsvZr

What does furlough mean? Can I leave my home under shelter-in-place? Coronavirus terms, explained

Image
What does it mean when you hear New York is the coronavirus "epicenter" in the United States? Do doctors say they need ventilators or respirator? from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2wHrll9

Coronavirus lockdowns are working, according to data from digital thermometer app

Image
Three-quarters of Americans have been urged or ordered to stay at home, to the extent possible, to stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and those measures appear to be working, The New York Times reports, citing data from internet-connected thermometer company Kinsa. The thermometers and their app upload temperature readings to a centralized database, allowing Kinsa to track fevers across the country. It started mapping fevers to catch flu outbreaks in 2018, and it modified its software to look for "atypical" COVID-19 fevers earlier in March.Kinsa's million-plus thermometers have been recording up to 162,000 readings from around the U.S. each day since the coronavirus started spreading, the Times reports. Only strict social-distancing measures — closing bars and restaurants, asking people to shelter in place — led to a significant drop in fever readings, while declaring a state of emergency or limiting the size of public gatherings had little effect. Data from New...

Russia's top coronavirus doctor who met Putin tests positive

Image
The head of Moscow's main coronavirus hospital who met with President Vladimir Putin a week ago has tested positive, he said Tuesday, as the Kremlin announced the Russian leader's health was fine. Last Tuesday Denis Protsenko met with the Russian leader who inspected the Kommunarka hospital while wearing a bright yellow hazmat suit. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov swiftly told Russian news agencies that Putin took regular tests and there was no reason to worry about his health. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3ateFwG

‘Never Thought I Would Need It’: Americans Put Pride Aside to Seek Aid

Image
By BY CARA BUCKLEY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Uygm6p

Human Rights Group Says Two U.S. Strikes Killed Somali Civilians

Image
By BY CHARLIE SAVAGE AND HELENE COOPER from NYT World https://ift.tt/3dFYDSa

Hellmut Stern, 91, Dies; Violinist Returned to Germany After Fleeing

Image
By BY KATHARINE Q. SEELYE from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/2R0fBku

Coronavirus: Stock markets suffer worst quarter since 1987

The Dow Jones and FTSE 100 have fallen more than 20% since the start of the year. from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/39wrB3M

Mexico president ramps up rich vs poor rhetoric in coronavirus fight

Image
As the outlook for Mexico's economy gets gloomier during the coronavirus crisis, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has driven home the message that his government is ready to help the poor to weather the storm - but that the rich can forget it. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2wT7uiH

Australian authorities take cluster approach to contain coronavirus

Image
Australian authorities will open a pop-up coronavirus testing clinic next to Sydney's Bondi Beach on Wednesday as health workers try to contain clusters of infections across the country. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2ymlXEh

Liberty University students choose sides after fallout from coronavirus reporting

Image
The New York Times reported this week that almost a dozen Liberty University students have come down with COVID-19 symptoms since the school reopened last week. But Liberty University officials have since pushed back on these claims, calling the Times story “fake news”. Now, students are choosing sides in who they believe is telling the truth. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3dLYdtl

U.S. records 700 coronavirus deaths in a single day for first time

Image
The U.S. government raced to build hundreds of makeshift hospitals to ease the strain on overwhelmed healthcare systems as the United States marked 700 deaths in a single day from COVID-19 for the first time on Tuesday. Nearly half those deaths were in New York state, still the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pleaded for reinforcements from the Trump administration, saying the worst may still be weeks away. De Blasio, a Democrat, said he had asked the White House for an additional 1,000 nurses, 300 respiratory therapists and 150 doctors by April 5 but had yet to receive an answer from the Trump administration. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Ju1W0Q

Do I Have to Pay My Rent or Mortgage During the Pandemic?

Image
As March winds down, at least 250 million Americans have been told to stay home or “shelter in place” to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Problem is, many can’t help wondering if they can still afford a place to shelter in—if they ever could.Long before the coronavirus pandemic, generous swaths of the United States faced an affordable housing crisis. With millions of Americans losing their jobs and millions more facing unemployment in the near future thanks to a concerted economic shutdown geared at reining in the disease, talk of rent strikes and freezes are in the air.The Trump administration recently nodded to the problem by ordering a foreclosure moratorium on single-family home mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration or obtained through government-owned lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Fannie and Freddie have also offered forbearance for borrowers experiencing hardship. And the finance giants have dangled payment relief to indebted apartment building owners who ...

Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jews in fight over virus rules

Image
Israeli police with face masks and batons and backed by surveillance helicopters have stepped up patrols of ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods that have become coronavirus hotspots. This week has seen tense altercations, and some rabbis have admitted that their communities, where prayer and scripture study are traditionally communal, are not observing new social distancing regulations. A few days ago in Bnei Brak, a city near Tel Aviv with a largely ultra-Orthodox population, hundreds of faithful crowded together to attend the funeral of prominent rabbi Tzi Shenkar. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QZvGXG

IG Horowitz Found ‘Apparent Errors or Inadequately Supported Facts’ in Every Single FBI FISA Application He Reviewed

Image
The Justice Department inspector general said it does “not have confidence” in the FBI’s FISA application process following an audit that found the Bureau was not sufficiently transparent with the court in 29 applications from 2014 to 2019, all of which included “apparent errors or inadequately supported facts.”Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report in December which found that the FBI included “at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications and many errors in the Woods Procedures” during its Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign. After releasing the report, Horowitz said that he would conduct a further investigation to see if the errors identified in the Page application were widespread.“The concern is that this is such a high-profile, important case. If it happened here, is this indicative of a wider problem — and we will only know that when we complete our audit — or is it isolated to this event?” Horowitz told l...

Fact check: Did NY pass on buying ventilators to fund tuition for undocumented immigrants?

Image
We rate as false a Facebook user's claim about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, ventilator stockpiling and tuition for undocumented immigrants. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2w6NCsc

Trump news – live: President now admits coronavirus deaths won’t slow until June as hospital ship arrives in New York harbour

Image
Donald Trump has branded House speaker Nancy Pelosi “a sick puppy” during an interview with Fox and Friends after extending the timeline for the US to remain in lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic until at least 30 April, abandoning his “aspiration” to have the country back in business by Easter.The White House’s top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has meanwhile warned that his projection of a potential 100,000 to 200,000 American deaths is “entirely conceivable” if not enough is done to mitigate the crisis, with the president commenting that containing the disaster to that level would represent “a very good job”. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/33U8cIA

Coronavirus Spreads in Veterans’ Home, Leaving ‘Shuddering Loss for Us All’

Image
By BY ELLEN BARRY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3dLIbQg

Virus Prompts Workplace Protests Over Health Concerns

Image
By BY NOAM SCHEIBER AND KATE CONGER from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2QWRCCy

Trump to Governors: I’d Like You to Do Us a Favor, Though

Image
By BY MICHELLE GOLDBERG from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2QWRhjg

Alison Roman’s Seder Table

Image
By BY ALISON ROMAN from NYT Food https://ift.tt/3aGXqIB

Brazil's Bolsonaro urges no more coronavirus quarantine, says jobs being lost

Image
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that there can be no more quarantine measures imposed on the country than those already in place to combat coronavirus because jobs are being destroyed and the poor are suffering disproportionately. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2wFhlZF

In scrappy Cambodian casino town, Chinese plan future beyond coronavirus

Image
When casino owner Kang Qiang looks out the window of his 20th floor office in this city on the remote Cambodian coast, he sees construction cranes sitting idle. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2xDSZ2d

The UK's coronavirus lockdown could be extended for up to 6 months, with some restrictions lasting even longer

Image
The UK government's deputy chief medical officer said it would probably take three to six months "to see at which point we can get back to normal." from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3dEVHFg

Indian police fire tear gas at jobless workers defying coronavirus lockdown

Image
NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - Police in India fired tear gas to disperse a stone-pelting crowd of migrant workers defying a three-week lockdown against the coronavirus that has left hundreds of thousands of poor without jobs and hungry, authorities said on Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the country's 1.3 billion people to remain indoors until April 15, declaring such self-isolation was the only hope to stop the viral pandemic. On Sunday, about 500 workers clashed with police in the western city of Surat demanding they be allowed to go home to other parts of India because they had no jobs left. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2wMxQmz

Trump extends social distancing guidelines to April 30, predicts 'great things' by June 1

Image
Trump last week said he wanted to see the much of the country opening back up by Easter. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2UpAE1X

Serial killer dubbed Grim Sleeper dies in California prison

Image
Lonnie Franklin, the convicted serial killer known as the "Grim Sleeper" who preyed on the women of South Los Angeles for more than two decades, has died in prison. California corrections officials said Franklin was found unresponsive in his cell at San Quentin State Prison on Saturday evening. An autopsy will determine the cause of death; however, there were no signs of trauma, corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said in a statement. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3bBhtrP

Surge of virus cases in California threatens hospitals

Image
A surge of coronavirus cases in California has arrived and will worsen, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday, while the mayor of Los Angeles warned that by early next week his city could see the kind of crush that has crippled New York. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/39rIY5x

New York's coronavirus death toll just topped 1,000, but Gov. Cuomo warns that 'thousands' will die

Image
Accessible, rapid testing could bring a "return to normalcy," Cuomo said. But for now, he's extending New York's lockdown another two weeks. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2wQ0jYy

U.S. Congress eyes next steps in coronavirus response

Image
Three days after passing a $2.2 trillion package aimed at easing the heavy economic blow of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Congress was looking on Monday at additional steps it might take as the country's death toll approached 3,000. Democrats who control the House of Representatives were discussing boosting payments to low- and middle-income workers, likely to be among the most vulnerable as companies lay off and furlough millions of workers, as well as eliminating out-of-pocket costs for coronavirus medical treatment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would work with Republicans to craft a bill that could also provide added protections for front-line workers and substantially more support for state and local governments to deal with one of the largest public health crises in U.S. history. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QUuEfG

The U.S. is preparing for a medical supply airlift of unprecedented scale

Image
As hospitals across the United States face a shortage of medical supplies in the face of the novel coronavirus pandemic, planes are gearing up to bring in reinforcements.The first aircraft in a series of flights scheduled by the White House over the next 30 days arrived in New York from Shanghai on Sunday morning, bringing with it 12 million gloves, 130,000 N95 masks, 17.6 surgical masks, 50,000 gowns, 130,000 hand sanitizer units, and 36,000 thermometers, all of which will be distributed throughout the New York tri-state area. A non-government distributor had actually already bought the supplies and planned to sell them in New York, but they'd normally arrive on ships. A sea voyage would've taken over a month, so the government is expediting the process by air. Going forward, the U.S. has 22 similar flights coming in over the next two weeks that will distribute supplies to different parts of the country, per Axios.Navy Rear Admiral John Polowcyzk, who is running the Federal Em...

Mexico's president shifts tone on coronavirus, urges people to stay home, warns of dire consequences

Image
Critics said Mexico's president was downplaying the coronavirus threat. But he has now shifted his tone. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2WSamas

Coronavirus: 'Millions' of Americans could be infected, expert warns

Image
The US government's leading expert warns up to 200,000 people could die, as cases continue to rise. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2xARiTy

Kremlin Fights U.S. Sanctions, Backs Maduro in Rosneft Deal

Image
(Bloomberg) -- The Kremlin’s sudden shift of ownership of multi-billion-dollar oil projects in Venezuela shields oil giant Rosneft PJSC from further U.S. sanctions but keeps Moscow firmly behind embattled President Nicolas Maduro amid a wider stand-off with Washington.“Russia is not walking away from Maduro and will seek to thwart U.S. efforts to depose him,” said Vladimir Frolov, a former diplomat and foreign policy analyst in Moscow. “Moscow is just shielding Rosneft from sanctions which could result in a blanket embargo on all Rosneft exports.”Fears of broader sanctions have grown after the U.S. in recent months slapped restrictions on Rosneft trading companies for handling business with Venezuela. More recently, the U.S. has hinted that it might step up pressure on the Russian oil sector to reduce production. That followed Moscow’s decision early this month not to deepen output cuts agreed with OPEC led Saudi Arabia to boost output, flooding the market and pushing prices to the low...