Los Angeles Times
Two members of Congress have tested positive for coronavirus
Two members of Congress — Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, and Rep. Ben McAdams, a Utah Democrat — announced on Wednesday that they had tested positive for the coronavirus, as the pandemic continued to spread.
Díaz-Balart was the first to make the announcement… Shortly after he announced his results, McAdams announced that he too was infected.
Trump harnesses wartime powers and signs coronavirus legislation
Trump on Wednesday invoked wartime powers that could boost the manufacturing of medical equipment used to fight the coronavirus pandemic, as hospitals braced for a nationwide explosion of infections and Congress rushed to pass emergency legislation to keep the country’s economy on life support.
The Senate passed a measure — already approved by the House — to provide free testing and expand sick leave for Americans, and Trump signed it just hours later. With the stock market plummeting and layoffs mounting, lawmakers are already working on the next package of proposals, expected to top $1 trillion, including aid to struggling industries and individual checks to most taxpayers.
Trump also ordered a halt to evictions from public housing for those affected by the coronavirus, and to foreclosures for homeowners who have mortgages backed by the federal government.
Stocks tumble as coronavirus fears lead investors to dash for cash
Stocks on Wall Street tumbled more than 5% on Wednesday, and the Dow Jones industrial average erased virtually all the gains it had made since … Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Even prices for investments seen as safe during downturns fell as the coronavirus pandemic chokes the economy and investors rush to raise cash. […]
The S&P 500’s Wednesday slide was so sharp that it triggered a 15-minute automatic halt to trading. The index ended the day down 5.2%; earlier in the day, it was down as much as 9.8%.
The Washington Post
Trump’s $1 trillion stimulus is a gamble for reelection
The novel coronavirus is redefining Donald Trump’s presidency eight months before he stands for reelection as he wagers that the potentially largest rescue package in U.S. history could protect the American people from the economic carnage brought by the pandemic.
Trump will be tested at the ballot box not only by his management of the public health crisis but also his ability to navigate what the president says will likely be a recession — a challenge that is reviving the decade-long debate over the use of public money to prop up private businesses. […]
When Mnuchin visited with Republican senators at their Tuesday lunch, the secretary pleaded with them not to use the politically charged word “bailout” in describing the proposed relief for Boeing, one of many large corporations that stands to benefit from the administration’s plan. One senator raised a hand and asked if they should instead call them “freedom payments,” which prompted laughter, according to a person briefed on the closed-door meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid about the discussion.
Campaign signals Sanders may be open to exit
Bernie Sanders signaled Wednesday that he was open to ending his presidential run after another round of landslide losses to Joe Biden, and new signs emerged of communication between the two camps as some Democrats hoped for a swift end to a bruising primary.
Sanders campaign officials said the senator from Vermont planned to leave Washington and return home, where he and his wife, Jane, would talk to supporters and determine the future of his presidential run. The campaign also suspended its Facebook ads and, uncharacteristically, made no request for donations in an email to backers updating them on the situation.
Trump, Trudeau agree to close U.S.-Canada border to ‘nonessential’ traffic
The United States and Canada agreed to close their 5,500-mile border to nonessential traffic Wednesday, a drastic measure that officials hope will help stanch the spread of the novel coronavirus in both countries.
[…] Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided to close the border Wednesday morning, Trudeau said at a news conference. People will no longer be able to traverse between the two countries for recreation and tourism, Trudeau said. It was not clear when the border would reopen.
“In both our countries we’re encouraging people to stay home,” Trudeau said.
The Guardian
Italy charges more than 40,000 people with violating lockdown
Italian authorities have pressed charges against more than 40,000 people for violating the lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus, according to figures from the interior ministry.
While millions of Italians have been staying at home since 9 March, when the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, imposed a national quarantine, a minority of the population have violated rules requiring citizens to venture out only if strictly necessary, such as for work, health-related reasons or grocery shopping.
Italy reported its biggest daily rise in deaths on Wednesday, with 475 new fatalities. The country now has 35,713 cases – approaching half the total for China, which stands at 81,102.
'Wonderchicken': oldest fossil of modern bird discovered
Experts have discovered a fossil of the world’s oldest known modern bird – a diminutive creature about half the size of a mallard duck.
Dubbed the Wonderchicken, the remains were found in rocks dating to about 66.8m to 66.7m years ago, revealing that the bird was active shortly before the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 66m years ago.
“This is the oldest evidence of modern birds that we have so far,” said Dr Daniel Field, of the University of Cambridge, an avian palaeontologist and co-author of the research.
Bloomberg
U.S. Jobless Claims Are Poised for Historic Surge
As efforts to contain the coronavirus intensify, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits is poised for a historic surge.
… Potentially millions of Americans [will] likely to lose jobs as the virus halts travel and events. It’s forced restaurants and bars to close and slowed business to a crawl in any still open. As more people stay home, a swath of businesses -- from coffee shops to dentist offices -- are also laying off workers. For a sense of the enormity of what’s coming, those state numbers compare to total U.S. jobless claims of just 211,000 for the week ending March 7, which was in line with recent trends and not far from the 49-year low of 193,000 in April.
ABC News
Venice canals are clear enough to see fish as coronavirus halts tourism in the city
The coronavirus pandemic has had an unexpected side effect in Venice, where the normally cloudy canals have transformed into water crystal clear enough to see fish swimming below. […]
However, the transparent water isn't so much a sign of better water quality as it is the result of the lack of boat traffic, which typically kicks sediment to the surface, Pierpaolo Campostrini, the managing director for the Consortium for Managing Scientific Research on Venice Lagoon System, told ABC News via email.
"The low turbidity of the water does not mean cleanliness," Campostrini said. "The transparency is due to the absence of sediment resuspension."
AP News
US military’s role in response to virus outbreak is growing
The Pentagon’s role in responding to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States began to rapidly expand Wednesday as officials announced that two Navy hospital ships and two Army field hospitals were preparing to deploy to help overburdened regions.
The latest moves are aimed at taking the pressure off local hospitals so that they can free up rooms and staff to deal with virus patients. Military hospital ships and field units are geared toward treating trauma cases.
The military moves, however, face limits. It will take as long as two weeks for the USS Comfort hospital ship to get to New York City, where the governor has been pressing for medical help.
Africa should ‘prepare for the worst’ with virus, WHO says
Africa should “prepare for the worst” as the coronavirus begins to spread locally, the World Health Organization’s director-general said Wednesday, while South Africa became the continent’s new focus of concern as cases nearly doubled to 116 from two days before.
South Africa’s health minister, Zweli Mkhize, this week called that kind of rate “explosive” in the country with the most cases in sub-Saharan Africa. Fourteen of the latest cases were from local transmission — and six were in children under 10. […]
“I think Africa should wake up. My continent should wake up,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who comes from Ethiopia.
Amid virus, Congress’ leaders resist call for remote voting
Congressional leaders are resisting calls to let lawmakers vote remotely, a dispute pitting the scourge of the coronavirus against two centuries of tradition that underscores Washington’s struggle to adapt to swiftly evolving recommendations for coping with the pandemic.
Advocates of the voting change cite the health perils of air travel at a time when health experts want people to avoid crowds. They argue that as infections spread, it may become all but impossible for many lawmakers to journey to the Capitol because of the growing risk of getting the virus.
“There was a time when physical presence was the only way to make sure that a person was present and voting,” said No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “I think that technology gives us other options and we better exercise them.”
BBC News
Coronavirus: Asian nations face second wave of imported cases
South Korea, China and Singapore are among the Asian countries facing a second coronavirus wave, spurred by people importing it from outside.
China, where the virus first emerged, reported no new domestic cases on Thursday for the first time since it started recording numbers in January. But it reported 34 new cases among people recently returned to China.
South Korea saw a jump in new cases on Thursday with 152, though it is not clear how many were imported.
New Zealand passes law decriminalising abortion
New Zealand's parliament has passed a bill decriminalising abortion and allowing women to choose a termination up to 20 weeks into a pregnancy. Voting to remove the procedure from the country's Crimes Act changes a law that has been in force since 1977.
Previously, two doctors were required to approve an abortion - and this could only happen if there was a "serious danger" to the pregnant woman's health. […]
"From now abortions will be rightly treated as a health issue," Justice Minister Andrew Little said in a statement following the vote on Wednesday.
Vox
Trump spent weeks downplaying the coronavirus. He’s now pretending that never happened.
Donald Trump … spent the first six weeks of the outbreak insisting that the situation was under control. He even characterized Democratic criticism of the federal government’s response, which has been lowlighted by an inability to test sufficient numbers of people for the virus, as “their new hoax.” […]
Trump is also interested in seizing the narrative of the pandemic now, attempting to frame himself as a president who competently handled the crisis, even referring to himself in Wednesday’s press conference as a “wartime president.”
He’s also trying to erase his early rhetoric and response. Trump proclaimed during Tuesday’s press conference that “I’ve always known this is a real — this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”
Deutsche Welle
Merkel: Coronavirus is Germany's greatest challenge since World War Two
In a once-of-kind televised nationwide address delivered Wednesday evening, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on German citizens to recognize the gravity posed by the coronavirus and to do their part in helping to slow its spread.
Her speech came one day after Germany instituted restrictive measures in an attempt to curb transmission.
On Wednesday, Germany registered a jump of over 1,000 infections of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, from the day before.
The Atlantic
The American Presidency Wasn’t Built for Men This Old
Should the country have an upper-limit age restriction on those seeking its highest office? […]
The original Constitution did provide for presidents who grew unable to carry out the duties of the office. Under Article II, Section 1, in the event of a president’s “inability to discharge the powers and duties” of the presidency, the vice president would take over. But this short passage skirts over several pitfalls. […]
The founders, of course, knew that age could affect capacity. Anyone who has dealt with either young children or elderly relatives has learned this from personal experience. But in discussing age qualifications for federal office, the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention never expressly connected advancing age with the Constitution’s standard of “inability.” […]
At least part of the reason for the delegates’ silence on the cognitive decline of senior decision making is that their society was far younger than ours. Since the early 1800s, the average American life expectancy has increased by a remarkable 40 years, from around 35 to a mean of 78. The Philadelphia delegates’ own average age was 42. Given their classical educations, the delegates likely recalled and approved of Plutarch’s admonition to welcome the elderly into public life; Benjamin Franklin was an object lesson for them in this regard. At the age of 81 he was the oldest delegate—and apparently still pretty sharp.
EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Confirms First Known Coronavirus Case in an American Warehouse
Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Queens, New York, received a text Wednesday evening that they long feared might come: “We’re writing to let you know that a positive case of the coronavirus (COVID-19) was found at our facility today.”
This is the realization of a major threat to Amazon’s operations. Millions of people across the nation are cloistered inside their homes, many of them relying on the company to provide basic goods. Amazon is already struggling to meet demand, and some employees feel they’re being unfairly endangered by working in warehouses filled with other workers. It’s unclear how deliveries could continue if the workers who sort, pack, and ship Americans’ goods start getting sick in droves.
The Daily Beast
Russian Military: Virus ‘Affects Only the Mongol Race’
As the novel coronavirus spread from China to the rest of the world, dealing body blows to countries in Europe and roiling the U.S. economy, a state-owned Russian news site floated some theories on the virus’ origin: It may be the creation of the U.S. military, the site speculated; or perhaps George Soros, Bill Gates, or American pharmaceutical companies.
The article this month on the website of the publication Zvezda claimed, bizarrely, that the coronavirus “affects only members of the Mongol race,” and “such suspicious selectivity raises questions from experts.”
Al Jazeera
US envoy urges Kabul, Taliban to begin prisoner releases
The coronavirus pandemic adds urgency to prisoner releases agreed to by the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has said, advising they take place "as soon as possible".
"No prisoners have been released to date despite the commitment to do so expressed by both sides," Khalilzad tweeted on Wednesday.
White nationalist groups surge as they move online: Report
A new report on hate groups in the United States detailed an increase in the number of white nationalist groups even as the overall number of hate groups declined slightly in 2019.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) report, titled, Year in Hate and Extremism, documents 155 active white nationalist hate groups, a 55 percent increase in such groups over 2018.
Overall, the number of hate groups fell to 940 in 2019, down from a record high of 1,020 in 2018. Over half of this decline "was due to a drop in the number of neo-Nazi groups, as two main factions collapsed", the SPLC said.
NPR News
Biden, Sanders Remarks Show How The Coronavirus Has Upended The Campaign
For the third straight primary Tuesday, Joe Biden emerged as the winner.
But the country is in a vastly different state than it was just a few weeks ago, and as a result, the former vice president's victory address on Tuesday night was hardly celebratory.
"Tackling this pandemic is a national emergency akin to fighting a war," the Democratic front-runner said in prepared remarks from his home in Wilmington, Del.
There were no supporters grouped behind him waving signs. Instead there was Biden alone in front of a camera, speaking of common cause in the face of the coronavirus.
Cambodia's Prized Kampot Pepper, Nearly Wiped Out By Khmer Rouge, Makes A Comeback
Pepper is believed to originate from southern India. But some chefs, including the late Anthony Bourdain and the Michelin-starred French chef Olivier Roellinger, have been drawn to pepper produced in Cambodia, specifically in the province of Kampot. That's where a near-ideal combination of sea, soil and climate produces a very aromatic, nuanced — and expensive — spice.
"It has a unique taste," says Nathalie Chaboche, whose La Plantation began planting in southern Kampot seven years ago and is now one of the province's biggest pepper producers, producing 25 tons last year, and employing 150 people full-time and another 150 as day laborers during the harvest season.
Gizmodo
DOJ Kills One of the Best Ways to Settle Legal Cases Against Polluters
For the past 30 years, in civil settlements, polluting companies in the United States could be compelled to fund environmentally beneficial projects in order to offset the damage they caused. As part of a 2018 settlement, for example, an Arkansas paper mill agreed to put $1.8 million into projects that curb air pollution, in addition to cleaning up its own pollution and paying $600,000 to the U.S. government.
But the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division announced an end to these supplemental environmental projects, or SEPs, in a memo last Thursday, claiming that the program violates a federal act requiring money acquired by the government in court to go straight into the U.S. Treasury.
The change built on an August memo from the DOJ that began to erode the program by prohibiting further use of these agreements settlements with state and local governments.
New Study Disproves the Republican Lie That National Monuments Hurt Local Economies
Donald Trump stripped Bears Ears National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah of their federal designations during his first year in office. State legislators applauded this move, fearing that the protections that come with this designation would hurt local economic benefits from mining, logging, and ranching.
A new study, however, paints a different picture. Published in Science Advances on Wednesday, the study finds that national monument designations don’t actually change much in the local economy—except when they grow businesses in communities closest to these federal sites. Reducing the size of these two national treasures—Bears Ears and Grand Staircase—may have actually caused the loss of some 700 jobs in nearby communities.
Ars Technica
How China built facial recognition for people wearing masks
Hanwang, the facial-recognition company that has placed 2 million of its cameras at entrance gates across the world, started preparing for the coronavirus in early January.
Huang Lei, the company’s chief technical officer, said that even before the new virus was widely known about, he had begun to get requests from hospitals at the centre of the outbreak in Hubei province to update its software to recognise nurses wearing masks.
“We wouldn’t wait until something explodes to act. If three or five clients ask for the same thing . . . we’ll see that as important,” said Mr Huang, adding that its cameras previously only recognised people in masks half the time, compared with 99.5 percent accuracy for a full face image.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Duluth distillery Vikre using its alcohol for greater good: sanitizer
Vikre Distillery is putting its alcohol to work in the fight against COVID-19.
The Canal Park distillery started giving away sanitizer Monday to “those who need it.”
“We’re giving people an option — I know a lot of places are out of it,” said cocktail room manager David Moreira. “It’s not cheap, but it is worth it and in the best interest of everyone. We’re going to get through all this together.”
The sprayable sanitizer has 70% alcohol (federal guidelines suggest at least 60% to be effective) and will be given away between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the coming days.