| The promise of COVID-19 antibody testing Posted: 11 Apr 2020 01:58 PM PDT  We do not yet know if all COVID-19 patients are able to mount effective immunity and prevent reinfection.
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| Parts of the country could see coronavirus social distancing restrictions begin to ease by late May, say public health experts Posted: 11 Apr 2020 09:44 AM PDT  Much of the country is likely to see some social distancing restrictions ease by late May or early June, a top public health expert told Yahoo News on Friday.
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| Netanyahu rival Gantz seeks more time to form coalition government Posted: 11 Apr 2020 01:08 PM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's election rival Benny Gantz asked for additional time on Saturday to try to form a government with the long-time leader, to end more than a year of political deadlock. Gantz, an ex-armed forces chief who heads the centrist Blue and White party, asked President Reuven Rivlin for a 14-day extension to the mandate. Gantz had run on a promise not to serve in a government with Netanyahu, citing the prime minister's indictment on corruption charges.
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| 6 hospitalized after shooting breaks out at California party Posted: 11 Apr 2020 10:55 AM PDT |
| A man who stayed in the same ICU as Boris Johnson said his experience there was 'absolutely horrible' Posted: 12 Apr 2020 12:29 PM PDT  London resident Dave Hunt told Sky News that he was placed on a ventilator and thought he would die.
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| Former FDA commissioner doesn't think Trump should pull WHO funding, but says president has some valid concerns Posted: 12 Apr 2020 09:31 AM PDT  President Trump has said he's reviewing whether to pull funding from the World Health Organization because he believes it allowed China to get away with hiding the truth about the novel COVID-19 coronavirus within its borders. Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb doesn't believe now is the time to make a decision like that, especially because he's concerned about the virus taking off in the Southern Hemisphere where several countries lack the necessary health infrastructure. But he does think the president raises some valid concerns."China was not truthful with the world at the outset of this," Gottlieb told CBS' Margaret Brennan on Sunday's edition of Face the Nation, adding that if Beijing had been upfront about things, they may have been able to contain the virus entirely.And he doesn't think the WHO is blameless, either, since it was validating Chinese claims as late as Jan. 14 that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. The organization, he said, also didn't compel Beijing to share the viral strains, which would have allowed diagnostic tests to be produced earlier around the world.Instead of getting stripped of major U.S. funding, though, Gottlieb thinks the WHO needs to launch a report into how China handled things. He also echoed an ever-more popular talking point among analysts that the organization needs to "embrace Taiwan's role and allow them to attend the World Health Assembly." As things stand, the WHO has "frozen" Taiwan out, at "the behest of China," Gottlieb said. Tim O'Donnell> NEWS: @ScottGottliebMD says the @WHO should commission an after-action report to study "what China did or didn't tell the world" as well as the organization's response. pic.twitter.com/qC9ID87pJE> > — Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 12, 2020More stories from theweek.com 5 radically funny cartoons about the end of Bernie 2020 Coronavirus and the mystery of St. Mark's Easter story Sting, Jimmy Fallon, and the Roots perform 'Don't Stand So Close to Me' remotely, creatively
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| Sri Lanka Catholic church 'forgives' 2019 Easter suicide bombers Posted: 12 Apr 2020 12:50 AM PDT  Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic Church said Sunday it had forgiven the suicide bombers behind the attacks that killed at least 279 people last Easter. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told an Easter mass -- broadcast from a TV studio because of the coronavirus pandemic -- that "we offered love to the enemies who tried to destroy us". The April 21 Easter Sunday bombers targeted three churches and three luxury hotels, killing at least 279 people and wounding 593.
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| All but three people who died from COVID-19 in a major US city were black Posted: 12 Apr 2020 01:40 PM PDT  Emerging data has laid bare the glaring racial disparities and social inequities faced by those heavily impacted by COVID-19.
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| When will we reopen the country? Antibody testing may help officials decide, experts say Posted: 12 Apr 2020 11:58 AM PDT  Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Friday that "most of the country" will not be able to open by May 1. How can antibody testing help?
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| El Salvador president threatens drivers violating coronavirus rules Posted: 12 Apr 2020 04:02 PM PDT  President Nayib Bukele said anyone driving cars in El Salvador without having justification for being out of their homes would be stripped of their driving license, doubling down on attempts to enforce rules to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Bukele and other Central American leaders have implemented swift and strict measures after the first cases of the novel coronavirus were registered but in recent weeks thousands of people in the region were detained for violating the rules. At his request, El Salvador's Congress on March 14 approved an emergency regime, which temporarily suspended the right to free movement and free association.
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| Cuba, U.S. dispute embargo's role in blocking coronavirus supplies Posted: 11 Apr 2020 07:27 AM PDT  The embargo is "the main obstacle to purchase the medicines, equipment and material required to confront the pandemic," Cuba's Foreign Minister tweeted.
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| Push-ups to fake guests: Curious African coronavirus moments Posted: 11 Apr 2020 04:52 PM PDT  Free buses, a mock wedding, hands-free taps and round-robin poetry are part of life under lockdown.
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| Police in Kentucky recorded the license plates of 50 people who broke social distancing to attend an Easter Sunday service Posted: 12 Apr 2020 01:46 PM PDT  The churchgoers were also given notices to participate in a mandated 14-day self-quarantine for violating social distancing measures.
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| Virus cases, deaths rise in India's biggest slum Posted: 12 Apr 2020 06:27 AM PDT  Coronavirus cases in Mumbai's densely populated Dharavi slum -- one of Asia's biggest -- have risen to 43 including four deaths, officials said Sunday, as they ramp up testing in a race to contain its spread. Since the first virus death in early April, Indian authorities have stepped up measures to close off areas where cases have emerged in Dharavi, which is home to around a million people. Testing sites have also been set up in recent days to pick up asymptomatic carriers of the virus, Khabale-Patil said, adding that "as a result more positive cases have emerged".
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| 'We have thrown 15 years of institutional learning out the window': Leaked emails show top public health experts raised alarm about the Trump administration's botched coronavirus response Posted: 12 Apr 2020 02:19 PM PDT  The "Red Dawn" emails show how as the outbreak unfolded, the nation's top experts expressed serious concerns and frustration over government inaction.
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| Joe Biden defeats Bernie Sanders to win Alaska Democratic primary Posted: 11 Apr 2020 10:40 PM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden won the Alaska Democratic primary, defeating Sen. Bernie Sanders days after Sanders suspended his campaign.
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| Saudi Arabia extends coronavirus curfew, UAE warns on worker repatriation Posted: 11 Apr 2020 03:51 PM PDT  Saudi Arabia indefinitely extended a curfew due to the coronavirus on Sunday amid a surge of new infections, and the United Arab Emirates warned of possible action against countries refusing to allow migrant workers to be repatriated. Since placing the capital Riyadh and other big cities under 24-hour curfew on Monday, Saudi Arabia has reported more than 300 new cases per day. For both this and the 24-hour curfew, residents may go out only for essential needs.
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| Amid pandemic, Christians celebrate an Easter like no other Posted: 11 Apr 2020 11:51 PM PDT  Christians around the world celebrated Easter Sunday isolated in their homes by the coronavirus while pastors preached the faith's joyous news of Christ's resurrection to empty pews. One Florida church drew a large turnout for a drive-in service in a parking lot. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the first major world leader to test positive for the virus, paid an emotional tribute to the country's National Health Service following his release from the hospital, saying its doctors and nurses had saved his life "no question."
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| At least six dead after tornadoes, severe storms sweep South Posted: 12 Apr 2020 05:38 PM PDT  The deaths occurred in three Mississippi counties, the state's emergency management agency said Sunday.
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| Julian Assange secretly fathered two children inside Ecuadorian embassy, partner reveals in bid for his release from Belmarsh amid coronavirus fears Posted: 12 Apr 2020 01:09 AM PDT  Julian Assange secretly fathered two children while living inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, his partner has revealed in a plea for him to be released from prison.The Wikileaks founder's partner, Stella Morris, made the revelation to the courts supporting an application for bail from HMP Belmarsh in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Paraguayans go hungry as coronavirus lockdown ravages livelihoods Posted: 12 Apr 2020 05:15 AM PDT  Early, aggressive measures seem to be controlling the disease but the pandemic has laid bare the country's social inequalities * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverageWhen Covid-19 arrived in South America, Paraguay was one of the first countries to take measures to contain the virus, closing schools and banning public gatherings after just the second confirmed case on 11 March.The nationwide lockdown seems to be controlling the spread of the disease, but it has created another problem: large numbers of Paraguayans are going hungry in their own homes.Paraguay has reported some of the lowest infection rates in South America – currently 129 confirmed cases and six deaths.But the government of President Mario Abdo Benítez has been heavily criticised for failing to support people left without income during the total quarantine – which is now coming to the end of the third week and is set to continue until 19 April.Sixty-five per cent of Paraguay's workers earn their living in the informal economy and have no access to benefits during the coronavirus crisis.And while the government has been authorised to secure loans of $1.6bn to face the crisis, only a small part of a promised scheme of emergency payments of about $76 and food packs have reached those left in need. A further payment scheme is yet to be implemented.Valentina Osuna, a craftswoman and mother of four from the indigenous Qom village of Rosarino, said she was no longer able to sell her work."There's no support, there's nothing from the state. My children are hungry."Abdo Benítez has apologised for the situation and called for patience. But when he briefly boarded a public bus last week to greet passengers, he was heckled with demands for the promised support payments.The scale of the crisis has been shown by the recent launch of AyudaPy – an open-source, non-governmental website allowing users to request and offer help. Thousands of messages are being posted daily by people describing dire circumstances and requesting basic items like milk, bread and medicine.Óscar Pereira, member of a residents' organisation in the deprived Tacumbú neighbourhood of Asunción, the capital, said: "The mutual solidarity on display is outstanding; poor people are helping other poor people. We're all helping and giving what we can: we're cooking communally so that we can get food to people."As it has across Latin America, the coronavirus crisis has laid bare social inequalities and the poor state of public infrastructure. Amid widespread outrage, the government has promised a reform of a state that is underfunded and plagued by corruption and highly skewed tax policies.However, for Alicia Amarilla, national coordinator of the Organisation of Rural and Indigenous Women, not even promises of reform can guarantee greater dignity for Paraguay's many poor families."We're going to see many more difficult situations come from this crisis – we're in a country with far too much inequality. We know that the government won't take privileges away from those that have them. The people who are most in need are the ones who will continue suffering."
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| Coronavirus: Fauci says US 'could have saved lives' with earlier action Posted: 12 Apr 2020 02:31 PM PDT  Experts called for social distancing in February but there was "pushback", a top health official says.
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| 'We're Catching It Double.' Amid Coronavirus Lockdowns, Gun Violence Continues to Plague Chicago Posted: 11 Apr 2020 09:20 AM PDT  Since Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced a stay-at-home order for the state that went into effect on March 21, there have been over 80 shootings and at least 70 shooting victims, according to the Chicago Police Department (CPD). In the same period at least 12 people have died.
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| Trump reportedly said he would reject a bailout package if it included aid to keep the US Postal Service functioning Posted: 11 Apr 2020 12:33 PM PDT  USPS has asked Congress for a $50 billion bailout and $25 billion in loans from the Treasury Department to make up for losses.
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| Erdogan rejects Turkish minister's resignation after coronavirus lockdown criticism Posted: 12 Apr 2020 11:49 AM PDT  President Tayyip Erdogan rejected the resignation on Sunday of Turkey's interior minister, who said he was stepping down in the wake of a short-notice coronavirus lockdown which sent people rushing to shops to stock up on supplies. "The incidents that occurred ahead of the implementation of the curfew were not befitting the perfect management of the outbreak," Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in statement on Twitter in which he said he was resigning. Erdogan, however, judged it was not "appropriate" for Soylu to resign and the minister would continue in his position, the presidency said shortly afterwards.
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| Cuomo on virus deaths: ‘Every one is a face and a name and a family that is suffering’ Posted: 12 Apr 2020 09:48 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed coronavirus deaths that occurred around the Easter holiday across New York state.
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| Fears of 'Wild West' as COVID-19 blood tests hit the market Posted: 12 Apr 2020 05:02 AM PDT  Blood tests for the coronavirus could play a key role in deciding whether millions of Americans can safely return to work and school. More than 70 companies have signed up to sell so-called antibody tests in recent weeks, according to U.S. regulators. Governments around the world hope that the rapid tests, which typically use a finger-prick of blood on a test strip, could soon ease public restrictions by identifying people who have previously had the virus and have developed some immunity to it.
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| At least 6 dead in Mississippi as Easter Sunday tornadoes hit the South; more storms forecast for Monday in the East Posted: 12 Apr 2020 05:20 PM PDT  The National Weather Service reported tornadoes over northwest and north central Louisiana. The severe weather will move into the East on Monday.
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| Vietnamese-owned nail salons donate thousands of masks, gloves, more to hospitals Posted: 12 Apr 2020 02:53 AM PDT  "Fighting this virus is a responsibility for every one of us," one salon owner said.
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| Drive-by visits, egg fails and family: See how the TODAY team celebrated Easter Posted: 12 Apr 2020 03:08 PM PDT  The TODAY anchors and co-hosts spent quality family time at home on Easter.
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| Empty churches and the empty tomb Posted: 12 Apr 2020 03:30 AM PDT  One year ago on Monday, hundreds of millions of people the world round reacted with horror to images of the cathedral church of Our Lady of Paris burning. She did not collapse, as some feared she would. But it was announced with regret that throughout Holy Week and on Easter Sunday, Notre Dame would be empty for the first time since the days of the Revolution.Now nearly all of our churches appear empty. I say "appear" because in many of them there will in fact be priests offering the one acceptable sacrifice, in union with the angels and saints. But it is almost certainly the case that fewer people will attend Mass on Sunday than on any Easter in more than a thousand years.It is difficult to say exactly when the present reality no longer seemed shocking. I cannot be the only person who feels as if the last few months have been mostly indistinguishable. In January and February, a single day did not pass upon which all five members of our family were in good health. Then on my birthday, February 22, our daughter, Winifred Flosshilde, was stillborn. On Ash Wednesday she received Catholic burial at the diocesan cemetery. The following Sunday my wife was still recovering from Winifred's delivery and we did not attend Mass. The next week we entered our parish church and found it somewhat barer than usual; the following Sunday, by which time the obligation to attend Mass had been waived in our diocese, the church looked only somewhat emptier. Our bishop was the last in the United States to suspend public Masses. After that, the church doors remained unlocked. Opening them in order to confess my sins was an experience I shall never forget: a handful of masked women and teenagers hiding in corners like suspicious criminals, all of us praying before the exposed Body of Christ. Beneath the statue of St. Joseph, a handmade system of green and red light bulbs indicated whether the adjacent storage room was empty for the next penitent. It was of a piece with empty streets and empty parks, miserable weather, an atmosphere of relentless dread that many of us will no doubt refer to as "the long Lent." These have been the strangest and most miserable three months of my life.Why then do I now find myself resisting the urge to be giddy? I am tempted to say it is because I know that sooner or later all of this will come to an end, that out of the darkness we will emerge with our own candles, from the digital cold to the warmth of human affection and communion. But the eventual end of the pandemic and the return of normal human social relations, including the resumed public celebration of Mass, is only a proximate cause. The joy I find building in myself, quietly but undeniably, transcends the gloom of recent days.It does not, however, transcend bodies. The significance of this fact cannot be overstated. It is the supreme truth of the Christian religion that our faith is grounded not in anagogic speculations but in the reality of flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of a victim who won a victory, total and final, over the forces of sin and darkness, a human sacrifice who was Himself a sacrificing high priest, a non-citizen peasant who was king of all worlds.Christianity is not a matter of privately affirming certain propositions. The Church is herself a society, both natural and supernatural, a society of human believers whose shared joy is the affirmation of a truth. This truth is, reduced to its barest essence, that a certain body which ought to have been in a tomb was sought and found elsewhere. What this meant was a riddle to which only a few clever women guessed the answer immediately.We too must stand, like St. Mary Magdalene and her companions, before an emptiness and see beyond it a great light and a body, one both like and radically unlike that for which they had been seeking. This is the Resurrection, the hope of Easter, which must be commemorated with empty churches in spite of, nay because of, the fact that it is founded upon the realization that emptiness means not an absence but the presence of something for which we have longed without knowing it our entire lives.More stories from theweek.com 5 radically funny cartoons about the end of Bernie 2020 Coronavirus and the mystery of St. Mark's Easter story Sting, Jimmy Fallon, and the Roots perform 'Don't Stand So Close to Me' remotely, creatively
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| Record deal to cut oil output ends price war Posted: 12 Apr 2020 02:42 PM PDT  Oil producing nations agree a deal that will see output reduced by nearly 10 million barrels a day.
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| North Korea calls for tougher virus curbs, but leader wears no mask in photographs Posted: 11 Apr 2020 03:53 PM PDT  North Korea called for tougher and more thorough countermeasures to keep citizens safe from the fast-spreading coronavirus at a meeting where leader Kim Jong Un presided, state media said on Sunday. The Korean Central News Agency said the virus had created obstacles to work on the economy, but the North had enforced consistent and compulsory "strict top-class emergency anti-epidemic measures" to maintain a stable situation. At a meeting on Saturday, the political bureau of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea adopted a resolution to take "more thorough state measures" to protect people's lives and safety against the pandemic, KCNA added.
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| The US just became the first country in the world to record more than 2,000 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours Posted: 11 Apr 2020 02:22 AM PDT  The US reported 2,108 deaths on Friday and passed 500,000 confirmed cases, but White House officials say the speed of the outbreak is easing off.
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| India, Pakistan troops trade heavy fire in Kashmir; 3 killed Posted: 12 Apr 2020 07:52 AM PDT |
| Biden and Cuomo: Friends, Allies and Supporting Players No Longer Posted: 11 Apr 2020 08:45 AM PDT  In late July of 2015, Vice President Joe Biden traversed the state of New York with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, ending the day in Queens, where they announced plans to rebuild La Guardia Airport. On a flight with Cuomo aboard Air Force Two, Biden broached a delicate subject: his own interest in the presidency.Like most Democratic Party leaders, Cuomo was supporting Hillary Clinton, who had a wide lead in the polls. But unlike other top Democrats -- including former President Barack Obama -- Cuomo did not attempt to dissuade Biden from running. Instead, over what associates to both men described as a monthslong series of conversations, the governor offered a sympathetic ear to an indecisive elder statesman.Biden later recounted in a memoir that Cuomo urged him to make a decision he could be at peace with, alluding to the similarly anguished deliberations of his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, decades earlier. "You'll live with it the rest of your life," Biden recalled the younger Cuomo saying.Cuomo's warm posture toward Biden raised eyebrows in Clinton's camp: Her aides wondered if the governor was currying favor with the Obama administration. But Cuomo offered a simpler explanation, telling allies he believed Biden would ultimately choose not to run but insisting that the vice president deserved the space to make a decision on his own terms.The episode earned Biden's lasting appreciation, and helped cement a personal friendship that has grown into a crucial political alliance.Five years later, the two men have arrived together at an extraordinary moment: Biden, 77, and Cuomo, 62, have emerged as unlikely twin pillars of their party in a national crisis, Biden as its presumptive presidential nominee and Cuomo as its most forceful spokesman in a public-health emergency.The political stakes for both men -- and for their relationship -- are almost unimaginably high, all the more so because of their overlapping and complementary vulnerabilities. Both are long-serving moderate stalwarts in a Democratic Party that has shifted leftward, and old-school practitioners of back-room politics in a culture that has sped up and moved online. Accentuating those challenges, Biden has struggled for years with a reputation for bombast and verbal indiscipline, while Cuomo has drawn complaints for an imperious and bullying personal style.They have turned to each other as allies during taxing moments in the past: Much as Biden consulted with Cuomo in 2015, the governor appealed to Biden for help three years later when he faced a primary challenge from the left.But now they are facing the greatest public trial of their lives -- and counting on the resiliency of their relationship to help them navigate it.At times, the current circumstances might have threatened to push them into competition. In recent weeks Biden has struggled to make himself heard in the din of a national crisis while Cuomo, whose daily virus updates have drawn widespread praise, has stirred Democratic fantasies of a commanding and articulate governor somehow emerging as a white-knight challenger to President Donald Trump. Trump himself has sought to stoke some kind of feud between them, opining on Fox & Friends that Cuomo would make "a better candidate than Sleepy Joe."There have been moments of political friction over the last year, brief sparks between their camps if not between them. Cuomo complained privately for much of 2019 that Biden's campaign was not responsive to governors like himself, and questioned whether the campaign was adequately prepared to contest New York's primary. Advisers to Biden, meanwhile, were frustrated when Cuomo, who expressed early enthusiasm for Biden's campaign, specifically noted last summer that he had not yet issued a formal endorsement.Still, the relationship between the two men in this moment has been defined not by resentment but private consultation and public expressions of affection, people close to both men said. Biden has called Cuomo's role in the coronavirus crisis a national "lesson in leadership," while Cuomo went on the CNN show hosted by his younger brother, Chris, to hail Biden as a "great public servant." Recently, Biden and Cuomo are said to have spoken about every two days, and their political advisers speak at least as frequently.On a personal level, their allies say, Biden and Cuomo enjoy an easy rapport that has matured into a deeper friendship. In 2015, their candid conversations about the presidency took place in a period of mourning for both men: Biden had recently lost his son, Beau, to brain cancer. Cuomo was still mourning his father, who died on New Year's Day. Biden traveled to New York for Mario Cuomo's wake, and Cuomo attended Beau Biden's wake in Dover, Delaware.Accompanying friendship has been a political partnership. Cuomo viewed Biden as a singularly helpful ally in the Obama administration, and appealed to him personally for federal support for the rebuilding of the Tappan Zee Bridge (rechristened since as the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.)Biden also served as a character witness for Cuomo in his 2018 campaign when actor and activist Cynthia Nixon accused him of corruption and dishonesty in a bitter fight for the Democratic nomination.For Cuomo, viewed in New York as adhering to the maxim that politicians should have fewer permanent friends than permanent interests, his attitude of deference toward Biden marks a rare exception."He just sees Joe Biden as a morally decent guy, the same way I know he saw his own father, in that sense," said Jay Jacobs, a close ally of Cuomo who is chairman of the New York Democratic Party.Cuomo has never lunged at presidential races the way Biden has done repeatedly; even this time, when the Democratic field was wide open, Cuomo did little to advance the presidential ambitions that are quietly recognized among his allies.Biden was seen as one reason for the governor's forbearance: "I think those of us who think Andrew Cuomo would be a great president would have had a much easier time convincing him to run if Joe Biden wasn't running," Jacobs said.The current election season is not the first time Biden has been upstaged during a presidential race by a governor in Albany named Cuomo.Biden's first such encounter was inauspicious. Seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 1987, Biden, then 44, made a dismissive remark in Iowa suggesting governors were "uniquely unequipped to understand a broad range of issues that a senator has to deal with."The comments drew a stern reaction from Mario Cuomo, who was then exciting liberals and overshadowing much of his party's presidential field by publicly mulling a campaign of his own. He called Biden's comment "one of the dumbest statements" of the election, prompting an apologetic phone call from Biden.But Mario Cuomo never became a candidate that year, and Biden's campaign soon disintegrated amid a plagiarism scandal.Yet as the possibility that they would become direct competitors faded, a tone of greater respect crept into their public comments. Mario Cuomo expressed open admiration for Biden's conduct during the confirmation hearings of Robert H. Bork, and suggested Biden could make a good choice for the keynote speaker at the 1988 Democratic convention. The slot went instead to a 41-year-old governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, whose rapid rise would soon put the presidency off limits to both Biden and Cuomo.Valerie Biden Owens, the former vice president's sister, said in an interview that it had long been evident to her that the Bidens and the Cuomos shared a common set of social values that she described as anchored in their Irish and Italian Catholic heritage. Of the elder Gov. Cuomo, Owens said, "I know my brother respected him greatly.""Both of them speak to, and practice, the basics of Catholic social justice, and that's how we were raised,"Owens said.Biden and Cuomo crossed paths in Washington in the 1990s, when Cuomo was housing secretary. But it was a few years into the new century -- and through a younger generation -- that the families developed a tighter bond, when Cuomo and Beau Biden were elected the attorneys general of New York and Delaware in 2006. In 2017, the former vice president wrote in his memoir that Cuomo "told me he and Beau used to commiserate about being aspiring politicians who were also the sons of well-known officeholders." As vice president, Biden appeared beside Cuomo in several crucial moments, including during New York's recovery from Hurricane Sandy.Biden put his political muscle behind Cuomo in earnest in 2018, helping him against Nixon. His intervention was problematic for the left: While Nixon and her allies regularly denounced the Democratic establishment and big donors for lining up behind Cuomo, they saw little advantage in sparring with a popular figure like Biden.Facing resistance from progressives who viewed him as an iron-fisted centrist, Cuomo's team asked Biden to appear with him at the New York Democratic Party's convention. Biden agreed. When they asked Biden to record a television ad for Cuomo backstage, he agreed again. When the Cuomo team asked several weeks later if Biden would record a new ad -- the first one was not quite right -- he agreed yet again, allowing a film crew into his Delaware home to record a commercial that soon blanketed the airwaves in New York.Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Biden's intervention in the 2018 race had helped Cuomo secure a third term. She called Biden's speech at the state convention an important moment of validation for the governor."Biden is so empathetic and is seen as being such a decent man, and that was very important at that moment for Andrew Cuomo," said Weingarten, who like other Democrats, saw a similar, perhaps anachronistic political sensibility binding the two men."Biden is a politician from a different age, when a sense of having somebody's back, based upon the values you carry and the work you've done together, means something," she said, adding, "That's something that Cuomo and Biden share very, very deeply."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Masks required at New Jersey stores Posted: 11 Apr 2020 09:36 AM PDT  Residents should stay apart during Easter and Passover, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said.
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| A 'nightmare' scenario on the rise with coronavirus: Dying alone Posted: 11 Apr 2020 02:44 AM PDT  Deborah Mastromano's mom was alone in a Long Island nursing home, cut off from visitors. All Mastromano wanted was to hold her hand before she died.
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| China vows improvements for Africans after virus discrimination claims Posted: 12 Apr 2020 05:32 PM PDT  Under strong international pressure, China on Sunday vowed to improve the treatment of Africans in the southern city of Guangzhou following accusations of discrimination linked to the coronavirus pandemic, and said it rejected all "racist and discriminatory" remarks. Africans in the industrial centre of 15 million say they have become targets of suspicion and subjected to forced evictions, arbitrary quarantines and mass coronavirus testing, particularly as Beijing steps up its fight against imported infections. The African Union expressed its "extreme concern" about the situation on Saturday, calling on Beijing to take immediate corrective measures.
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| U.S. now leads world in deaths, day after Trump announces 'Opening our Country' task force Posted: 11 Apr 2020 10:38 AM PDT  As the president mulls when restrictive coronavirus measures might start to be lifted, the U.S. passed a grim milestone of leading the world in deaths from the virus.
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| Seen everywhere in last U.S. crisis, moral hazard is nowhere in this one Posted: 12 Apr 2020 05:15 AM PDT  As the U.S. Federal Reserve rolls out trillions of dollars to blunt the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, there's a notable difference to the last financial crisis: close to zero concern over "moral hazard" - the sticky business of bailing out those whose dilemma is of their own making. Back in 2007-2009, policymakers voiced repeated concern that bailing out banks and financial markets more generally would reward them for having taken imprudent risks. The Fed also faced a political backlash from its congressional overseers for what some saw as extending its reach into the fiscal sphere and, in effect, picking and choosing winners and losers.
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| 3M is suing a company accused of trying to re-sell fake N95 masks at a 600% markup Posted: 12 Apr 2020 06:46 AM PDT  In a lawsuit filed in federal court, 3M accused a company of fraudulently presenting itself as an official re-seller of N95 masks to New York officials.
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| Afghan Taliban confirms release of 1st government prisoners Posted: 12 Apr 2020 02:58 AM PDT  The Taliban announced Sunday it will be releasing 20 Afghan government prisoners the group has been holding, in the first phase of its commitment under its historic peace deal with the United States. The deal calls for the government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 government officials held by the Taliban insurgents. The Afghan government released its first 100 Taliban prisoners last week and Jawed Faisal, a spokesman for Afghanistan's national security adviser, said the government has thus far released 300 Taliban prisoners overall from government custody.
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