| Leaked intelligence report saying China 'intentionally concealed' coronavirus to stockpile medical supplies draws scrutiny Posted: 04 May 2020 10:24 AM PDT  The Trump administration has issued an intelligence analysis claiming China purposely delayed notifying the World Health Organization about the spread of the coronavirus.
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| Trump attacks Joe Scarborough, who tells him 'take a rest' and 'let Mike Pence actually run things' Posted: 04 May 2020 08:21 AM PDT  With the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus mounting, President Trump on Monday took aim at MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. The cable news host responded by telling Trump to let Vice President Mike Pence "run things for the next couple of weeks."
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| Venezuela: Two US citizens arrested after beach invasion aimed at capturing Nicolas Maduro, says regime Posted: 04 May 2020 06:56 PM PDT  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that authorities have captured 13 "terrorists", including two US citizens he described as mercenaries, over allegations that they were involved in a failed plot to invade the country and oust him. In a state television address, Maduro showed what he said were the passports and other identification cards of Airan Berry and Luke Denman, who he described as employees of Silvercorp, a Florida-based company whose owner has claimed responsibility for the invasion attempt. Venezuelan authorities said on Monday that they arrested another eight accused "mercenaries" in a coastal town and showed images on state TV of several unidentified men handcuffed and lying prone in a street. The Venezuelan government said that more than 25,000 troops have been mobilised to hunt for other rebels operating in the country. Diosdado Cabello, the vice-president of the ruling party, posted on his Twitter account a video of a Venezuelan identified as Josnars Adolfo Baduel, who was also detained, and claimed that two US citizens were among those arrested. Mr Baduel is shown responding to a security official who asks him about the Americans captured. Venezuelan state television broadcast the video but did not identify the Americans. But Jordan Goudreau, a Florida-based former Green Beret, said he was working with the two men in a mission launched early Sunday to "liberate" Venezuela.
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| Coronavirus: Chinese state media take aim at US 'lab theory' Posted: 05 May 2020 01:39 AM PDT  State media says US claims that the coronavirus originated in a research laboratory are "absurd".
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| Former FDA commissioner says U.S. may be unable to decrease coronavirus transmission much more Posted: 05 May 2020 07:16 AM PDT  Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb believes the United States may not be able to reduce coronavirus transmission much more, saying we should prepare for a "new normal."Gottlieb spoke with Today on Tuesday as many states allow some nonessential businesses to begin reopening and after a key model that's been cited by the White House significantly raised its projected death toll from COVID-19 to almost 135,000 by early August."We still have a high level of infection in this country," Gottlieb said. "We've reached a plateau, but we haven't seen the kind of declines that we were expecting to see at this point. And as we start to reopen the country, cases are likely to go up, not down."Gottlieb went on to suggest that as cases continue to rise in many states, the country may not be able to lower the rate of infection much further."I think that we need to understand, this may be the new normal," he said. "We may not be able to get transmission down much more. I hope we can."Gottlieb expanded on this in a Twitter thread, in which he wrote that "we need to prepare to deal with covid as a persistent threat," including by protecting those who are most vulnerable and being "prepared with case-based interventions, and widespread screening, to slow the transmission."On Monday, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration is privately forecasting that the U.S. daily coronavirus death toll will reach 3,000 by June 1, up from about 1,750, as well as 200,000 new cases a day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000. > "We need to understand this may be the new normal. We may not be able to get transmission down much more. I hope we can." -@ScottGottliebMD pic.twitter.com/yF1eijFIDV> > -- TODAY (@TODAYshow) May 5, 2020More stories from theweek.com Trump is pursuing a herd immunity strategy — whether intentionally or not How George W. Bush exposed Trump's biggest failure Approval rating for Trump's coronavirus response drops again, poll shows
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| Body of 18-year-old missing since leaving Target in January is found Posted: 05 May 2020 06:48 AM PDT  Abdullahi "Abdi" Sharif was last seen on security video on Jan. 17 leaving the Target store at Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines where he and his sister, Ifrah, had worked for about two years.
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| How the coronavirus undid Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Posted: 04 May 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Long before the coronavirus outbreak turned him into one of the least popular governors in the nation, DeSantis of Florida was something of a conservative golden boy.
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| How child abusers and other criminals are exploiting COVID-19 realities Posted: 05 May 2020 04:29 AM PDT  "There is no doubt that with more children online, we need to work harder to protect those children," National Crime Agency boss says.
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| 3 family members charged in killing of guard over face mask dispute Posted: 05 May 2020 03:58 AM PDT  Three members of a family have been charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard over a virus mask dispute at a Family Dollar store in Michigan.
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| Putin awards commemorative WWII medal to Kim Jong Un Posted: 05 May 2020 01:34 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin has awarded Kim Jong Un a commemorative war medal marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, the Russian embassy in Pyongyang said Tuesday. The medal was awarded to the North Korean leader for his role in preserving the memory of Soviet soldiers who died on North Korean territory, the statement said. Russia's ambassador in North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, presented the award to the country's Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon on Tuesday.
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| Trump says he might give federal coronavirus aid to states if they comply with his political demands Posted: 05 May 2020 01:10 PM PDT  Trump has been sharply criticized for suggesting a quid pro quo between states and the federal government during a public-health crisis.
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| Iranian airline linked to Revolutionary Guards 'defied coronavirus ban on China flights' Posted: 05 May 2020 03:08 AM PDT  An Iranian airline with links to the Revolutionary Guards Corps may have contributed to the spread of coronavirus around the Middle East after it continued to fly to China despite a ban imposed by the Iranian government, an investigation has claimed. Mahan Air, a privately owned airline, flew between Iran and China 157 times between early February and March, an analysis of flight tracking data by BBC Arabic found. The Iranian government banned flights to and from China on January 31. Mahan said it was suspending flights and ticket sales to and from China on February 2, in accordance with instruction from the World Health Organisation and Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation. It has previously said it carried out several evacuation flights of Iranian citizens after that date, and published a message of thanks from Iranian aviation authorities for doing so on its website on February 7. The flights included an Airbus 310 that repatriated 70 Iranian students from Wuhan to Tehran on February 6, and then flew on to Baghdad the following day. Four more flights were operated between February 3 and February 6, carrying repatriated Chinese and Iranian citizens in either direction. But the BBC found that that airline continued to fly regularly to destinations including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen after that. It also claimed that Mahan had continued to fly to Iraq after the government of that country banned flights from Iran on April 20, and to the United Arab Emirates after it introduced a ban on February 25. Iraq and Lebanon reported their first cases of coronavirus in travellers from Iran in February. The BBC claimed both cases arrived on Mahan Air flights. Iran was one of the worst-affected countries at the beginning of the pandemic and has so far recorded almost 100,000 cases of the coronavirus. Allegations that Mahan was flouting the flight ban were first reported in the Shargh daily, a reformist newspaper in Iran. Mahan said in a statement at the time that since the ban on China routes it had only flown repatriation and aid flights at the request of the country's ministries of health and foreign affairs. It said it had also agreed to fly industrial materials from China for Iranian manufacturers. "Obviously, our company would be in such a situation that regardless of material interests and even accepting losses, it had to assist the esteemed government and the country's industries and carry over hundreds of tons of industrial items to Iran," it said. Mahan has faced US sanctions because of its suspected links to the Revolutionary Guards Corps. Germany, France and Italy banned Mahan flights in 2019, following requests from the United States. Germany cited "security" concerns and the airline's alleged role in flying personnel and material to conflict zones including Syria. The airline's last European Union route, a twice-weekly service between Tehran and Barcelona was cancelled in March after Spain revoked its landing license. Mahan did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
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| Bangladesh eases some restrictions, extends lockdown to May 16 Posted: 04 May 2020 02:08 AM PDT  Bangladesh authorities said on Monday they will gradually open up more factories, as well as farms and logistics operations, as they try to diminish the economic impact of a coronavirus lockdown which they extended to May 16. The move followed a decision last week to reopen more than 2,000 garment factories that supply global brands, after a month-long shutdown. The official tally of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus rose by 688 to surpass 10,000, the health ministry said.
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| Boko Haram jihadists clash with army near key Niger city Posted: 05 May 2020 09:14 AM PDT  Boko Haram fighters clashed with government forces on Sunday in Diffa, the largest city in southwestern Niger, in what the jihadists said was a successful attack on a military camp. A propaganda video released by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram splinter group affiliated to the so-called Islamic State, purports to show heavily-armed insurgents storm an army camp following sustained fighting and heavy weapons fire. The area around Diffa, a city of around 200,000 people located near the Nigerian border, has been repeatedly attacked by the jihadist group, which emerged in Nigeria in 2009.
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| For nearly two months, Italians rarely left their homes. Now they lead Europe's reopening. Posted: 04 May 2020 07:35 AM PDT  "A new page is beginning, and we will have to write it together with faith and responsibility," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said.
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| Why shut down his own coronavirus task force? Trump wants someone to blame if things get worse Posted: 05 May 2020 03:34 PM PDT  Vice President Mike Pence says the cornavirus task force could end in early June. Why?
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| Navy Ships Transit Through Barents Sea Near Russia for 1st Time Since Cold War Posted: 05 May 2020 07:18 AM PDT  The operation was announced weeks after Russian aircraft were spotted flying near Alaska.
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| W.Va. woman charged with mishandling classified information Posted: 04 May 2020 12:08 PM PDT  A West Virginia woman who had already been accused of kidnapping her daughter faces a new charge of retaining top-secret information from the National Security Agency in a storage unit she leased, court papers show. Elizabeth Jo Shirley was charged with willful retention of national defense information in a two-count criminal information document filed in federal court in West Virginia last week. The document contains only sparse information about the allegations, but says that between 1999 and August 2019, Shirley had unauthorized possession of documents "relating to the national defense" and "failed to deliver them to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive them."
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| Hannity Pleads With Anti-Lockdown Protesters He Praised: Please, No Rifles Posted: 04 May 2020 08:30 PM PDT  In back-to-back segments on Monday night, Fox News star Sean Hannity—who has repeatedly cheered on anti-shutdown protests against coronavirus stay-at-home orders—pleaded with demonstrators to keep their rifles and tactical gear at home.Hundreds of protesters, many armed with long guns, swarmed Michigan's Capitol building last Thursday to rail against the state's continued shelter-in-place orders amid the pandemic. Images of gun-toting protesters storming and crowding the state house sparked bipartisan criticism, though President Donald Trump called them "very good people."Speaking to frequent guest Dan Bongino on Monday evening, Hannity—who has recently gushed over the protests—groused that the sight of demonstrators packing rifles and dressed in military gear is a "distraction" to the real message of reopening the economy.No one is a "bigger defender" of the Second Amendment than he is, Hannity said, but still he blasted the demonstrators for adopting a "militia look," claiming that it is "dangerous" and "puts the police at risk.""No one should be attempting to intimidate officials," Hannity added. "God forbid something happens—they are going to go after all of us law-abiding Second Amendment people."After Bongino said he didn't fully agree with the Fox host as "people are fed up," Hannity snapped back that "nobody's going to hear them" because they were showing force against law enforcement and government officials. Bongino relented somewhat, saying he felt that the "liberal media" would try to paint the armed protesters as a "crazed bunch of lunatics." At the same time, he insisted they were standing up for the Constitution and Bill of Rights, prompting Hannity again to denounce the optics of it all."This is a distraction, though," the pro-Trump host said. "I'm never going to take anyone's rights. But this is a distraction."Later in the program, he posed the same question to Fox News contributors Tammy Bruce and Mike Huckabee, asking them both if they felt the armed protesters created a "tough environment where nobody can hear you.""I agree," Huckabee responded. "Just because there's some things we can do that doesn't mean we should do.""I wish I said that," Hannity said.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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| California governor says data shows some retail stores can reopen, with modifications Posted: 04 May 2020 04:22 PM PDT  California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday said that as early as Friday, some retail businesses — including bookstores, sporting goods retailers, and florists — will be allowed to reopen and offer curbside pickup."We are entering into the next phase this week," Newsom said. "This is a very positive sign and it's happened only for one reason: The data says it can happen." Counties that want to be able to open more businesses will have to take certain steps, including conducting more coronavirus testing and ensuring there are adequate hospital beds.Newsom said detailed guidelines will be released later this week, and in order for more restrictions to relax, the state has to do more testing and trace infections, so people exposed to COVID-19 can be quarantined. The state is working with two University of California campuses to recruit and train new tracers, with Newsom aiming to hire 20,000 people within the next few weeks.While some isolated protests against Newsom's stay-at-home order have been held, recent polls show that 70 percent of Californians approve of how Newsom is handling the crisis and 70 percent are more concerned about reopening the state too early rather than too late, the Los Angeles Times reports.More stories from theweek.com Trump is pursuing a herd immunity strategy — whether intentionally or not How George W. Bush exposed Trump's biggest failure Approval rating for Trump's coronavirus response drops again, poll shows
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| Taiwan rebuffs WHO, says China has no right to represent it Posted: 04 May 2020 11:29 PM PDT  Only Taiwan's democratically-elected government can represent its people on the world stage, not China, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday, calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to "cast off" China's control during the coronavirus pandemic. Taiwan's exclusion from WHO, due to China's objections which considers the island one of its provinces, has infuriated Taipei, which says this has created a dangerous gap in the global fight against the coronavirus. Taiwan has been lobbying to attend, as an observer, this month's meeting of the WHO's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), although government and diplomatic sources say China will block the move.
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| Trump allies fall silent amid SCOTUS financial records case Posted: 05 May 2020 07:08 AM PDT  Allies of President Trump are remaining quiet amid a Supreme Court battle over his financial records.
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| Drone discovers mass grave of Islamic State victims at bottom of gorge in Syria Posted: 05 May 2020 02:29 AM PDT  Islamic State fighters used a stunning gorge in north-eastern Syria as a mass grave for their victims, a human rights group has revealed, after it deployed a drone to confirm the suspicions. In a new report, Human Rights Watch said the terror group dumped the bodies of people it had abducted, tortured and executed in al-Hota gorge, near Raqqa. It is one of around 20 mass graves containing thousands of bodies in areas that were formerly held by the so-called Islamic State (IS). Local villagers told researchers from Human Rights Watch that people had been threatened by IS fighters with being thrown into the gorge, while videos posted on Facebook in 2014 show two victims being cast in. The clothes on the men's bodies in that video match the clothing of two men being killed on camera in a separate propaganda video, Human Rights Watch said. Activists used a drone to fly into the gorge, where they discovered six bodies floating in the water in a state of decomposition. "Al-Hota gorge, once a beautiful natural site, has become a place of horror and reckoning," said Sara Kayyali, Human Rights Watch's Syria researcher. "Exposing what happened there, and at the other mass graves in Syria, is crucial to determining what happened to the thousands of people ISIS executed and holding their killers to account." It is likely that there are more bodies at the very bottom of the gorge, which the drone was unable to reach as it was underwater. Human Rights Watch has now called on Turkish forces, which control the area, to retrieve and identify the bodies so as to begin building a criminal case against IS for the atrocities committed in 2014 and beyond. "Whichever authority controls the al-Hota area is obliged to protect and preserve the site," added Ms Kayyali. "They should facilitate the collection of evidence to hold ISIS members accountable for their horrendous crimes, as well as those who dumped bodies in al-Hota before or after the ISIS rule." She also called on the Turkish military to clear the al-Hota area of boobytraps and other hazards that prevent thorough investigation of the site.
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| The US and Sweden may have approached the coronavirus differently, but they could both end up with high death rates Posted: 05 May 2020 02:47 PM PDT  Sweden avoided a lockdown entirely, while states across the US have relied on stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
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| Students at 25 universities sue for refunds after campuses close due to coronavirus Posted: 05 May 2020 01:04 PM PDT  "It's just not the same experience I would be getting if I was at the campus," said Grainger Rickenbaker, who filed a lawsuit against Drexel University.
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| NYC Police Union Claims ‘City Will Fall Apart’ Unless Cops Taken Off Social Distancing Enforcement Posted: 04 May 2020 11:08 AM PDT  The New York City Police Benevolent Association, the city's largest police union, released a statement Monday arguing that officers should not be tasked with enforcing social distancing ordinances."The NYPD needs to get cops out of the social distancing enforcement business altogether," PBA president Patrick Lynch said in a statement. "As the weather heats up & the pandemic continues to unravel our social fabric, police officers should be allowed to focus on our core public safety mission. If we don't, the city will fall apart before our eyes."The city's police force has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with over 4,000 officers testing positive for the illness and 30 dead over the course of the outbreak. In early April, almost 20 percent of the entire 36,000-strong police force was on sick leave for coronavirus or other illnesses.Enforcing social distancing in the city is made exceedingly difficult by the city's density and residents' reliance on public transport. NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea said Monday that police issued about 70 summonses over the weekend for violations of social distancing regulations."This is a great experiment we're living through here," Shea told reporters at a press conference. "Really never seen this before in a city of 8.6 million people trying to keep everyone inside."The NYPD on Saturday arrested three people in a group violating social distancing measures, and video of the altercation was shared in local media. The force also faced criticism after allowing mourners to gather at the funeral of an ultra-Orthodox rabbi in Brooklyn. After more mourners gathered than were initially predicted, police were forced to break up the funeral.
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| Woman killed by alligator in SC was doing homeowner's nails Posted: 05 May 2020 12:01 PM PDT |
| This Extremely Detailed Owl Puzzle Has Unique Wooden Pieces That Create a Colorful Masterpiece Posted: 05 May 2020 09:31 AM PDT |
| Trump gives up on virus fight to focus on economic recovery – and re-election Posted: 05 May 2020 09:46 AM PDT  With Covid-19 deaths set to almost double this month, the president is putting the stock market before lives, critics say * Coronavirus – latest US updates * Coronavirus – latest global updates * See all our coronavirus coverageDonald Trump is effectively abandoning a public health strategy for the coronavirus pandemic and showing "clear willingness to trade lives for the Dow Jones", critics say.A leaked internal White House report predicts the daily death toll from the virus will reach about 3,000 on 1 June, almost double the current tally of about 1,750, the New York Times revealed on Monday.Yet at the same time, Trump has scrapped daily coronavirus task force briefings and marginalized his medical experts in favour of economic officials flooding the airwaves to urge states to reopen for business – even amid rising infection rates.On Tuesday morning, before boarding Air Force One to visit a medical mask-making facility in Arizona for his first long trip since late March when the outbreak escalated in the US, Trump weighed a predicted surge in deaths against economic revival."There is no great win, one way or the other, but I will tell you where there is a win, we are going to build a country, I did it once, two months ago we had the best economy in the history of the world, but we are going to do it again and that's what we're starting … it's going to happen pretty fast."The top US public health expert on the White House coronavirus task force, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned in a CNN interview the previous evening that there will be a "rebound" of new coronavirus cases in the US if the country rushes towards a "premature" reopening of society and business."How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back to what you want to be some form of normality sooner rather than later?" he asked.And on Tuesday morning New York governor Andrew Cuomo warned against what he called a life or death "trade-off" when planning how and when to lift restrictions."The faster we reopen the lower the economic costs, but the higher the human costs because the more lives lost. That, my friends, is the decision we are really making," Cuomo said at his daily briefing.Critics are now sharply questioning the Trump administration approach to what Fauci called "a very difficult choice" that weighs a death toll against economic catastrophe."They've decided in a very utilitarian kind of way that the political damage from a collapsed economy is greater than the political damage from losing as many as 90,000 more Americans just in June," said Rick Wilson, a former Republican strategist. "We're witnessing the full-scale application of a kind of grisly realpolitik that is a clear willingness to trade lives for the Dow Jones."In a sign of the shift, the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie told CNN that increased deaths could be worth it if the economy reopens. "Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can – but the question is, towards what end, ultimately?" said Christie, a Republican who led Donald Trump's presidential transition team in 2016. He added: "Are there ways that we can … thread the needle here to allow that there are going to be deaths, and there are going to be deaths no matter what?"When Trump declared a national emergency on 13 March, hopes rose that, for all the early downplaying and missed testing opportunities, the federal government was finally ready to attack the crisis with full force.Trump quickly branded himself a "wartime president" and, on 31 March, somberly braced Americans for a "very, very painful two weeks" ahead. His daily White House coronavirus taskforce briefings earned comparisons with campaign rallies, sometimes running for more than two hours, but also featured respected experts, Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, armed with graphics and science.On 23 April, however, Trump pontificated about injecting disinfectant into coronavirus patients, prompting worldwide disbelief and derision. The briefings would never be the same again and over the past week have been replaced by set-piece events touting an economic comeback.On Sunday, tellingly, when Trump held a Fox News virtual town hall entitled "America Together: Returning to Work" at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, he was accompanied not by Birx and Fauci but Vice-President Mike Pence and the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin.The president has been egged on by Fox News hosts who question whether the virus is any worse than the common flu, doubt the value of physical distancing and contend that the economic shutdown, which has cost at least 30m jobs, shows the cure is worse than the problem.On Saturday, a Washington Post report suggested Trump had been encouraged to pivot from the health crisis to the economic fightback by an internal White House analysis that suggested the daily death toll would peak in mid-April then fall away significantly. His "decision-making has been guided largely by his re-election prospects", the Post added.But death toll predictions from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a model favored by the White House, were raised on Monday from 72,000 to 134,000 by the start of August because, it said, states are relaxing physical distancing too soon.Now, critics say, Trump seems ready to shrug at the losses as collateral damage, paying greater heed to his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, than Birx or Fauci.Wilson, author of Everything Trump Touches Dies, warned: "They may end up making the situation so bad with a second wave in the summer and a third wave in the fall that we end up with a much worse set of economic challenges than if we'd taken our bitter medicine and stayed shut down until we were through the early part of this crisis."The grim news remains inescapable but the administration hopes its economic message will offer at least some counter-programming.Joe Lockhart, a former White House press secretary, said: "Almost by necessity, they are changing their strategy. They are pinning all of their hopes on getting the economy reopened, using their economic spokespeople and hoping that the American public has a high toleration for the death count moving up. It sounds terrible to say and even worse to do."I think you won't be seeing much from the scientists any more – the news is that bad – and they're just going to turn a blind eye to the fact that what they're doing is going to kill more people, because ultimately the way the president makes decisions is what's good for his re-election."
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| Tokyo governor Koike to ask businesses to refrain from operating until end of May - NHK Posted: 04 May 2020 11:29 PM PDT  Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike will ask businesses in Japan's biggest city to refrain from operating until the end of this month, following the central government's extension of the state of emergency, a public broadcaster NHK reported. The Tokyo government will pay more financial aid to businesses that remain closed during the period, the report said, adding that she will announce details at a media briefing later on Tuesday. Japan on Monday extended a nationwide state of emergency to May 31, saying the new coronavirus infection rate had yet to drop enough to justify ending measures aimed at slowing the outbreak.
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| For Haitians, die of hunger today or coronavirus tomorrow? Posted: 04 May 2020 12:36 AM PDT  Port-au-Prince (AFP) - When the novel coronavirus first appeared in Haiti authorities and humanitarian experts panicked, worried about the country's decrepit health system -- but the pandemic's economic consequences could prove yet deadlier for the nation's poor. With just eight official virus fatalities as of Saturday, the COVID-19 pandemic is still in its infancy in Haiti, where staying at home and social distancing are unattainable luxuries for many who make their living in the informal economy. In an attempt to stem the spread of the virus the government of Haiti -- the poorest country in the Americas -- announced that wearing a mask would be compulsory in all public places beginning May 11.
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| China is reportedly silencing coronavirus survivors who want answers on what went wrong with the country's early coronavirus response Posted: 04 May 2020 10:01 PM PDT  According to The New York Times, Wuhan residents who survived the virus or lost loved ones have been threatened for questioning China's response.
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| US family 'murdered shop guard for enforcing mask policy' Posted: 04 May 2020 08:33 PM PDT  A Michigan store guard is shot in the back of the head after confronting a customer who had no mask.
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| Iran news agency: Gunmen kill 3 Revolutionary Guard members Posted: 05 May 2020 09:19 AM PDT |
| Jim Jordan Demands Top FBI Officials Answer Questions about ‘Perjury Trap’ Set for Michael Flynn Posted: 05 May 2020 06:37 AM PDT  House Judiciary Republicans are demanding that FBI Director Christopher Wray answer for the Bureau's "targeting" of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn by making top officials and documents connected to the probe available to lawmakers.House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) and Representative Mike Johnson (R., La.) asked Wray to hand over all documents and communications related to the FBI's "Crossfire Razor" investigation of Flynn, as well as to address why the Bureau has not been forthcoming regarding the new information about the case that has been released in court filings."The American people continue to learn troubling details about the politicization and misconduct at the highest levels of the FBI during the Obama-Biden Administration," Jordan and Johnson wrote. "Even more concerning, we continue to learn these new details from litigation and investigations — not from you. It is well past time that you show the leadership necessary to bring the FBI past the abuses of the Obama-Biden era."Records released last week showed that handwritten notes dated January 24, 2017 — the same day of Flynn was interviewed at the White House interview by FBI agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka — showed one agent questioning whether the goal of the interview was "to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired."Further documents released in the case also reveal that Strzok intervened to keep the Flynn case open after Crossfire Razor investigators noted on January 4, 2017 that they had found "no derogatory information" regarding Flynn's Russian contacts. That same day, Strzok also told a redacted individual that the FBI's "7th floor" had intervened — apparently referencing the floor in Bureau headquarters that houses senior FBI leadership.In their letter, Jordan and Johnson ask Wray to allow Pientka and Priestap to be made available for an interview to explain their respective roles in the case, and also ask Wray to publicly address allegations that he had opposed the disclosure of exculpatory information in the Flynn case, as reported by the Daily Caller.President Trump reportedly wants to fire Wray in response to the latest revelations, but the president is unlikely to remove him before the November election. Wray has been backed publicly by Attorney General Bill Barr, who said in an October interview that "there's been a world of change" since Wray took over in 2017. "I think that he is restoring the steady professionalism that's been a hallmark of the FBI," Barr told Fox News.
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| Michigan Gov. Whitmer: Protesters 'carried nooses and Confederate flags and swastikas' Posted: 05 May 2020 07:56 AM PDT  Whitmer, a Democrat, was referring to the hundreds of demonstrators who protested Michigan's emergency measures at the state Capitol building last week.
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| Report: Intel shared among U.S. allies contradicts claim coronavirus spread because of lab accident Posted: 04 May 2020 07:55 PM PDT  Intelligence shared between the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand indicates that it's "highly unlikely" the COVID-19 coronavirus originated in a Wuhan, China, laboratory, two officials told CNN on Monday, citing an intelligence assessment.The countries make up the Five Eyes alliance, and two officials said the nations are uniting around the assessment. One Western diplomat told CNN the intelligence points to the coronavirus outbreak coming from a market in Wuhan, and it's "highly likely it was naturally occurring and that the human infection was from natural human and animal interaction."Another official said "clearly the market is where it exploded from," but it's not clear how the virus got there. This official noted that each Five Eyes country does keep some intelligence to themselves, and the U.S. might not be sharing everything it knows about the coronavirus.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed there is "enormous evidence" the coronavirus spread as a result of a lab accident, backing up earlier comments made by President Trump. Officials who have examined classified U.S. intelligence reports told The New York Times that several theories are being investigated, and there is no evidence the virus was man-made or genetically modified.More stories from theweek.com Trump is pursuing a herd immunity strategy — whether intentionally or not How George W. Bush exposed Trump's biggest failure Approval rating for Trump's coronavirus response drops again, poll shows
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| U.S. coronavirus deaths exceed 70,000 as forecasting models predict grim summer Posted: 05 May 2020 10:13 AM PDT  Nearly 1.2 million people in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19 - more than the combined total of the next largest outbreaks in Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. A University of Washington research model https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america often cited by White House officials on Monday nearly doubled its projected U.S. death toll to over 134,000 by Aug. 4. The U.S. coronavirus outbreak is deadlier than any flu season since 1967 when about 100,000 Americans died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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| 'Put on a mask and shut up': China's new 'Wolf Warriors' spread hoaxes and attack a world of critics Posted: 04 May 2020 11:29 AM PDT  The aggressive nationalism of China's diplomats matches the swagger of Xi Jinping's China, which is determined to deflect blame for the coronavirus.
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| Florida sheriff defends keeping childhood shooting a secret Posted: 04 May 2020 07:29 AM PDT  The Florida sheriff appointed by the governor after the 2018 Parkland high school massacre is defending himself over allegations that he should have disclosed he fatally shot another teenager when he was 14 in Philadelphia. Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony told reporters over the weekend that he didn't see the need to disclose the 1993 killing to Gov. Ron DeSantis or on other applications during his law enforcement career because he was a juvenile and he was cleared because it was self-defense. The shooting came to light Saturday in an article published by the Florida Bulldog website and further roiled the August Democratic primary race between Tony and the fired sheriff he replaced, Scott Israel.
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| India coronavirus: Country records highest spike in Covid-19 cases Posted: 05 May 2020 03:42 AM PDT  The rise in infection rates came amid a move to relax lockdown restrictions.
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| Israel vows to pursue Syria operations until Iran leaves Posted: 05 May 2020 05:01 PM PDT  Israel will keep up its operations in Syria until its arch enemy Iran leaves, Defence Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday after strikes on Iranian-backed militias and their allies killed 14 fighters. Israel has launched hundreds of attacks in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, targeting government troops, allied Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The Jewish state rarely confirms details of its operations in Syria but says Iran's presence in support of President Bashar al-Assad is a threat and that it will continue its attacks.
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| The Trump administration is privately estimating the daily coronavirus death rate will double in the next month Posted: 04 May 2020 09:56 AM PDT  Publicly, the Trump administration is pushing for states to let businesses reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Privately, it's forecasting a very disturbing future.The Trump administration is forecasting the U.S. daily death toll from coronavirus will rise to 3,000 by June 1. That's nearly twice the current toll of 1,750 deaths per day, The New York Times reports via an internal administration document.> This is what CDC thinks the future looks like. https://t.co/5NnljVJqVJhttps://t.co/bQYUD9LUGM pic.twitter.com/xGGm1SZYfF> > — Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) May 4, 2020The White House's prediction is based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modeling, though reported COVID-19 deaths have already far outpaced the CDC's model. The CDC also predicts the U.S. could go from adding about 25,000 new coronavirus cases every day to adding 200,000 or more daily by the end of the month. As some states resume business as usual, those growth rates could further worsen.More stories from theweek.com Trump is pursuing a herd immunity strategy — whether intentionally or not How George W. Bush exposed Trump's biggest failure Trump was the disaster we should have seen coming
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