| Biden looks to placate Sanders by letting him keep delegates Posted: 17 Apr 2020 04:59 PM PDT  Seeking to avoid the bitter feelings that marred the 2016 Democratic convention, Joe Biden's campaign is angling to allow Bernie Sanders to keep some of the delegates he would otherwise forfeit by dropping out of the presidential race. Under a strict application of party rules, Sanders should lose about a third of the delegates he's won in primaries and caucuses as the process moves ahead and states select the actual people who will attend the Democratic National Convention. The rules say those delegates should be Biden supporters, as he is the only candidate still actively seeking the party's nomination.
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| Ethiopia and Eritrea: A wedding, birth and baptism at the border Posted: 17 Apr 2020 04:49 PM PDT  The recent peace between once bitter enemies Ethiopia and Eritrea has transformed lives there.
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| Scant testing in US migration system risks spreading virus Posted: 17 Apr 2020 03:10 PM PDT  The Trump administration's failure to test all but a small percentage of detained immigrants for the novel coronavirus may be helping it spread through the United States' sprawling system of detention centers and then to Central America and elsewhere aboard regular deportation flights, migrants' advocates said Friday. More than 1,600 people deported from the United States to Guatemala over the last month were allowed to go home and into voluntary, unenforced quarantine. Fears are rising that it may have seeded the Central American nation with an untold number of undetected cases, increasing its vulnerability to the pandemic.
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| Analysis: With new virus plan, Trump passes buck to states Posted: 17 Apr 2020 02:09 PM PDT  President Donald Trump's guidelines for states to reopen their economies had the hallmarks of a permission structure. It fits a familiar pattern for Trump: claim credit for what's going well, find a fall guy for what's not. In making the case that large swaths of the country can safely ease restrictions under the new guidelines, Trump also found a way out of his constitutionally questionable assertions that he had "total authority" to decide how the states return to a semblance of normalcy.
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| Libya's east-based forces hit Tripoli civilian area, 4 dead Posted: 17 Apr 2020 01:12 PM PDT |
| White House moves to weaken EPA rule on toxic compounds Posted: 17 Apr 2020 12:45 PM PDT  The Trump White House intervened to weaken one of the few public health protections pursued by its own administration, a rule to limit the use of a toxic industrial compound in consumer products, according to communications between the White House and Environmental Protection Agency. The documents show that the White House Office of Management and Budget formally notified the EPA by email last July that it was stepping into the crafting of the rule on the compound, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, used in nonstick and stain-resistant frying pans, rugs, and countless other consumer products. The White House repeatedly pressed the agency to agree to a major loophole that could allow substantial imports of the PFAS-tainted products to continue, greatly weakening the proposed rule.
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| US using coronavirus pandemic to unlawfully expel asylum seekers, says UN Posted: 17 Apr 2020 12:19 PM PDT  CDC recently issued order encouraging immediate deportation of non-citizens without valid documents, citing obscure quarantine law * Coronavirus – latest US updates * Coronavirus – latest global updates * See all our coronavirus coverageAn unprecedented US policy authorizing the summary expulsion of migrants and asylum seekers because of the coronavirus pandemic violates international law, the United Nations has warned.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a sweeping order on 20 March encouraging the immediate deportation of non-citizens arriving overland without valid documents. The order cited an obscure quarantine law to claim the move is justified on public health grounds.In the first 18 days to 8 April, 10,000 people were expelled within two hours of arriving on US soil – effectively denying them the legal right to seek international protection, according to Customs and Border Protection figures.This amounted to 80% of all migrants and refugees being escorted back over the border into Mexico, where reports of kidnapping, trafficking and assaults by organised crime gangs and corrupt security forces are rife.This novel policy of systematic and rapid expulsions constitutes "refoulement" – the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution – which violates US and international laws and treaties designed to protect people at risk of persecution, torture and trafficking."We understand that in the current global Covid-19 public health emergency all governments have an obligation to enact measures to protect the health of their populations. While this may warrant extraordinary measures at borders, expulsion of asylum seekers resulting in refoulement should not be among them," said Chris Boian from the UN Refugee Agency.The vast majority of those expelled were men, women and children from Mexico and Central America's northern triangle – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – where a toxic mix of organized crime, state sponsored repression, extreme poverty and impunity has fueled an exodus of citizens in recent years.Since taking power, the Trump administration has employed a variety of legally questionable measures to slash migration and roll back rights for asylum seekers without changing any laws.For instance, since January 2019 tens of thousands of non-Mexican asylum seekers and migrants have been forced back into Mexico under the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols, where they must wait months or years for a court hearing in the US.The new order singles out those without valid travel or immigration documents including asylum seekers for immediate expulsion on public health grounds, meanwhile excluding commerce and people with the correct documents from the same countries.But the quarantine provision of the 1944 Public Health Service Act does not supersede other laws, or allow for selective application based on immigration status.In a recent article for Just Security, the leading immigration law professor Lucas Guttentag, said: "The CDC order is designed to accomplish under the guise of public health a dismantling of legal protections governing border arrivals that the Trump administration has been unable to achieve under the immigration laws."As the coronavirus crisis unfolded, Trump initially minimized the gravity until cases and deaths started to escalate in the US, at which point he pivoted to blaming foreign nationals.He has since used the pandemic to justify ramping up construction of the wall on the southern border. There is no evidence of undocumented migrants spreading coronavirus in the US, however, the US has deported dozens of infected migrants to Guatemala.As countries across the world have enacted mitigation measures to tackle the pandemic, the right to freedom of movement has been forcefully restricted by repressive regimes in the northern triangle.Over the past few weeks, Trump has used the daily White House coronavirus briefings to congratulate himself and the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for a fall in numbers at the southern border.About 570 people were apprehended every day during the first week of April – down by almost 50% compared to the first week of March, according to analysis by Adam Isacson, who runs the Washington Office of Latin America's defense oversight program.If the downward trend continues, April could see the lowest number of apprehensions in 50 years.The controversial border quarantine order, which has been widely condemned by human rights, humanitarian and religious groups, must be renewed every 30 days.Isacson said: "The danger is that the administration will use coronavirus as a pretext to maintain the expulsions for as long as possible. Right now, not only are courts barely in session, but there's no litigation happening on this yet because the policy itself is mostly secret and it's hard to reach plaintiffs on the Mexican side of the border."
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| Senators urge anti-bias police training over mask fears Posted: 17 Apr 2020 12:02 PM PDT  Democratic lawmakers want police departments to be vigilant about any racially biased policing during the coronavirus pandemic, as people in communities of color express fears of being profiled while wearing masks or other face coverings in public. In a letter sent Friday to Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and other Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee urged federal law enforcement agencies to provide anti-bias training and guidance to police officers. "With the ongoing public health emergency, it is more important than ever for law enforcement to build trust with communities of color," the senators said in the letter, which was first shared with The Associated Press.
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| Photos capture North Korea ships' sanctions busting in Chinese waters -U.N. report Posted: 17 Apr 2020 11:54 AM PDT |
| Syria virus death traced to Kurdish-run northeast region Posted: 17 Apr 2020 11:42 AM PDT  A 53-year-old male resident of Syria's Kurdish-administered northeast died earlier this month from COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, according to an email from the World Health Organization obtained by The Associated Press on Friday. The April 2 death in the city of Qamishli had not been reported until now and is the first to be traced back to the northeast, a region that has restricted access to outside assistance and where testing capabilities have so far been unavailable. It is not clear why the death, although reported to WHO, is not in the Syrian government's official tally, which has so far reported two deaths, the last on March 30.
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| No plan in sight: Test troubles cloud Trump recovery effort Posted: 17 Apr 2020 11:34 AM PDT  The United States is struggling to test enough people to track and control the spread of the novel coronavirus, a crucial first step to reopening parts of the economy, which President Donald Trump is pushing to do by May 1. Labs and public officials say critical supply shortages are making it impossible to increase testing to the levels experts say is necessary to keep the virus in check. "There's just so many inefficiencies and problems with the way that testing currently happens across this country."
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| Venezuela's go-to test for fighting virus raising questions Posted: 17 Apr 2020 10:55 AM PDT  Venezuelan officials have taken to state TV in recent weeks to crow that the socialist government is conducting more coronavirus tests than any other country in Latin America. The odd result highlights that Venezuela is going about testing its citizens unlike any other country: Mass deployment of a rapid blood antibody test from China that checks for proteins developing a week or more after someone is infected, while using on a much smaller scale the gold-standard nasal swab exam that detects the virus from the onset. Doctors warn Venezuela's approach could be missing untold numbers who test negative because they do not yet have high antibody levels but could nonetheless have the virus and be spreading it to others.
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| 'Heartbreaking' report shows virus ravaging NY nursing homes Posted: 17 Apr 2020 09:22 AM PDT  New York, by far the nation's leader in coronavirus nursing home deaths, released details Friday on outbreaks in individual facilities after weeks of refusing, revealing one home in Brooklyn where 55 people died and four others with at least 40 deaths. "Every death is heartbreaking," said Dr. Roy Goldberg, medical director at Kings Harbor Multicare Center, a 720-bed home in the Bronx which reported 45 fatalities. The state's accounting of multiple deaths at 68 nursing homes was based on a survey and is substantially incomplete.
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| Security Council backs UN chief's call for Yemen cease-fire Posted: 17 Apr 2020 09:08 AM PDT  The U.N. Security Council on Friday endorsed the secretary-general's call for the warring parties in Yemen to immediately stop fighting and focus on reaching a peace agreement and countering the outbreak of the new coronavirus. The U.N.'s most powerful body welcomed the unilateral, two-week cease-fire announced by the Saudi-led coalition that went into effect April 9 to support the U.N.-led peace process and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' call for a truce. Despite the announcement, violence in Yemen has been reported by both the internationally recognized government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, and the country's Iran-backed Shiite rebels, known as Houthis.
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| Coronavirus: Africa could be next epicentre, WHO warns Posted: 17 Apr 2020 08:57 AM PDT  The UN fears the virus may kill 300,000 people in Africa and push millions more into poverty.
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| France finds more than 1,000 virus cases on aircraft carrier Posted: 17 Apr 2020 08:00 AM PDT  The French navy is investigating how the coronavirus infected more than 1,000 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, amid growing pressure on government leaders to explain how it could have happened. The ship, France's biggest carrier and the flagship of its navy, is undergoing a lengthy disinfection process since returning to its home base in Toulon five days ago. One person remains in intensive care and some 20 others hospitalized, navy spokesman Cmdr. Eric Lavault told The Associated Press.
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| Coronavirus: What misinformation has spread in Africa? Posted: 17 Apr 2020 07:16 AM PDT  We look at some of the claims about coronavirus circulating in African countries.
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| Virus forced schools online, but many students didn't follow Posted: 17 Apr 2020 06:40 AM PDT  During the first week that her San Diego public school was shuttered to slow the spread of the coronavirus, not one of Elise Samaniego's students logged on to her virtual classroom. Three weeks in, the teacher still hadn't connected online with roughly two-thirds of the students in her third- and fourth-grade combo class at Paradise Hills Elementary. "I do have several students below grade level, and this is just going to make it worse," said Samaniego, who has been emailing and calling families to get her 22 students to participate.
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| What you need to know today about the virus outbreak Posted: 17 Apr 2020 06:03 AM PDT  President Donald Trump appears to be encouraging resistance to stay at home orders aimed at containing the coronavirus that have thrown millions of Americans out of work. A day after Trump gave U.S. governors a road map for recovering from the pandemic's financial pain and told them they could call the shots, he ramped up pressure on three Democratic states in a series of tweets: "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" "LIBERATE VIRGINIA." Here are some of AP's top stories Friday on the world's coronavirus pandemic.
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| 'You hear the cries': Virus toll haunts a New York paramedic Posted: 17 Apr 2020 05:18 AM PDT  Elizabeth Bonilla pulls her ambulance up to a set of Bronx row houses. An empty gurney waits by the front steps while four EMS workers, Bonilla included, rush upstairs. Bonilla, a 43-year-old Fire Department paramedic, follows five minutes after that.
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| Catholic Church urges Venezuela to unite against coronavirus Posted: 17 Apr 2020 05:11 AM PDT  Coronavirus hasn't yet hit Venezuela as hard as neighboring Brazil and Colombia. But after years of economic and political crisis, the country's institutions are in ruins and experts agree Venezuela is ill-prepared for a pandemic. As the stalemate between interim President Juan Guaidó and de facto President Nicolás Maduro enters its second year, civil society and world leaders are pushing for an emergency agreement that would enable Venezuela to mount a coordinated response to coronavirus. It will be next to impossible for Maduro's cash-strapped government to address the coming crisis without significant international financial assistance. Only Guaidó, who is recognized as Venezuela's legitimate leader by the United States and most countries in the Americas and Europe, can secure that help.Many advocates are calling upon international actors like the European Union, United Nations or the Vatican to engage the conflicting parties. As sociologists who have studied religion in Venezuela for years, we are tracking this last possibility closely. We find the Catholic Church is in some ways well positioned to aid Venezuela in this latest crisis. But its power to help is also limited. Broad approval for Catholic ChurchOn March 30, Venezuela's Catholic Church issued a widely circulated message asking all political leaders to "act decisively to reach a fundamental consensus" that would enable Venezuela to "overcome the serious current public health and socio-economic juncture." In his Easter message, Pope Francis called for a cease of conflicts around the world. He added "in Venezuela, may [God] enable concrete and immediate solutions" to "permit international assistance to a population suffering."But so far, neither the Venezuelan Catholic Church nor the Vatican have followed up with concrete efforts to broker an agreement between the Maduro government and the opposition. Historically, faith leaders have played an important role in addressing conflict and violence in Latin America, helping gang members start a new life, supporting peasants confronting landowners or mediating between conflicting parties. In nearby Colombia, the church was a fundamental player in the peace process that ended the FARC guerrillas' 52-year insurgency against the government. The Church's ability to engage in conflict resolution has come about in Latin America in part because it has a bureaucratic structure and administrative districts across the entire region. The Vatican also has an experienced diplomatic corps. Seventy-three percent of Venezuelans identify as Catholic. And in a society in which the courts, parties and most every other institution of public life are discredited or deeply polarizing, opinion polls consistently show that the Catholic Church has high approval ratings.Pope Francis – the first Latin American to lead the Catholic Church – has shown considerable interest in Venezuela since assuming office in 2013, sending Vatican participants to two rounds of dialogue between the Maduro government and the opposition. The Pope even has some Venezuela experts in his administration. His secretary of state, Msgr. Pietro Parolin, was the Vatican's ambassador to Venezuela from 2009 to 2013. And Arturo Sosa, Superior General of the Jesuit order – the religious order that Francis is part of – is himself Venezuelan. The perils of principlesBut past efforts to mediate in Venezuela's conflict reveal the limits of the Catholic Church's capacity to influence the political stalemate there. The Church's power, in Venezuela and worldwide, is symbolic. It has no way of actually enforcing political agreements. That makes the Church sensitive to conflicting parties actually respecting its authority. In 2016 both the opposition and the Maduro government requested Vatican involvement in negotiations. That process eventually resulted in an agreement to recognize Venezuela's opposition-dominated National Assembly and rid the national electoral authority of its Maduro-dominated directors.But the Maduro government failed to follow through in good faith. So in January 2017 the Vatican withdrew from further involvement in Venezuela's conflict and recalled its envoy. Two years later, amid a crisis caused by the National Assembly's designation of Juan Guaidó as interim president, Maduro asked Pope Francis for renewed Vatican mediation. In a private letter that was later leaked, the Pope demurred "because what had been agreed in the meetings was not followed by concrete gestures." 'Positive neutrality'Since the failed 2016 negotiations, both the Vatican and Venezuela's national Catholic Church hierarchy have maintained what they call "positive neutrality." By positive neutrality, Church leaders mean the effort to engage leaders on both sides of the conflict while pushing for democratic elections, humanitarian aid and political dialogue. They denounce the Maduro government for its bleak human rights record and denial of Venezuela's humanitarian crisis. They also criticize the opposition for violent protests and unwillingness to negotiate.Our tracking of the Church's public discourse in Venezuela shows that its message has been remarkably consistent throughout the government of Nicolás Maduro.But in polarized Venezuela, neutrality of any kind is rarely well received. Opposition members have long complained about the Vatican's willingness to stay on the margins of a conflict that has seen protesters beaten, opposition leaders jailed and democracy dismantled. They see Pope Francis as appeasing an authoritarian with dictatorial plans.The Maduro government, for its part, views the local Catholic hierarchy as an ally of the opposition. Indeed, Venezuela's bishops have openly supported the presidential claims of Juan Guaidó. Religious authorityNonetheless, political leaders on both sides consistently seek the blessing of the Venezuelan Catholic Church and the Vatican's involvement on their behalf.Our research confirms that the Church has a level of approval and moral authority in Venezuela that crosscuts political powers. That gives it the potential to alter a conflicted equilibrium. But this moral authority is fragile, and both the Venezuelan Church and the Vatican jealously guard it. Having been defied once by Maduro, the Pope may be disinclined to back another mediation that might fail.Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic appears certain to deepen what is already a tragic humanitarian emergency.[You're smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation's authors and editors. You can get our highlights each weekend.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Venezuela's power struggle reaches a tense stalemate, as human suffering deepens * Venezuela: a humanitarian and security crisis on the border with ColombiaDavid Smilde is affiliated with the Washington Office on Latin America, an human rights organization.Hugo Pérez Hernáiz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Biden Embraces Endorsement of Liberal Jewish Group J Street Posted: 17 Apr 2020 05:03 AM PDT  In a sign of how the ground has shifted domestically when it comes to Israeli politics, the progressive-minded Israel advocacy group J Street announced its first ever presidential endorsement on Friday. And its recipient, former Vice President Joe Biden, eagerly embraced it."I'm honored to have earned J Street's first-ever presidential endorsement," Biden said in a statement sent to The Daily Beast. "J Street has been a powerful voice to advance social justice here at home, and to advocate for a two-state solution that advances Middle East Peace. I share with J Street's membership an unyielding dedication to the survival and security of Israel, and an equal commitment to creating a future of peace and opportunity for Israeli and Palestinian children alike. That's what we have to keep working toward—and what I'll do as President with J Street's support."Founded in 2007 as a philosophical counterweight to more reflexively pro-Israeli government advocacy organizations like AIPAC, J Street was, for a time, treated as a creature of the liberal foreign policy diaspora—an institution that intellectuals were fine embracing but mainstream Democratic politicians kept at a safe distance. That has changed in recent years as public opinion among Democrats has turned more sour on Benjamin Netanyahu's government, particularly as it trashed Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal and cozied up to Donald Trump. Today, J Street finds itself to the ideological right of a good chunk of the current Jewish left.Biden, more a traditionalist on U.S.-Israel relations, has resisted some of those tectonic shifts. He was one of the few presidential candidates this year who declined to skip addressing AIPAC's forum. He's criticized the BDS movement and has said he would not move the U.S. Embassy back to Tel Aviv after Trump relocated it to Jerusalem. But his embrace of the J Street's endorsement is being hailed by the group as evidence of its own growth on the domestic political landscape. "The alignment in the Democratic Party and the shift of the conversation on our issues allows us to feel really great about lining up behind someone like Joe Biden," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street's president. Asked if he felt that shift had occurred even within the last four years, since J Street passed on endorsing Hillary Clinton, Ben-Ami conceded that "it probably" had. "Whether or not it is the moment or the candidates, there has been a shift," he said. "Politics is different in 2020 than it was in 2016, and this issue is no exception. The way the politics in Israel has moved so far right and the way Trump has embraced what's going on there has created a lot more space for Democratic candidates."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| Japan’s Abe Calls for Nations to Support WHO After Trump Cuts Posted: 17 Apr 2020 04:27 AM PDT |
| China says it will step up macro policies to offset coronavirus pandemic impact Posted: 17 Apr 2020 04:21 AM PDT |
| Iran says 89 virus deaths take total to 4,958 Posted: 17 Apr 2020 03:58 AM PDT  Iran said on Friday 89 more people have died from the novel coronavirus, as the country's official fatalities remained in double figures for a fourth day. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference that the latest deaths brought the overall toll to 4,958. A parliamentary report on Tuesday said the officially announced figures were based only on those hospitalised with "severe symptoms".
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| Iran's coronavirus death toll rises by 89 to 4,958 - health ministry Posted: 17 Apr 2020 02:52 AM PDT |
| Africa could see 300,000 coronavirus deaths this year Posted: 17 Apr 2020 02:04 AM PDT  Africa could see 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus this year even under the best-case scenario, according to a new report released Friday that cites modeling from Imperial College London. Under the worst-case scenario with no interventions against the virus, Africa could see 3.3 million deaths and 1.2 billion infections, the report by the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa said. Any of the scenarios would overwhelm Africa's largely fragile and underfunded health systems, experts have warned.
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| Lockdown weighs heavily on Orthodox Christians during Easter Posted: 17 Apr 2020 12:29 AM PDT  For Orthodox Christians, this is normally a time of reflection and mourning followed by joyful release, of centuries-old ceremonies steeped in symbolism and tradition. No family gatherings over lamb roasted whole on a spit for an Easter lunch stretching into the soft spring evening. For some, the restrictions during Easter are particularly tough.
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| Poorer nations face bigger risk in easing virus restrictions Posted: 16 Apr 2020 11:19 PM PDT  As some wealthier Western nations begin easing coronavirus restrictions, many developing countries, particularly in the Middle East and Africa, want to do it too, but they cannot afford the luxury of any missteps. Consider Lebanon, a tiny country teetering on the abyss of bankruptcy with a fragile health system and a restless population. A monthlong lockdown has thrown tens of thousands more people into poverty, pressuring the government to loosen restrictions.
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| `LIBERATE!': Trump pushes states to lift virus restrictions Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:59 PM PDT  President Donald Trump urged supporters to "LIBERATE" three states led by Democratic governors Friday, apparently encouraging protests against stay-at-home restrictions. A day after laying out a road map to gradually reopen the crippled economy, Trump tweeted the kind of rhetoric some of his supporters have used to demand the lifting of the orders that have thrown millions of Americans out of work. "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" "LIBERATE VIRGINIA," he said in a tweet-storm in which he also lashed out at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for criticizing the federal response.
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| Draft UN resolution urges global access to COVID-19 material Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:38 PM PDT  The U.N. General Assembly has until Monday to consider a draft resolution calling for global action to rapidly scale up development, manufacturing and access to medicine, vaccines and medical equipment to confront the coronavirus pandemic. The proposed resolution obtained by The Associated Press requests Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to work with the World Health Organization and recommend options to ensure timely and equitable access to testing, medical supplies, drugs and future coronavirus vaccines for all in need, especially in developing countries.
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| US-Russian space crew lands safely in Kazakhstan Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:32 PM PDT  A U.S.-Russian crew landed safely Friday in the steppes of Kazakhstan following a stint on the International Space Station and was greeted with extra precautions due to the coronavirus. On Friday, Russia's space corporation Roscosmos said it had 42 coronavirus cases and reported the first deaths.
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| German Coronavirus Cases Rise at Faster Pace for a Second Day Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:16 PM PDT |
| Lives Lost: Holocaust survivor was Israel’s 1st virus victim Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:11 PM PDT  As a child in Hungary, Arie Even survived the Holocaust by taking shelter along with his mother and brother after his father was shipped to a notorious concentration camp. When Germany occupied Hungary in 1944, Even, his mother and brother had to go into hiding for nearly a year, at times in bales of hay and in underground cellars.
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| Detained migrant with COVID-19 forced to call in to court Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:03 PM PDT  A detained immigrant who said he tested positive for COVID-19 was required to call in for a court hearing even after a guard said he was too weak to talk, his attorney said. When the judge asked Salomon Diego Alonzo to say his name Thursday, the guard responded that Alonzo "does not have the lung capacity," according to his lawyer, Veronica Semino, who was listening by phone. The call lasted about two hours, though Judge Mary Baumgarten eventually agreed to delay Alonzo's final asylum hearing, the attorney said.
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| ‘I am so afraid’: India’s poor face world’s largest lockdown Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:03 PM PDT  It's squeezed into a Mumbai shantytown controlled by an obscure Mumbai organized crime family. Mina Jakhawadiya knew that outside, somewhere in India, the coronavirus had arrived, wending its way through this sprawling nation of 1.3 billion people. "Every state, every district, every lane, every village will be under lockdown" for three weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the nation on March 24, giving India four hours' notice to prepare.
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| Virus pandemic collides with Trump's disdain for foreign aid Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:03 PM PDT  President Donald Trump's well-known disdain for foreign aid is colliding with the imperatives of fighting the coronavirus pandemic, as his administration boasts about America's generosity for countries in dire need while still generating confusion and anger on the global stage. The U.S. has committed more than half a billion dollars in anti-virus aid for foreign countries since January — a sign that some administration officials recognize Trump's "America First" policy can't fully protect Americans from a highly infectious disease that knows no borders. For instance, two years after slashing virtually all U.S. aid to the Palestinians, the administration announced on Thursday it would provide $5 million in assistance to Palestinian hospitals and households for "immediate, life-saving needs in combating COVID-19."
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| China's virus death toll revised up sharply after review Posted: 16 Apr 2020 09:56 PM PDT  China's official death toll from the coronavirus pandemic jumped sharply Friday as the hardest-hit city of Wuhan announced a major revision that added nearly 1,300 fatalities. While China has yet to update its national totals, the revised numbers push up China's total to 4,632 deaths from a previously reported 3,342. The undercount stemmed from several factors, according to a notification issued by Wuhan's coronavirus response headquarters and published by the official Xinhua News Agency.
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| Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen to serve out prison sentence at home Posted: 16 Apr 2020 09:27 PM PDT  President Donald Trump's former lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen will be released from federal prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic. Cohen is currently locked up at FCI Otisville in New York after pleading guilty to numerous charges, including campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress. After he is released, Cohen will serve the remainder of his sentence at home, according to a Justice Department official and another person familiar with the matter.
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| Brazil's Bolsonaro takes risk with new minister for pandemic Posted: 16 Apr 2020 09:03 PM PDT  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro made it clear on Friday that he wants his new health minister to help protect the country's economy as the government seeks to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. Nelson Teich, an oncologist, was sworn in as health minister after his predecessor, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, was fired by Bolsonaro, who has downplayed the threat of the COVID-19 disease. Mandetta had garnered support for his handling of the pandemic, which included the promotion of broad isolation measures enacted by state governors.
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| 25 years after Oklahoma City bombing, anxiety remains high Posted: 16 Apr 2020 08:52 PM PDT  In the 25 years since a truck bomb ripped through a federal building in downtown Oklahoma City and killed 168 people, the United States has suffered through foreign wars, a rise in mass shootings and a much deadlier act of terror, the Sept. 11 attacks. Ordinarily, survivors and victims' families would gather Sunday at the memorial where the Alfred P. Murrah Building once stood to pay tribute to the lives that were lost and tragically altered, as they have every year since the bombing. Instead, the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum will offer a pre-recorded video that will air online and on TV and will include the reading of the names of everyone killed followed by 168 seconds of silence.
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| Behind Germany's virus battle, the fight for Merkel's crown Posted: 16 Apr 2020 08:34 PM PDT  Sporting events may be on hold in Germany, but the race to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel is gathering pace as the country makes cautious progress in the fight against the coronavirus. Laschet and Soeder head Germany's biggest states by population and area respectively -- and also the two worst hit by the coronavirus -- and have played a key role in the decision to start reopening schools and smaller shops.
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| AP source: Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen being released from prison Posted: 16 Apr 2020 08:10 PM PDT  President Donald Trump's former lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen will be released from federal prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement amid the coronavirus pandemic, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Cohen is currently locked up at FCI Otisville in New York after pleading guilty to numerous charges, including campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress.
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| UN report: Pandemic turning into a 'child-rights crisis' Posted: 16 Apr 2020 07:55 PM PDT  Children have so far largely escaped the most severe symptoms of COVID-19 but the social and economic impact "is potentially catastrophic for millions of children," according to a U.N. report launched Thursday. "All children, of all ages, and in all countries, are affected," it said. "However, some children are destined to bear the greatest costs."
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| Some people turn to herbal medicine for virus without proof Posted: 16 Apr 2020 07:02 PM PDT  With no approved drugs for the new coronavirus, some people are turning to alternative medicines, often with governments promoting them. This is most evident in India and China, densely populated countries with a deep history and tradition of touting such treatments, and where there's sometimes limited access to conventional medicine. In India, where a lockdown of its 1.3 billion residents is underway, the government faced criticism after claiming some treatments might help prevent infections.
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