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Fung Yuen
Underwaterbuffalo: added Category:Tai Po District using HotCat
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How many countries in the world
April 19, 2020
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Protests and rallies across US call for end to coronavirus stay-at-home orders Protests across the country demand the end to stay-at-home orders and a return to normalcy.
April 19, 2020 at 04:50AM
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Coronavirus test troubles cloud Trump's efforts to reopen country 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.
April 19, 2020 at 03:15AM
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Gwyneth Paltrow auctions off old Oscars dress for coronavirus relief years after mocking gown Gwyneth Paltrow announced she is donating an old gown she wore to the Oscars to help provide coronavirus relief.
April 19, 2020 at 03:04AM
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Pro-Trump Protesters Push Back on Stay-at-Home Orders
A growing number of protests are being staged across the U.S. to oppose stay-at-home orders amid the coronavirus pandemic. In places like Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia, small-government groups, supporters of President Donald Trump, anti-vaccine advocates and others have united behind a deep suspicion of efforts to shut down daily life to slow the spread of the coronavirus. As their frustration grows, they've started to openly defy the social distancing rules to put pressure on governors to ease them. Some of the protests have been small events, promoted via recently created Facebook groups. Others are backed by groups with ties to Trump.
While many Americans are filled with fear, Melissa Ackison says the coronavirus pandemic has filled her with anger. The stay-at home orders are government overreach, the conservative Ohio state Senate candidate says, and the labeling of some workers as "essential" arbitrary.
"It enrages something inside of you," said Ackison, who was among those who protested Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's orders at the statehouse in Columbus with her 10-year-old son. She has "no fear whatsoever" of contracting the virus, she said Thursday, dismissing it as hype.
The Ohio protest was among a growing number staged outside governors' mansions and state Capitols across the country. In places like Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia, small-government groups, supporters of President Donald Trump, anti-vaccine advocates, gun rights backers and supporters of right-wing causes have united behind a deep suspicion of efforts to shut down daily life to slow the spread of the coronavirus. As their frustration with life under lockdown grows, they've started to openly defy the social distancing rules in an effort to put pressure on governors to ease them.
Some of the protests have been small events, promoted via Facebook groups that have popped up in recent days and whose organizers are sometimes difficult to identify. Others are backed by groups funded by prominent Republicans donors, some with ties to Trump. The largest so far, a rally of thousands that jammed the streets of Lansing, Michigan, on Wednesday, looked much like one of the president's rallies — complete with MAGA hats or Trump flags — or one of the tea party rallies from a decade ago.
The signs of frustration come as Trump has pushed for easing stay-at-home orders and tried to look ahead to restarting the economy. He unveiled a framework for governors to follow on Thursday, but acknowledged the governors will have the final say on when their state is ready. Health experts have warned that lifting restrictions too quickly could result in a surge of new cases of the virus.
But the president and some of his supporters are impatient. Thousands of people in their cars packed the streets of Lansing to protest Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order and other restrictions. Outside the Capitol, some chanted "Lock her up," a throwback to Trump's calls during the 2016 election about his rival Hillary Clinton. One woman held a sign reading "Heil Whitmer."
Asked about the protesters, Trump on Thursday expressed sympathy with their frustration — "They're suffering ... they want to get back" — and dismissed concerns about the health risks of ignoring state orders and potentially exposing themselves to the virus.
"I think they're listening. I think they listen to me," he said. "They seem to be protesters that like me and respect this opinion, and my opinion's the same as just about all of the governors. Nobody wants to stay shut."
Polls show the protesters' views are not widely held. An AP-NORC survey earlier this month found large majorities of Americans support a long list of government restrictions, including closing schools, limiting gatherings and shuttering bars and restaurants. Three-quarters of Americans backed requiring people to stay in their homes. And majorities of both Democrats and Republicans gave high marks for the state and city governments.
But the protests expose resilient partisan divisions, particularly in battleground Michigan. The protest there was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, a group founded by a pro-Trump state representative and his wife, Meshawn Maddock, who is on the advisory board for an official Trump campaign group called "Women for Trump" and is also the co-founder of Michigan Trump Republicans. Their daughter is a field organizer for the Michigan Republican Party.
Another group that promoted the event, the Michigan Freedom Fund, is run by Greg McNeilly, a longtime political adviser to the DeVos family, who are prolific Republican donors and have funded conservative causes across the state for decades. McNeilly was campaign manager for Dick DeVos, the husband of current U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, during his failed bid for governor in 2006. The group, which does not have to disclose its donors, raised over $4 million in 2018, according to its most recent tax statements.
Whitmer was among the governors who expressed concern about the gatherings, saying it put people at risk and could have prolonged the shutdown. Michigan had recorded over 2,000 deaths from COVID-19 as of Thursday, and close to 30,000 confirmed cases of people infected with the virus. Roughly one-quarter of the state's workforce has filed for unemployment.
But it's not just Democratic governors feeling the heat. A procession of cars swarmed around the Republican-dominated statehouse in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, with messages written on windows or signs that said "stop killing our economy," "we need our church" and "time 2 work."
The event was promoted by the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee, though the group's president, Bob Linn, said prominent conservative activist Carol Hefner was a major organizer of the event. Hefner, whose husband is part of the Hefner Energy empire and currently operates a company that makes Argentinian meat sauce, previously served as an Oklahoma co-chair of Trump's 2016 campaign.
In a Facebook post, Hefner boasted of thousands of people who turned out to deliver a message to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt "to open this state up for business." She did not respond to a request for comment.
Other gatherings have links to fringe groups. A protest Thursday in the Texas capital of Austin, where protesters chanted "Free Texas" and "Make America Free Again," was broadcast live by InfoWars TV, part of a company owned by conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones.
The Ohio event earlier this week brought together a collection of anti-vaccine advocates, Second Amendment supporters, tea party activists and other anti-government activists. A Columbus Dispatch photo of Ackison and other protesters yelling through glass doors of the statehouse rocketed around the internet.
Ackison said that while she views DeWine's efforts as constitutional overreach, she would be fine if Trump were to act with similar authority to force governors to bring the states back on line.
"As patriots, we put President Trump in office for a reason," she said. "If he's not able to give a convincing enough argument to these governors that they need to open up, then he needs to do something to take action."
The protests were advertised on Facebook by groups such as Reopen Virginia and End the Lockdown PA. A protest in Richmond, Virginia, on Thursday grew out of a conversation in the Facebook group Virginians for Medical Freedom, organizer Gary Golden said. The group often turns out at the Capitol in Richmond to oppose vaccine-related measures.
Kelly Mullin, who stood near a "don't tread on me" flag spread on the grass near the governor's mansion, said she brought her sons to the event to teach them a lesson about liberty.
Mullin said that she thought the risk posed by the coronavirus depends on an individual's health and that people can take basic steps to protect themselves, including getting enough sleep, eating organic produce and getting outside.
"I mean, that's where our tax dollars should be going. Eat broccoli," she said.
Infectious-disease specialists say there is no evidence that eating specific foods can prevent or kill the virus. Most people with the coronavirus experience mild or moderate symptoms, and people with health issues such as asthma and older people are at greater risk of death from COVID-19.
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How many countries in the World
April 19, 2020
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List of coin hoards in Vietnam
Donald Trung: /* Overview */Launching list article about coin hoards in Vietnam.
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Germany Staggers World With Low COVID-19 Death Rate
BREMEN, GERMANY — While countries around the world struggle with a lack of hospital beds and equipment for coronavirus patients, German cities such as Bremen have taken in patients from neighboring countries.
On a recent Saturday, Bremen received its first two French coronavirus patients from Strasbourg as Germany's neighbor France struggles with hospitals at their limits.
The city could theoretically take more patients from abroad, hospital group Gesundheit Nord spokeswoman Karen Matiszick told local news outlet Buten un Binnen – although the situation could rapidly change. Bremen currently has had 567 cases and 24 deaths, according to official statistics.
The capacity to take in patients has been attributed to the lower number of cases that need intensive care, and Germany's comparatively low death rate has caught the world's attention.
Of the more than 130,000 diagnosed cases in Germany, about 3,900 people have died as of Friday. In contrast, the U.S., Italy, Spain and France have each recorded more than 10,000 deaths linked to the disease. In Italy alone, more than 20,000 deaths have been registered – among 160,000 cases.
Susanne Glasmacher, a spokesperson for government's Robert Koch Institute, pointed to multiple factors.
"At the beginning, the majority of affected people in Germany didn't belong to a risk group, as many of the transmission paths happened during ski holidays, on international travels, carnival, and other festivities," she told VOA.
The median age of diagnosed cases is comparatively low in Germany at 49, compared to Italy's 62.
The average age of those who have died from the virus in Germany is about 80, and 87% of the deceased patients were older than 70. Similarly, 83.7% of those in Italy who died were older than 70, according to the Italian National Institute of Health.
In recent weeks, though, an increasing number of cases in German nursing homes have raised concern. Forty-one people have died in a single nursing home in the north German city of Wolfsburg as of Thursday. Hundreds of nursing homes across the country have found their first cases.
"If more transmissions take place in homes for elderly people or hospitals, it's to be feared that the rate increases," Glasmacher said.
The current low median age of German cases can to an extent be explained because of the number of tests conducted. Glasmacher said that Germany had tested on a much larger scale than other countries.
"Infections get recognized in more people with mild symptoms than in other countries where sometimes only severely ill people in hospitals are tested," she said.
With a current weekly capacity of about 500,000 tests, Germany is also testing those only showing mild symptoms and those who have not been in known contact with coronavirus cases.
Last month, Germany ordered closure of all nonessential shops to prevent the spread of the disease. Groups of more than two people who don't live in the same household are not allowed in public.
However, the number of deaths has also depended on how strained the health system is, Glasmacher said.
"If the hospitals become overcrowded, the ratio of those who cannot be helped will increase," she said. "The number of deaths can, therefore, change dramatically in the future."
Making similar assessments, Dietrich Rothenbacher, director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry at Ulm University, said the number of deaths depends on how many hospital beds are available for intensive care.
He said a 2012 study found that the number of intensive care beds per 100,000 inhabitants was 29.2 in Germany, 12.5 in Italy, 11.6 in France, and 6.6 in England.
"This has a positive effect on the treatment options for severe cases and the lethality," he said.
Yet, he, cautioned against comparing death rates among countries, as he said the numbers in different countries were highly distorted and not representative of the true picture.
"Based on representative numbers, the Covid-19 pandemic would look less deadly also in Italy," he said.
However, all experts warned that death rates would rise in coming weeks as Germany is still at the beginning of the epidemic. Severe cases often lead to death only after a prolonged period of illness.
"In two to three weeks (or in later phases of the pandemic) the numbers might look differently in Germany," Rothenbacher said.
Bremen itself has a lower infection rate than the German average. The national average is about 161 cases per 100,000 inhabitants; Bremen has only 81 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Robert Koch Institute.
While Andreas Dotzauer, a University of Bremen virologist, said that reasons for this difference were still unclear, he speculated that the character of the city's population – known for being reserved – might play a role.
"In general … it seems that the population [in Bremen] has implemented all rules and restrictions in a very disciplined manner," he said.
"Perhaps the typically more distanced, northern German, Bremen character also contributes to this."
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J.D. Vance: 'There is no rational public health justification for telling people they can't buy tomato seeds' J.D. Vance, the author of "Hillbilly Elegy," joined "Tucker Carlson Tonight" to talk about some governors abusing their authority, in particular Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer who has shut down elective surgeries but is allowing abortions to be performed.
April 18, 2020 at 11:09AM
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Lockdown Weighs Heavily on Orthodox Christians During Easter
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.
But this year, Easter — by far the most significant religious holiday for the world's roughly 300 million Orthodox — has essentially been canceled.
There will be no Good Friday processions behind the flower-bedecked symbolic bier of Christ, to the haunting hymn of the Virgin Mary's lament for the death of her son. No hugs and kisses, or joyous proclamations of "Christ is risen!" as church bells ring at midnight on Holy Saturday. No family gatherings over lamb roasted whole on a spit for an Easter lunch stretching into the soft spring evening.
As the coronavirus rampages around the globe, claiming tens of thousands of lives, governments have imposed lockdowns in a desperate bid to halt the pandemic. Businesses have been closed and church doors shut to prevent the virus's insidious spread.
For some, the restrictions during Easter are particularly tough.
"When there was freedom and you didn't go somewhere, it didn't bother you," said Christina Fenesaki, while shopping in Athens' main meat market for lamb — to cook in the oven at home in the Greek capital instead of on a spit in her ancestral village. "But now that we have the restrictions, it bothers you a lot. It's heavy."
In Greece, where more than 90 percent of the population is baptized into the Orthodox Church, the government has been at pains to stress that this year's Easter cannot be normal.
It imposed a lockdown early on, and so far has managed to keep the number of deaths and critically ill people low — 108 and 71 respectively as of Friday, among a population of nearly 11 million.
But officials fear any slippage in social distancing could have dire consequences, particularly during a holiday that normally sees people cram into churches and flock to the countryside. Roadblocks have been set up, and fines doubled to 300 euros ($325), for anyone found driving without justification during the holiday.
"This Easter is different. We will not go to our villages, we will not roast in our yards, we will not go to our churches. And of course, we will not gather in the homes of relatives and friends," government spokesman Stelios Petsas said. "For us to continue being together, this year we stay apart."
Easter services will be held behind closed doors with only the priest and essential staff. They will be broadcast live on television and streamed on the internet.
One particularly complex issue is how to handle the "Holy Light," the flame distributed throughout the Orthodox world each year from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to mark the resurrection of Christ.
Greek and Russian authorities have arranged to pick the flame up from Israel but won't distribute it. Cyprus won't even pick it up; there is "no need," the island nation's Archbishop Chrysostomos said.
"Today, faith is not at risk but the faithful are," Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said.
Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox, has urged the faithful to adhere to government measures and World Health Organization guidelines. But keeping people out of churches hasn't proved easy.
In Serbia and North Macedonia, authorities imposed nationwide curfews from Good Friday through Easter Monday. Ethiopia, with the largest Orthodox population outside Europe, also restricted access to liturgies and deployed security outside churches. Liturgies are broadcast live, although several churches outside the capital, Addis Ababa, were violating restrictions, alarming authorities.
But in some Orthodox countries, such as Georgia and Bulgaria, limited church services will go ahead.
In Greece, after days of delicate diplomacy with the country's powerful Orthodox Church, the government banned the public from all services after the church's governing body imposed restrictions but not a full shutdown. Authorities also quickly scotched a Greek mayor's plans to distribute the "Holy Light" door-to-door throughout his municipality just after midnight on Saturday.
Some priests have defied the shutdown. One recently offered communion — where the faithful sip from the same spoon — through an Athens church's back door. On Good Friday, a handful of churches opened briefly, allowing people in.
Russia's Orthodox Church initially seemed similarly reluctant to impose restrictions. When authorities in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, banned church visits on March 26, the Moscow Patriarchate condemned the move as an infringement on religious freedom. Only three days later did Patriarch Kirill publicly urge believers to "strictly obey the regulations imposed by the health authorities" and "refrain from church visits."
On Friday, Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vladimir Legoida said churches would stay open in some regions, even though the Church urged people to stay home.
"The epidemiological situation varies in different regions, and so do rules for attending churches," he said.
Closing churches during Easter has been hard on Russians used to attending services. Many have turned to the internet and video conference prayers.
"At first it was just a shock," said believer Andrei Vasenev. "How is that possible -- not go to church? But then we realized it was a matter of finding a way."
Vasenev, two dozen others and a priest from his Moscow parish have started praying via Zoom and plan to do the same during Easter. For him, going to church is about community, and Zoom prayers keep this community together.
For Anna Sytina, another participant of the online prayers, the hardest part is being away from people and the warmth of human contact. "There's a moment in a liturgy when you kiss each other three times," Sytina said. "Now we see each other on monitors and displays."
Both are prepared to pray at home for as long as it takes. "It is a sacrifice in the life of every believer, but it is necessary," Sytina said.
It is a sentiment echoed in Greece.
"Each person has the church inside of them," said Kleanthis Tsironis, who heads Athens' main meat market. He will spend Easter at home with his wife and two daughters and will miss the resurrection liturgy. But churches will eventually open, he said, and Easter traditions will return.
"Souls are being lost," he said of the virus deaths across the world. "And we're going to sit and cry because we didn't roast on a spit? We'll do that later, when the measures are over."
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Prisoners Desperately Press for Home Confinement to Escape Coronavirus
Five of six prisoners in Louisiana suing the Bureau of Prisons for home confinement suffer from myriad illnesses and health conditions that make them highly vulnerable to the coronavirus.
One of them, Brandon Livas, 35, is diabetic and suffers from acute pancreatitis.
Another, Joseph Buswell, 51, has asthma, hypertension and sleep apnea.
Two weeks after they and others asked a federal judge in Louisiana to order them to home confinement during the pandemic, the six inmates remain behind bars in the Oakdale prison, where seven inmates have died of the virus in recent weeks.
The sight of death and ill prisoners inside the filthy, overcrowded prison is leading the prisoners to send out desperate pleas for help.
"We're receiving text messages and emails and phone calls from family saying, 'We think we're next,' " said Somil Trivedi, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of the inmates. "They feel like they're sitting ducks."
Trivedi shared with VOA messages he and other lawyers have received from inmates. In one, which Trivedi said he received on Thursday, an inmate wrote about hearing about the latest death at Oakdale.
"This is very scary and it's sad," the inmate wrote. "Like we just [are] waiting [for] our turn to die."
Trivedi asked that the prisoner's name be withheld to protect him from retaliation for speaking to lawyers.
In his text message, the inmate wrote that he has a wife and children "who need me there."
"What it's going to take for them to let us go?" he wrote. "Another seven to die?"
The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the federal prison system, infecting hundreds of prisoners and guards and prompting officials to place inmates on home confinement. As of Thursday, 473 federal inmates and 279 staff members had tested positive for the virus, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
There are more than 170,000 inmates in the federal prison system. The Bureau of Prisons says it has taken "numerous steps" to contain the coronavirus at its 122 facilities.
All facilities have been on lockdown since April 1. Health workers take the inmates' temperatures at least once a day. Inmates exhibiting symptoms are isolated while those suspected of exposure to the virus are quarantined.
The agency says it is reviewing all at-risk prisoners for possible home confinement and has sent nearly 1,200 inmates home since late March.
On March 26, Attorney General William Barr, concerned about coronavirus outbreaks inside federal prisons, ordered the Bureau of Prisons to increase its use of home confinement for sick and old inmates. That initially led to the home confinement of about 500 inmates. In a subsequent memo on April 3, Barr directed the immediate release of all medically at-risk prisoners, beginning with inmates held at Oakdale and two other facilities.
"An amazing undertaking under the best of circumstances, and these are far from the best," the Bureau of Prisons tweeted Wednesday.
Among federal prisoners slated for release is Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer. Cohen is serving a three-year sentence at a federal prison in New York where 14 inmates and seven employees have tested positive for COVID-19, the sickness caused by the coronavirus. Cohen will be sent home after a 14-day quarantine.
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is serving time in a federal prison in Pennsylvania, has also asked to be sent home to serve the remainder of his sentence for bank and tax fraud and other crimes. No coronavirus cases have been reported at that facility.
Oakdale has been one of the prisons hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Of the 18 federal prisoners who have died of the COVID-19 disease, seven were housed at Oakdale.
"It's a human rights crisis," Trivedi said.
The ACLU class action lawsuit in Louisiana is one of two it has filed against the Bureau of Prisons in recent weeks. In Ohio, the civil liberties group and a local legal aid organization this week filed a lawsuit on behalf of 2,400 inmates housed at a federal facility in the state. Three people have died and scores of others have fallen ill to the coronavirus at the prison.
The ACLU wants all inmates at risk of contracting the coronavirus released immediately, arguing that social distancing is impractical inside the confines of overcrowded correctional facilities.
Oakdale houses nearly 2,000 inmates. The lawsuit demands the release of nearly 750 vulnerable inmates.
At one Oakdale facility, "there are eight working sinks, eight dirty toilets, and 'five or six' working showers for approximately 125 men," according to one inmate cited in the lawsuit.
In Ohio, one of the inmates represented by the ACLU is Craig Wilson, 42, who suffers from asthma and relies on inhalers, steroids and breathing machines to breathe.
"I feel like I've been handed a death sentence," Wilson is quoted as saying in the lawsuit.
The ACLU says five inmates died at Oakdale between Barr's first directive in March and early April when it sued the Bureau of Prisons.
Despite Barr's directive, BOP officials have been dragging their feet, advocates say.
"Astonishingly, at the place that has the most deaths in the whole BOP system, they can't confirm anybody who's been moved to home confinement," Trivedi said.
Asked about the ACLU claim, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement to VOA that given the fluid situation, it is "not breaking down the number [of home-confined inmates] by institution."
The coronavirus outbreak inside U.S. prisons, often at much higher rates than in their surroundings, have prompted local and state jail officials to release thousands of nonviolent inmates in recent weeks.
Around the world, governments, concerned that prisons could turn into cesspools of infections, have released low-level offenders. Iran has released more than 100,000 prisoners in recent weeks.
"I think it's fairly clear that we lag other countries in doing what we need to do," Trivedi said.
Federal law enforcement officials have cautioned against the wholesale release of prisoners. The BOP says that more than 40% of the federal inmates older than 60 have been convicted of violent crimes or sex offenses.
"The last thing our massively overburdened police forces need right now is the indiscriminate release of thousands of prisoners onto the streets without any verification that those prisoners will follow the laws when they are released," Barr wrote in his April 3 memo.
Still, conditions at federal prisons have grown dire enough to get the Justice Department watchdog's attention. The DOJ inspector general's office said this week that it was conducting "a series of remote inspections" of federal prisons to ensure they're complying with best practices during the pandemic.
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David Bossie: Trump coronavirus plan carefully balances America's public health and economic needs President Trump is carefully balancing the need to protect the health of the American people in the face of the coronavirus pandemic with the need to put Americans back to work so they are drawing paychecks and so our economy begins booming once again.
April 18, 2020 at 08:43AM
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NY Governor Fires Back at Trump
New York's governor fired back Friday at criticism from President Donald Trump over whether the state had requested too much federal help to fight the coronavirus.
During his daily press briefing, a reporter asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his reaction to two tweets the president sent out during the briefing, which Trump appeared to be watching.
In one, Trump said the Democratic governor should spend more time "doing" and less time "complaining."
"We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn't need or use," Trump said. The president also said New York received large numbers of ventilators that he believed the state should have had itself.
In a second tweet, Trump said, "We have given New York far more money, help and equipment than any other state, by far" and he complained that the governor never "says thanks."
Governor Cuomo should spend more time "doing" and less time "complaining". Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking! We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn't need or use, gave large numbers of Ventilators that you should have had, and helped you with....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020
....testing that you should be doing. We have given New York far more money, help and equipment than any other state, by far, & these great men & women who did the job never hear you say thanks. Your numbers are not good. Less talk and more action!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020
New York is the U.S. state hardest hit by the pandemic. As of Friday, New York reported more than 223,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Nearly 13,000 state residents have died in hospitals from the virus, although numbers are expected to rise as "probable" COVID-19 deaths at home are added to the data.
"First of all, if he's sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work," Cuomo fired back.
Cuomo added that he has repeatedly thanked the president for federal government assistance, including building a 2,500-bed field hospital at a New York City convention center and for sending the U.S. naval hospital ship Comfort to the city, which has more than half of the state's total COVID-19 cases.
"I don't know, what am I supposed to do, send a bouquet of flowers?" the governor quipped.
Cuomo emphasized that New York made its hospital capacity and equipment requests based on projections from the federal government — specifically from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the president's White House Coronavirus Task Force.
In March, they forecast that as many as 160 million to 214 million Americans could become infected with the virus without mitigation efforts, such as social distancing. They also warned that between 2.4 million and 21 million people could require hospitalization and a further 1 million to 2 million could die.
"The number came from a projection from him," Cuomo said of the president. "He should read the reports he issues."
Cuomo said if the president is not happy with the predictions, he should fire the heads of the CDC and his task force, as well as his senior aide, Peter Navarro.
Earlier in the week, Cuomo said he had no desire to fight with the president when Trump said it was in his power to decide when states would lift restrictions on businesses and reopen.
"The president will have no fight with me," the governor said on Tuesday. "I will not engage." But Cuomo appeared to have changed his mind by Friday, launching a series of criticisms that went on for nearly half an hour.
Trump did shift his position in line with the Constitution and said state governors should make decisions on reopening. Cuomo said without giving them funding and assisting with wide-scale virus testing, the president is "doing nothing."
"All he's doing is walking in front of the parade," Cuomo said.
The president also tweeted that states should step up their testing.
The States have to step up their TESTING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020
Cuomo has repeatedly said that individual states do not have the capacity to test on a mass scale. New York alone has a population of 19.5 million people.
"He's saying he doesn't want to provide funding to the states, and he doesn't want to help on testing," Cuomo said Friday. "And I can tell you the states can't do it otherwise. And if this testing doesn't work, that's a serious problem."
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Tribes Sue Over Distribution of Coronavirus Relief Funding
Several Native American tribes sued the federal government Friday, seeking to keep any of the $8 billion in federal coronavirus relief for tribes kept out of the hands of for-profit Alaska Native corporations.
The U.S. Treasury Department is tasked with doling out the money by April 26 to help tribes nationwide stay afloat, respond to the virus and recover after having to shut down casinos, tourism operations and other businesses that serve as their main moneymakers.
The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and the Tulalip Tribes in Washington state, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians in Maine, and the Akiak Native Community, Asa'carsarmiut Tribe and Aleut Community of St. Paul Island in Alaska filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The Treasury Department, named as the defendant, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Already, tribes had raised questions about the distribution of the funding.
"It is what Indian Country will rely on to start up again," said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. "And Congress surely didn't intend to put tribal governments, which are providing health care, education, jobs, job training, and all sorts of programs, to compete against these Alaska corporate interests, which looks like a cash grab."
The Interior Department, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, said Alaska Native corporations are eligible for the funding, pointing to a definition that includes them as an "Indian Tribe" in the federal bill. The corporations are unique to Alaska and own most Native lands in the state under a 1971 settlement but are not tribal governments.
Tribes argue that the Interior Department has taken a limited view of the definition and that Congress intended for the money to go to the country's 574 federally recognized tribes that have a government-to-government relationship with the U.S.
Online form for tribes
The Treasury Department posted a form online Monday for tribes to submit information to get funding, including their land base, number of tribal citizens, corporate shareholders, employees and spending. The deadline to respond is Friday.
It's unclear how the agency will decide which tribe gets what.
For some tribes, Monday was the first time they saw any mention that Alaska Native corporations would be eligible for tribal funding. They had to respond quickly because the deadline to weigh in on the funding formula was the same day.
Jonodev Chaudhuri, chairman of the Indian Law and Policy Group at the law firm Quarles and Brady LLP, said the timing is concerning.
"The federal government's responsibility to consult with tribal nations is based on not only long-standing policies, but it's also based on important standards of respect," said Chaudhuri, a former Interior Department official. "Consultation is to be meaningful and timely."
Federal officials held two talks with tribes by phone April 2 and April 9, drawing more than 3,000 participants, according to the Interior Department. Tara Sweeney, who oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, held a separate call with Alaska interests Monday.
Some tribes have suggested that Sweeney has personal motives in ensuring Alaska Native corporations receive funding. An Inupiat Eskimo from Alaska's North Slope, she worked for nearly two decades for the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. — one of the largest and most profitable of the Native corporations in Alaska.
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota said it's prepared to file a court challenge to halt the distribution of funding, alleging Sweeney has recommended at least $3 billion go to Alaska Native corporations.
The Interior Department said Sweeney has not made that recommendation and supports all indigenous people in the U.S.
"To suggest she has personal motives or that she is attempting to divert funds away from American Indians is completely false," the department said in a statement. "Her approach has always been focused on inclusiveness, transparency and partnerships."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Sweeney in a tweet Thursday of diverting funds for tribal governments to the corporations.
'Ignorant' attack alleged
She responded with her own tweet: "Even for you, this is an ignorant and despicably low attack that could not be further from the truth. Perhaps you should read the law you negotiated and voted for as Alaska Natives are entitled to receive the funding from @USTreasury."
The Alaska Federation of Natives supported Sweeney, saying if the Interior Department was deviating from the law, the agency's solicitor would have taken action. Alaska has nearly 230 federally recognized tribal governments.
The Great Plains Tribal Chairmen's Association, the Inter-Tribal Council of Five Civilized Tribes, the National Congress of American Indians and the Navajo Nation also said Alaska Native corporations should not be on par with tribal governments.
The Navajo Nation has reported more coronavirus cases than any other Native American tribe. As of Thursday, it had 1,042 cases among the 175,000 residents of the vast reservation that extends into New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, and 41 deaths.
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Coronavirus to keep Iowa schools closed for rest of academic year Iowa's governor said Friday that she is keeping state schools closed through the rest of the academic year to contain the spread of coronavirus, according to a new report.
April 18, 2020 at 03:24AM
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Living in a Real-Life Hollywood Disaster Movie in Los Angeles
From alien invasions and climate catastrophes to pandemics, Hollywood has made countless disaster movies over the years. During this real-life pandemic, fictional Hollywood films and reality are starting to blur.
I live in Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood. Before the mandate to stay at home, it was not unusual to see a film crew on the streets of L.A. shooting either a TV show, movie or commercial. Since the lockdown, the film crews have disappeared and so have most of the cars on the normally congested freeways.
I feel that I am living in a post-apocalyptic Hollywood movie. Some of the films related to an epidemic or pandemic that come to mind include "Contagion," "Outbreak" and "I Am Legend."
There are plenty of other disaster movies, all following a similar plotline. They first show life as normal, with adults working and kids going to school. Then, a disaster hits and life changes. The world becomes almost unrecognizable.
That is the surreal movie-like world I live in these days, with the streets almost empty and businesses and schools closed. Grocery stores, however, are the opposite. Outside many supermarkets, anxious shoppers wearing masks and gloves stand in long lines with shopping carts, waiting their turn to enter. Everyday items such as toilet paper and milk are often in short supply.
I keep thinking of all the events that were planned just weeks ago — such as baseball practices and games — that now are canceled. Many parents with active elementary school-aged children, including me, have been trying to find a new normal during anything but normal times.
While mandated to stay home, the challenge is to work, keep our young children learning at home since schools are closed, and keep them engaged with activities. For my family, that means baking a cake or two and making do with whatever ingredients we find in the kitchen.
In true Hollywood fashion, we are also in the process of filming a mini-movie with toy action figures and a smartphone, creating backdrops with paper and markers.
When we venture out to stretch the little legs, I see a surreal world. Los Angeles — known as a car city — has fewer cars on the road these days. Travel time has been cut by more than half. The air is cleaner.
When I am on the sidewalk, I see people jogging and walking their dogs. Some wear masks while others do not. Some practice social distancing but others do not. It is like a game of chicken in which I stare at the person walking toward me on the narrow sidewalk and see who will cross the street first.
A trip to the local park turns into a trip to an empty parking lot because there are just a few too many people in the park for peace of mind, even though everyone is staying 2 meters apart. There is constant anxiety over the risk of getting too close.
So these days, after juggling work and home school, most exercising is done indoors through virtual classes on the web. That is our new normal. I am thankful that I can keep working from home, since so many people cannot.
In many of the Hollywood movies, people survive the disaster even though the world has changed. At the end of this real-life pandemic, perhaps people will learn new ways of greeting each other. Perhaps the world will depend even more on technology and robots to do certain jobs.
What that world will look like is yet to be seen, but one thing is for sure: The children growing up during this time will remember the pandemic of 2020.
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Sen. Graham slams Pelosi's 'small' leadership, says China is largest 'state sponsor' of pandemics Speaking on "Hannity" on Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and said China is "the largest state sponsor of pandemics."
April 17, 2020 at 09:41PM
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Ford, GE get $336 million HHS contract to build 50,000 ventilators Working on "Trump time."
April 17, 2020 at 09:18PM
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Leslie Marshall: Biden campaign eclipsed by coronavirus – here's what Democrats must do to elect him president Joe Biden pops up in the news now and then, but President Trump is on TV every day with his extended coronavirus briefings that sometimes sound like campaign rallies, as he boasts about what a wonderful job he and his administration are doing responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
April 17, 2020 at 09:00PM
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Michael Davis: Biden and the New York Times – Where's the standard on sex assault allegations now? The New York Times publishes one of the accusations the day it is made but waits nearly three weeks to print the other.
April 17, 2020 at 07:00PM
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In Modi's India, Virus Fallout Inflames Divisions Between Muslims and Hindus
The purple ink stamped on Iqbal Hussain Siddiqui's hand by Indian health workers was supposed to ensure he stayed home under quarantine.
But the 66-year-old Siddiqui, an egg seller in Mumbai's sprawling Dharavi slum, rubbed it off as best he could and went back to work. The mark would have condemned him to being stuck in an unventilated one-room home without a toilet. It was also, he claimed, part of an effort by the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to target Muslims like him, using health workers to gather data on the community under the guise of containing the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Modi wants to make Muslims second-class citizens," said Siddiqui, who was ordered to be quarantined after a neighbor tested positive for the virus. "There is no one who is sick — it's all a lie."
His suspicions were echoed by a half-dozen other Muslims whom Reuters talked to in Dharavi, even though community leaders say they have been trying to convince people that the health workers are in the district to protect them from COVID-19.
As the coronavirus sweeps across India, Modi's government has responded by imposing a lockdown on the country's 1.3 billion people. As of Friday, India had announced 437 deaths from the disease.
The coronavirus has also exacerbated festering divisions between the country's Hindus and its sizable Muslim minority, many of whom have seen their livelihoods threatened by the establishment of quarantine zones in densely packed areas like Dharavi. There have been at least 71 confirmed cases in Dharavi.
A deep-rooted distrust of Modi by Muslims follows months of protests against a new citizenship law that critics say discriminates against Muslims, and a crackdown by India in the Muslim-majority territory of Kashmir.
There is no official breakdown of coronavirus cases by religion. But many Muslims feel unfairly blamed for spreading the disease after a cluster emerged at a gathering of Muslim missionaries in New Delhi last month. Sensational news coverage about the event, fanned by some Hindu nationalist politicians, helped spur the trending topic "Coronajihad" on social media.
The missionary gathering has been linked to at least 1,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, and more than 25,500 people connected to it have been quarantined.
Muslim leaders say a belief that the coronavirus is not real has spread in their communities, but that they have been working through mosques to change those perceptions.
"There is a strong feeling of distrust in the Muslim community towards the establishment," said Gyasuddin Shaikh, a politician with the opposition Congress party in Ahmedabad, the biggest city in Modi's home state of Gujarat, which was the scene of Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002. "It took us a lot of time and effort to convince such people that the documents are needed for medical assistance."
Despite those efforts, public health experts warn that suspicions about the government's intentions in a community of around 200 million people could complicate India's push to stamp out the virus.
A sense of isolation within the Muslim population "does not enhance community participation and it drives disease underground," said Dr. Jacob John, professor of community medicine at the Christian Medical College in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
The health ministry and Prime Minister's Office did not respond to requests for comment.
'Irresponsible event'
The health workers who have fanned out across districts like Dharavi to identify and track cases have been a particular source of suspicion. Some Muslims believe they are secretly collecting data for a proposed national database aimed at identifying illegal immigrants, according to community leaders and interviews with residents.
Many Muslims feel the database, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), could be used to render those without sufficient documentation stateless.
"We have to go and tell the community: 'Please, this has nothing to do with NRC. This is for your safety,'" said Imtiaz Jaleel, a member of the All India Council of the Union of Muslims, an opposition party.
Most Muslim communities are supporting the authorities in their virus-containment efforts, said a senior health ministry official in the state government of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai. But in some cases, people sought in connection with the missionary gathering were allowed to hide in mosques, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.
Maharashtra police have filed cases against more than 200 members of the missionary group, Tablighi Jamaat, for allegedly helping spread the disease, including by hiding in the mosques, a police official said.
Mujeeb ur Rehman, a Tablighi Jamaat spokesman, said some people had been stranded in mosques after the lockdown and were fearful of declaring themselves to authorities.
Gatherings of the Tablighi -- an orthodox proselytizing group -- have been linked to major spreads of coronavirus cases across India, Malaysia and Pakistan.
Some health professionals say the Modi government overstated the impact of the group in India and that intensive testing of Muslims, at a time when few such checks were being carried out in India, unfairly suggested the community was disproportionately responsible for the disease's spread.
New Delhi has pushed back against criticism that it is singling out Muslims.
It is unrealistic to expect us to avoid denouncing "such an irresponsible event" merely out of "political correctness," Foreign Ministry Secretary Vikram Swarup said last week.
Outrage online
Inflaming the situation in India has been a spate of viral videos carrying false information. It is unclear who has been creating the videos.
Some videos depict Muslims attempting to spread the virus by spitting or blowing noses with currency notes.
Other fake reports circulating online are fomenting distrust about Hindus and the government. Some claim that Muslims are immune to the virus or allege they are the only ones being quarantined, said Pratik Sinha, co-founder of the fact-checking website Alt News.
"The process of building fear in a minority community happens in multiple ways: Through mainstream media, through constant attacks on social media, and then all you need is one video saying: 'You are being targeted,'" said Sinha.
The government has ordered Facebook and the video app TikTok to remove users found to be spreading misinformation about the coronavirus, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
Such messages "have the potential for creating panic," the IT Ministry said in the letter. "This effectively weakens the all-out effort being made by the Indian government for containing the coronavirus."
Facebook did not respond to a request for comment. TikTok referred Reuters to an April 3 statement which said it had removed thousands of videos spreading misinformation about the coronavirus in India.
Many Muslims are also angry at what they say is the downplaying of clusters linked to Hindus. One reported case – the quarantining of 27,000 people linked to a Hindu man with the coronavirus who had hosted a gathering of around 1,000 people – has attracted particular attention.
Seated on a bench in Dharavi last weekend, Younus Ghouri, a Muslim taxi driver, became angry as he watched a Facebook video criticizing what it said was the Indian media's sparse coverage of the incident.
"Why is no one talking about that? They're just talking about what Muslims did," said Ghouri, 38.
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Life and works of Hungarian writers (Szinnyei)
12akd: ←Created page with 'The '''Life and works of Hungarian writers''' is a lexicon of Hungarian literature written at the turn of the century by József Szinnyei. The 14-volume work, pu...'
