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Category: Politics

What happens if Trump refuses to accept defeat?

What happens if Trump refuses to accept defeat?

The New York Times reports: In October, President Trump declares a state of emergency in major cities in battleground states, like Milwaukee and Detroit, banning polling places from opening. A week before the election, Attorney General William P. Barr announces a criminal investigation into the Democratic presidential nominee, Joseph R. Biden Jr. After Mr. Biden wins a narrow Electoral College victory, Mr. Trump refuses to accept the results, won’t leave the White House and declines to allow the Biden transition…

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Billions are going to zillionaires under the guise of pandemic relief

Billions are going to zillionaires under the guise of pandemic relief

Nicholas Kristof writes: While President Trump and his allies in Congress seek to tighten access to food stamps, they are showing compassion for one group: zillionaires. Their economic rescue package quietly allocated $135 billion — yes, that’s “billion” with a “b” — for the likes of wealthy real estate developers. My Times colleague Jesse Drucker notes that Trump himself, along with his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, may benefit financially from this provision. The fine print was mysteriously slipped into the March…

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We don’t need to open churches to practice our faith

We don’t need to open churches to practice our faith

Father Edward L. Beck writes: President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he considers houses of worship and their religious services essential. I won’t argue that point. Although obviously not essential for all, they are deemed so by some. Fair enough. He went on: “The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now, this weekend. If they don’t do it, I will override the governors.” But who says…

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China’s move to rein in Hong Kong is just the start

China’s move to rein in Hong Kong is just the start

The New York Times reports: China’s move to strip away another layer of Hong Kong’s autonomy was not a rash impulse. It was a deliberate act, months in the making. It took into account the risks of international umbrage and reached the reasonable assumption that there would not be a significant geopolitical price to pay. As a provocative move, it is just the latest. With the world distracted by the pandemic’s devastating toll, China has taken a series of aggressive…

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In a ‘strategic miscalculation,’ Trump kept foreigners out of the U.S. while helping spread the virus across the nation

In a ‘strategic miscalculation,’ Trump kept foreigners out of the U.S. while helping spread the virus across the nation

The Washington Post reports: In the final days before the United States faced a full-blown epidemic, President Trump made a last-ditch attempt to prevent people infected with the coronavirus from reaching the country. “To keep new cases from entering our shores,” Trump said in an Oval Office address on March 11, “we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days.” Across the Atlantic, Jack Siebert, an American college student spending a semester…

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China is using coronavirus crisis as a distraction to push through its geopolitical aims, says former governor of Hong Kong

China is using coronavirus crisis as a distraction to push through its geopolitical aims, says former governor of Hong Kong

The Guardian reports: China has betrayed the people of Hong Kong and the UK has a moral, economic and legal duty to stand up for them, Chris Patten, the last governor of the former British colony, has said. Beijing is set to impose new national security legislation on Hong Kong after a sustained campaign of pro-democracy protests last year in the city, which enjoys many freedoms not allowed on mainland China. “The Hong Kong people have been betrayed by China,”…

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Brazil minister calls for environmental deregulation while public distracted by Covid-19

Brazil minister calls for environmental deregulation while public distracted by Covid-19

Reuters reports: Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles called on the government to push through further deregulation of environmental policy while people are distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, in a video the Supreme Court ordered released on Friday. The video of a ministers’ meeting surfaced in an investigation of whether President Jair Bolsonaro interfered in appointing leaders of the federal police for personal gain. During the meeting, other ministers spoke, including Salles, with environmental groups saying his remarks prove that the…

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‘We’re not in this together’: Anand Giridharadas on how inequality has shaped the impact of the pandemic in America

‘We’re not in this together’: Anand Giridharadas on how inequality has shaped the impact of the pandemic in America

  The pandemic has prompted many to reflect on how the world works and, importantly, for whom it works. This is at the heart of a new program on Vice TV called “Seat at the Table,” hosted by best-selling author Anand Giridharadas. He has made a career of questioning the seat of power and money in America, and explains to Hari Sreenivasan why society must adapt or fail.

Hydroxychloroquine linked to increased risk of death in coronavirus patients, analysis of 96,000 patients shows

Hydroxychloroquine linked to increased risk of death in coronavirus patients, analysis of 96,000 patients shows

The Washington Post reports: A study of 96,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients on six continents found that those who received an antimalarial drug promoted by President Trump as a “game changer” in the fight against the virus had a significantly higher risk of death compared with those who did not. People treated with hydroxychloroquine, or the closely related drug chloroquine, were also more likely to develop a type of irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, that can lead to sudden cardiac death,…

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The deadly consequences of having a semi-literate president

The deadly consequences of having a semi-literate president

Windsor Mann writes: If you’re reading this sentence, you’ve read more than the president has today. Last month, The Washington Post reported that President Trump ignored “more than a dozen” intelligence briefings in January and February warning him of the coronavirus. They were in the President’s Daily Brief, which the president doesn’t read. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro wrote a memo in January warning of “a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil.” Trump said he didn’t see it because…

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Trump’s demand to reopen churches driven by slipping poll numbers and alarm inside his campaign

Trump’s demand to reopen churches driven by slipping poll numbers and alarm inside his campaign

Politico reports: A sudden shift in support for Donald Trump among religious conservatives is triggering alarm bells inside his reelection campaign, where top aides have long banked on expanding the president’s evangelical base as a key part of their strategy for victory this November. The anxiety over Trump’s standing with the Christian right surfaced after a pair of surveys by reputable outfits earlier this month found waning confidence in the administration’s coronavirus response among key religious groups, with a staggering…

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Michigan is beset by disease, floods and joblessness, but it’s conspiracy theories fueled by Trump that really frighten his supporters

Michigan is beset by disease, floods and joblessness, but it’s conspiracy theories fueled by Trump that really frighten his supporters

Politico reports: Just 24 hours before he arrived in Michigan, the president launched a dangerous disinformation campaign, accusing the secretary of state of going “rogue” by illegally sending absentee ballots to every Michigan voter. He threatened to block funding to Michigan—a state beleaguered by multiple converging disasters, including one that was unfolding just as the tweet was sent—“if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!” To be clear, none of this is accurate. Voters were sent applications to…

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In Florida, a Trump election conspiracy collapses

In Florida, a Trump election conspiracy collapses

Politico reports: A Trump election conspiracy theory has fallen apart after Florida’s law enforcement agency said it had found no widespread voter fraud in the 2018 races for Senate and governor. President Donald Trump had complained repeatedly about election “fraud” and theft in heavily populated, Democrat-rich Broward and Palm Beach counties, which had slowly but erratically updated their vote totals after polls closed on Election Day. With each updated tally, Republican candidates Rick Scott, who was running for U.S. Senate,…

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Learning from the Covid-19 failure — before the next pandemic

Learning from the Covid-19 failure — before the next pandemic

Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker write: Time is running out to prepare for the next pandemic. We must act now with decisiveness and purpose. Someday, after the next pandemic has come and gone, a commission much like the 9/11 Commission will be charged with determining how well government, business, and public health leaders prepared the world for the catastrophe when they had clear warning. What will be the verdict?” That is from the concluding paragraph of an essay entitled…

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The CDC is conflating viral and antibody tests, compromising crucial metrics governors depend on to reopen their economies

The CDC is conflating viral and antibody tests, compromising crucial metrics governors depend on to reopen their economies

The Atlantic reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conflating the results of two different types of coronavirus tests, distorting several important metrics and providing the country with an inaccurate picture of the state of the pandemic. We’ve learned that the CDC is making, at best, a debilitating mistake: combining test results that diagnose current coronavirus infections with test results that measure whether someone has ever had the virus. The upshot is that the government’s disease-fighting agency is…

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Trump says he won’t close the country if second wave of coronavirus hits

Trump says he won’t close the country if second wave of coronavirus hits

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump on Thursday said “we are not closing our country” if the U.S. is hit by a second wave of coronavirus infections. “People say that’s a very distinct possibility, it’s standard,” Trump said when asked about a second wave during a tour of a Ford factory in Michigan. “We are going to put out the fires. We’re not going to close the country,” Trump said. “We can put out the fires. Whether it is an ember…

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