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Category: Politics

Over 100 million in China’s northeast face renewed lockdown

Over 100 million in China’s northeast face renewed lockdown

Bloomberg reports: Some 108 million people in China’s northeast region are being plunged back under lockdown conditions as a new and growing cluster of infections causes a backslide in the nation’s return to normal. In an abrupt reversal of the re-opening taking place across the nation, cities in Jilin province have cut off trains and buses, shut schools and quarantined tens of thousands of people. The strict measures have dismayed many residents who had thought the worst of the nation’s…

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Trump taking potentially deadly hydroxychloroquine ‘because I think it’s good’

Trump taking potentially deadly hydroxychloroquine ‘because I think it’s good’

  The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump said Monday that he is taking a malaria drug to protect against the new coronavirus, despite warnings from his own government that it should only be administered for COVID-19 in a hospital or research setting due to potentially fatal side effects. Trump told reporters he has been taking the drug, hydroxychloroquine, and a zinc supplement daily “for about a week and a half now.” Trump spent weeks pushing the drug as a…

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The media is helping Trump’s bogus ‘Obamagate’ become the 2020 version of Clinton’s emails

The media is helping Trump’s bogus ‘Obamagate’ become the 2020 version of Clinton’s emails

Margaret Sullivan writes: It’s becoming clear that journalists never fully reckoned with the mistakes of 2016 campaign coverage. We know this because they seem poised to repeat them. As you may recall, the news media — from Fox News to the New York Times and plenty of others across the political spectrum — managed to make the relative molehill of Hillary Clinton’s dicey email practices into a daily obsession, roughly equal to the mountain of Donald Trump’s financial and personal…

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Pentagon contractors’ report on ‘Wuhan lab’ origins of coronavirus is bogus

Pentagon contractors’ report on ‘Wuhan lab’ origins of coronavirus is bogus

The Daily Beast reports: A shocking report suggesting that the coronavirus was “release[d from] the Wuhan Institute of Virology” in China is now circulating in U.S. military and intelligence circles and on Capitol Hill. But there’s a critical flaw in the report, a Daily Beast analysis reveals: Some of its most seemingly persuasive evidence is false—provably false. Multiple congressional committees have obtained and are scrutinizing the 30-page report, produced by the Multi-Agency Collaboration Environment (MACE), a part of Sierra Nevada,…

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A pandemic plan was in place, but Trump abandoned it — and science

A pandemic plan was in place, but Trump abandoned it — and science

Jason Karlawish writes: President Obama was bothered. It was the summer of 2009 and he was in a meeting at the White House to talk about preparations for an expected autumn outbreak of swine flu. Elbows on the table, he thumbed through the pages of a report on preparations for it. “So,” he asked no one in particular, “if you guys are so smart, how come you’re still making this in eggs?” he asked, referring to the nearly century-old process…

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The choice between staying home indefinitely and returning to business as usual now is a false one

The choice between staying home indefinitely and returning to business as usual now is a false one

Julia Marcus writes: In the earliest years of the HIV epidemic, confusion and fear reigned. AIDS was still known as the “gay plague.” To the extent that gay men received any health advice at all, it was to avoid sex. In 1983, the activists Richard Berkowitz and Michael Callen, with guidance from the virologist Joseph Sonnabend, published a foundational document for their community, called “How to Have Sex in an Epidemic.” Recognizing the need for pleasure in people’s lives, the…

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Biden campaign and Democratic Party develop plans for sweeping economic transformation

Biden campaign and Democratic Party develop plans for sweeping economic transformation

The New York Times reports: More than 36 million Americans are suddenly unemployed. Congress has allocated $2.2 trillion in aid, with more likely to be on the way as a fight looms over government debt. Millions more people are losing their health insurance and struggling to take care of their children and aging relatives. And nearly 90,000 are dead in a continuing public health catastrophe. This was not the scenario Joseph R. Biden Jr. anticipated confronting when he competed for…

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New Zealand edges back to normal

New Zealand edges back to normal

The Washington Post reports: Half of New Zealand’s cabinet gathered this past Monday morning in the round meeting room on the top floor of the Beehive, the tiered 1970s landmark here that houses the government’s executive branch. The other half called in on Zoom. Running the meeting was Jacinda Ardern, the liberal prime minister who has won international renown for her empathetic leadership during the global coronavirus pandemic. Next to her was Winston Peters, the wily politician almost twice her…

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A $74 billion investment in testing, tracing and isolation could quickly rescue the economy

A $74 billion investment in testing, tracing and isolation could quickly rescue the economy

Alex Tabarrok and Puja Ahluwalia Ohlhaver write: With the unemployment rate at its highest level since the Great Depression — 14.7 percent and climbing — many Americans are clamoring to reopen the economy, even if it means that thousands of daily covid-19 deaths become part of the backdrop to life. It’s time to move on as “warriors,” President Trump has said, because “we can’t keep our country closed down for years.” We, too, favor markets and share the president’s eagerness…

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WHO Special Envoy on Covid-19 makes an impassioned plea for global leadership

WHO Special Envoy on Covid-19 makes an impassioned plea for global leadership

  Dr David Nabarro: We just have a complete fracture in global leadership right now. To the point where a UN Security Council resolution on Covid was not approved because the World Health Organisation was mentioned in the resolution. The people of the world actually should be going completely crazy with anger. There should be a petition of 500 million people to the world leaders saying, “What on earth are you doing? What on earth are you playing at?” We…

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As Americans fear for their lives and livelihoods, Trump stokes divisions and pursues personal vendettas

As Americans fear for their lives and livelihoods, Trump stokes divisions and pursues personal vendettas

The New York Times reports: Even by President Trump’s standards, it was a rampage: He attacked a government whistle-blower who was telling Congress that the coronavirus pandemic had been mismanaged. He criticized the governor of Pennsylvania, who has resisted reopening businesses. He railed against former President Barack Obama, linking him to a conspiracy theory and demanding he answer questions before the Senate about the federal investigation of Michael T. Flynn. And Mr. Trump lashed out at Joseph R. Biden Jr.,…

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Secretary of State Pompeo under investigation; Trump fires State Department Inspector General

Secretary of State Pompeo under investigation; Trump fires State Department Inspector General

Politico reports: President Donald Trump has removed State Department Inspector General Steve Linick and replaced him with an ally of Vice President Mike Pence — the latest in a series of moves against independent government watchdogs in recent months. Trump informed Congress of his intent to oust Linick, a Justice Department veteran appointed to the role in 2013 by then President Barack Obama, in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday night. The president said he “no…

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American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase

American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase

Adrienne LaFrance writes: The origins of QAnon are recent, but even so, separating myth from reality can be hard. One place to begin is with Edgar Maddison Welch, a deeply religious father of two, who until Sunday, December 4, 2016, had lived an unremarkable life in the small town of Salisbury, North Carolina. That morning, Welch grabbed his cellphone, a box of shotgun shells, and three loaded guns—a 9-mm AR-15 rifle, a six-shot .38‑caliber Colt revolver, and a shotgun—and hopped…

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Elizabeth Warren is making a case for herself as Joe Biden’s vice president

Elizabeth Warren is making a case for herself as Joe Biden’s vice president

Edward-Isaac Dovere writes: The coronavirus has transformed Joe Biden’s campaign, and his search for a running mate. And it has transformed Elizabeth Warren’s chances of being picked for the job. The Massachusetts senator and the former vice president don’t have much of a personal relationship. She was determined to run for president by swearing off big donors; the first event of his campaign was a high-dollar fundraiser at the home of a top executive at one of the country’s biggest…

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Growing friction between White House and CDC hobbles pandemic response

Growing friction between White House and CDC hobbles pandemic response

The Washington Post reports: The meager guidelines for safely reopening the country released this week are the latest sign of the Trump administration’s efforts to sideline the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the increasing tension between the White House and the world-renowned public health agency. With Americans waiting for expert advice on how to resume a semblance of normal life during the pandemic, the CDC released just six short “decision trees” Thursday while the rest of its lengthy…

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Former federal judge who brought down crime boss, John Gotti, steps into Flynn case

Former federal judge who brought down crime boss, John Gotti, steps into Flynn case

CNN reports: Nearly three decades ago, John Gleeson made his name by successfully prosecuting the man known as “The Teflon Don.” Now he finds himself mixed up in a case tied to the modern-day inheritor of that nickname. On Wednesday, Gleeson became the latest participant in the turbulent criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, after the federal judge overseeing the case appointed Gleeson to oppose the Justice Department’s effort to drop it. An esteemed…

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