Jared Kushner’s Role In Coronavirus Response Draws Scrutiny, Criticism – NPR
Jared Kushner’s Role In Coronavirus Response Draws Scrutiny, Criticism – NPR

White House adviser Jared Kushner listens as President Trump discusses the coronavirus.

Alex Brandon/AP


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Alex Brandon/AP

White House adviser Jared Kushner listens as President Trump discusses the coronavirus.

Alex Brandon/AP

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, criticized governors Thursday, saying they don’t have a handle on their own supplies of masks and ventilators needed to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

In a rare appearance in the White House briefing room, Kushner urged governors and some senators to be more resourceful in their own states instead of looking first to the federal government for help.

“What a lot of the voters are seeing now is that when you elect somebody to be a mayor or governor or president, you’re trying to think about who will be a competent manager during the time of crisis,” he said. “This is a time of crisis, and you’re seeing certain people are better managers than others.”

Kushner, a real estate executive with no public health expertise, generally works behind scenes at the White House. So, critics have been curious about his role in the administration’s efforts to confront the coronavirus pandemic.

He has emerged with a central role working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to oversee the distribution of vital medical supplies to hospital and health care providers.

On Thursday, he explained that Trump and Vice President Pence came to him looking for new ideas and “outside of the box” thinking.

But his lack of experience has drawn scrutiny, especially when he referred to the national stockpile of medical supplies as “our stockpile.”

“The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile,” he said. “It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”

The backlash was quick and harsh.

“I would dismiss what Mr. Kushner said,” Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, told NPR’s Here & Now. “That is absolutely not the way it is supposed to work.”

Kelly said that the national stockpile was supposed to be a backup for states — and that the Trump administration should have done more to fill it.

A day after Kushner made his remarks, language on a government website about the national stockpile was changed to more closely reflect his description. But a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the department had been using the new language for weeks. The assistant secretary for preparedness and response “first began working to update the website text a week ago to more clearly explain to state and local agencies and members of the public the role of the” Strategic National Stockpile, the spokesperson said.

When asked Friday about his son-in-law’s remarks, Trump said Kushner was “talking about our country.”

“We need it for the government and the federal government,” he said, complaining that state governments should have had their own stockpiles. “The federal government needs it, too, not just the states,” he said.

Part of Kushner’s strength is his proximity to the president.

He has been his father-in-law’s point man on issues as diverse as the Middle East peace process, immigration and now the response to the coronavirus.

The real estate developer and scion of the Kushner family, which operates the Kushner Companies, is well-connected — and he’s using those connections, working with FEMA and the U.S. military, to get things where they need to be with the response to the outbreak.

As he recounted Thursday, the president had called him earlier that morning about reports he was hearing about critical shortages in the New York public hospital system.

“I called Dr. [Mitchell] Katz, who runs the system, asked him which supply was the most supply he was nervous about,” Kushner recalled. “He told me it was the N95 masks. I asked what his daily burn was, and I basically got that number, called up Adm. Polowczyk, made sure we had the inventory.”

Polowczyk is the director of fleet ordnance and supply at the U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.

However, some experts question Kushner’s lack of experience overseeing the response to emergencies of this scale.

“You know last time I checked, he’s never run disasters,” said Craig Fugate, who ran FEMA during the Obama administration.

Fugate said the federal government can’t base decisions on request. The coronavirus is moving so fast states can’t keep up.

“My experience in disasters is the burn rate is always greater than what anybody anticipates,” he said. “And if we had waited for states to identify their needs, we were always behind and not there fast enough.”

Then there are concerns raised by ethics groups who contend that Kushner’s role in the response is akin to overseeing a shadow task force with no oversight.

“If there was ever a time we need records and transparency, this is it,” Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement. “As the seriousness of this pandemic continues to grow, the public needs to understand who in the White House is making policy decisions, who from private industry is influencing those decisions, and how decisions to address this pandemic are being made.”

But Andy Slavitt, the Obama-era administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, calls the current crisis an all-hands-on-deck effort. He appreciates Kushner or anyone else in government sharing their expertise.

But he does say roles need to be clear and execution much more coordinated.

“The issue should be, we don’t need five generals,” he said. “We need somebody in charge,” he said. “We need a top-down structure where we get decisions made quickly.”

And he says the military is best poised to lead that effort.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/04/04/826922646/jared-kushners-role-in-coronavirus-response-draws-scrutiny-criticism

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It’s the coronavirus, stupid – POLITICO
It’s the coronavirus, stupid – POLITICO

What remains on the air has adapted to the new reality of American life. High-spending issue groups on the left are slamming Trump for missing the mark on his virus response. Priorities USA has budgeted more than $6 million to run anti-Trump TV and digital ads related to the virus in battleground states. Unite the Country is touting Biden as a steady-handed leader necessary in a time of crisis.

Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, criticized the outside groups for airing negative ads on the pandemic. “Americans can see that President Trump is out front and leading this nation and is the clear choice to see us through the crisis,” he said in a statement.

“It used to be that Americans faced national adversity with unity, but Joe Biden and his allies have abandoned that principle in favor of rank, despicable politics,” Murtaugh said. “They offer nothing but partisan sniping from the sidelines and seek to undermine the federal response to the crisis by misinforming and frightening people.”

But Ian Russell, a Democratic operative, said he was glad to see his party challenging the president’s response on the airwaves.

“Democrats have historically been the party that unilaterally disarms out of fear of politicizing anything,” Russell said. “I’m glad our side is letting Americans know the failures this administration has had in preparing us for this.”

In the battle for the Senate, at least three Republican incumbents — Collins, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Montana Sen. Steve Daines — are running TV ads on the chamber’s $2 trillion legislative response to the coronavirus outbreak. Collins ran PSA-style ads thanking first responders, and a campaign spokesperson said she is likely to run a future ad focused on provisions for workers and small businesses in the Senate’s bill.

Gideon, the Maine Democrat, and Amy McGrath, who is challenging McConnell, have also shifted their TV ads to coronavirus response messages. Gideon and an allied group, the nonprofit Majority Forward, have touted her state legislative response. McGrath, in an ad filmed in her home with her family in the background, pointed to a sign-up on her campaign website highlighting charitable donations. McGrath’s campaign also released a new attack ad Friday in which a narrator accuses McConnell of “taking a victory lap” on the response to the coronavirus.

In West Virginia, Democratic and Republican candidates for governor alike are running ads about the impact of the virus. In one, filmed from a doctor’s office, Democrat (and primary care physician) Ron Stollings asks viewers to “assume everyone has the coronavirus” to compel them to wash their hands regularly and practice social distancing.

In a show of allegiance to Trump, Texas congressional candidate Kathaleen Wall released an ad on Wednesday that blames the spread of Covid-19 on China’s government and bolsters the president’s reference to it as “the Chinese virus.” She highlights points of her platform in the ad that run in tandem with Trump’s: ending trade with China and manufacturing goods in the United States.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/04/coronavirus-political-ads-campaign-163759

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‘It’s an exhausting story’: Jonathan Karl on his up-close view of Trump – The Guardian
‘It’s an exhausting story’: Jonathan Karl on his up-close view of Trump – The Guardian

At a White House briefing late last month, Jonathan Karl asked what he regarded as the fundamental question that day, about the coronavirus pandemic. “And everybody who needs one will be able to get a ventilator?”

Donald Trump’s reply was probably the strangest ABC News’ chief White House correspondent has ever had from a US president.

“Look,” he said. “Don’t be a cutie pie. OK?”

Trump went on. Karl, he said, was “a wise guy” too.

What viewers may not have known is that the two men go way back.

They first met in 1994 when Karl was a cub reporter at the New York Post and Trump, a millionaire property developer, gave him a tour of Trump Tower, where newly married couple Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were staying. The result was a front-page scoop: “Inside Michael’s Honeymoon Hideaway”.

Now president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Karl recounts the episode both at the start of his new book, Front Row at the Trump Show, and in a phone interview with the Guardian.

“The thing that blew me away about that moment, my first real introduction to Donald Trump, was the way he understood exactly what my job was and how to make a compelling story, and the way he operated so quickly,” he says.

“It wasn’t going through handlers and PR advisers and spokespeople. It was Donald Trump: ‘Come on over, let me show you what I got.’ There was no filter. It was him and he was incredibly, in a way, charming and we had a great story and he was willing to break rules to tell it.

“There was intense security all around, keeping the press at bay, and here’s Donald Trump bringing me right up to Michael’s apartment, showing me their secret vehicle to get in and out of the place. He didn’t play it the way it’s normally played.”

Karl, 52, adds: “I knew that I could call him from that point on whenever I wanted to and he would be accessible and willing to play along and loved to be in the mix. The idea that I would go on to become a White House reporter, president of the White House Correspondents Association, and he would be the president is kind of mind-blowing.”

Trump’s gut instinct for publicity and reptilian genius for making media weather would be evident in his 2016 election campaign and throughout his presidency. The White House press secretary’s daily briefing was killed off and replaced by “chopper talk”, before Trump boarded Marine One on the South Lawn. He has turned the daily coronavirus updates into a new form of campaign rally.


Karl with Sarah Sanders, then White House press secretary, at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2018. Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Karl reflects: “We’ve had three White House press secretaries, we’ve had – I guess depends on how you count – three or four communications directors in the Trump White House, but in reality we’ve really only had one. Donald Trump has always been the press secretary, the spokesperson, the communications director for Donald Trump. That was true in 1994 when I first encountered him and it’s absolutely true in 2020.”

Karl finds himself promoting a book in the middle of a pandemic. He has been doing TV interviews from remote locations. Stephen Colbert teased him for speaking from a home office where his Emmy awards were prominently displayed.

One of Karl’s most memorable anecdotes is about 10 November 2016. It has become a commonplace to quote the musical Hamilton’s song The Room Where It Happens but Karl was genuinely in there, witnessing the Oval Office meeting between President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump (and snapping a few photos from 5ft away). And this collision of matter and anti-matter produced a surprise.

“It was the first time that I saw what seemed to be a humbled Donald Trump,” Karl recalls. “He seemed to be taken with the moment. I was almost imagining he’s like, ‘Oh, my God, what did I get myself into?’

“Nobody thought he was going to win. I don’t think he really thought he was going to win and here he was in the Oval Office, a place where he was gonna be returning in just a short period of time as the president and all the weight of all that meant and the problems he was gonna be dealing with and the responsibility he was going to have.

“He seemed humbled. He seemed a little bit freaked out. Now, that didn’t last: we never saw that look again, really. That was a fleeting moment but it really struck me.”

When Trump was asked if he intended to ask Obama or any of his other predecessors for advice on dealing with the coronavirus crisis, he replied: “I don’t want to disturb them, bother them. I don’t think I’m going to learn much. And, you know, I guess you could say that there’s probably a natural inclination not to call.”

‘Enemy of the people’

For more than three years, Karl has been on Trump’s trail, even receiving a hug from Kanye West in the Oval Office. He has also witnessed Trump’s war on the media with barbs such as “the enemy of the people” – a phrase which, Karl notes, the Nazis used in 1934. So what message does it send to the rest of the world?


A famous confrontation between the president and Jim Acosta of CNN at the White House in November 2018. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

“I think it is deeply disturbing that you have authoritarian leaders around the world who shut down a free press, jail reporters and potentially even worse and do so invoking the words of the American president. So you see Erdoğan and Putin. You see it’s been documented in Kazakhstan and in Egypt. You see authoritarian leaders echoing the precise words of Donald Trump, talking about ‘fake news’ as reporters are thrown in jail.

“The other thing that I think is really troubling is when the president calls real news ‘fake news’, when he suggests that the act of being an aggressive reporter is ‘treasonous’, it has undermined the faith in an independent free press among a significant segment of the population. That’s a big problem. I do worry about that a lot.”

Trump’s use of the bully pulpit for his daily coronavirus briefings has led to renewed calls for the press corps to be more combative. In his book, however, Karl cautions against reporters behaving like a political opposition or the anti-Trump “resistance”.

He explains: “There is a breathlessly negative tone to a lot of the news coverage of Trump and Trump’s provided ample material to fuel that, but what happens is a segment of the population sees it and tunes it all out. It all becomes noise and everything is the outrage of the day and then it’s hard to differentiate between a real outrage and an outrage that is maybe not as important.

“I mention the case of one CNN reporter literally getting up on live television and saying reporters should be protesting the president in Lafayette Square. We are not protesters. We are not the resistance. We need to report on a president fairly and objectively and a lot of that’s going to end up being negative.”

He adds: “Your north star is to provide objective and balanced news and let’s remember that this president has branded the news media as the opposition party, so when those working for mainstream news organisations act like the opposition party, you’re actually playing right into his media strategy.”

Karl’s book draws on fresh research and interviews, including with John Kelly, the former White House chief of staff. In 2017, Karl writes, Kelly had to talk the national security adviser, HR McMaster, out of passing on the president’s order for a Venezuela war plan to the Pentagon.

Now, however, as Trump faces the biggest test of his life, most voices of restraint are gone.

Karl says: “Up until this moment he’s had a series of people in the White House who have tried to steer him or put some guardrails up. John Kelly made the most aggressive effort to try to protect Donald Trump from his most destructive tendencies.

“It is all Donald Trump right now and I think that’s potentially dangerous. Any president, no matter how competent, needs to have strong advisers. He’s got the medical people that are advising him on this, sure, but those are not on his West Wing staff there.

“This is truly Donald Trump calling all the shots and doing it by his gut instinct. So I think that is potentially worrisome, as is the way the truth has been undermined, the credibility of the White House and also the credibility of the press corps that he’s tried so hard to undermine. Both of those things make this crisis harder to deal with day to day.”

‘An exhausting story’

As the title of his book implies, Karl already had a front-row seat to history, reporting on the most peculiar president of this or any other age. Now there is a once-in-a-century global pandemic added to the mix. What a time to be alive. Is a part of him secretly enjoying the daily adrenaline rush?


Trump speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

“It’s an exhausting story,” he says, suddenly sounding weary. “Yes, there is something rewarding about people wanting to know the story and the interest and the fascination in it, but it’s exhausting and some of it’s truly been troubling.”

He elaborates: “I think, especially in light of what we’re seeing with this pandemic, there is something very dangerous that is unfolding here.

“We’re at a point where nearly half the country doesn’t believe what this president and White House says and we have nearly half the rest of the country that’s been told not to believe what they see in a newspaper or see in television news or any other form of mainstream news.

“That’s a deeply troubling, deeply dangerous place to be where there isn’t a shared agreement and sense of some basic facts, especially now where reliable information, and believing you have reliable information, can literally be a matter of life and death.”

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/04/front-row-at-the-trump-show-jonathan-karl-book

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Gov. Gavin Newsom takes blame for lack of testing, announces new initiatives – Los Angeles Times
Gov. Gavin Newsom takes blame for lack of testing, announces new initiatives – Los Angeles Times

During his daily news conference, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he accepted responsibility for the lack of statewide testing so far and announced new initiatives to increase the number of those tested by making more COVID-19 tests available.

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Coronavirus in Illinois updates: What’s happening this weekend – Chicago Tribune
Coronavirus in Illinois updates: What’s happening this weekend – Chicago Tribune

“If you’ve been to the grocery store lately at any time other than three in the morning, you’re running into a fair number of people,” Pritzker said at his daily briefing on the outbreak. “There’s no need to take any risks. And by wearing a mask when you go to the grocery store, for example, you’re really protecting all the other people that are there, as much as you’re protecting yourself. In fact, more so.”

Source Article from https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-pandemic-chicago-illinois-news-20200404-vpzpqvhf5vdmvnkdnpjm5x36rm-story.html

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Cuomo says more ventilators inbound from China, Oregon – POLITICO
Cuomo says more ventilators inbound from China, Oregon – POLITICO

Andrew Cuomo | AP Photo

ALBANY, N.Y. — The Chinese government is sending New York 1,000 ventilators and Oregon is shipping another 140 to help respond to the state’s ballooning number of Covid-19 patients that has sent political leaders hustling for equipment, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a briefing Saturday.

“We’re all in the same battle here and the battle is stopping the spread of the virus,” he told reporters. “Stop the virus here. It’s better for the state of Oregon, it’s better for the nation.”

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Cuomo said the shipment from China is expected to arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday. The additional supply of ventilators could delay a shortage that Cuomo warned on Thursday could arrive within a week.

“We’ll be sending 140 ventilators to help NY because Oregon is in a better position right now. We must do all that we can to help those on the front lines of this response,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown wrote on Twitter Saturday.

New York has the most confirmed cases and deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus pandemic. More than 600 people have died since Friday, bring the grim tally to 3,565 deaths. More than 113,000 have tested positive for the virus.

Cuomo said New York would assist Oregon, and other places in the nation, once the state has passed the peak.

“We will return it double-fold, because that’s who we are,” Cuomo said. “Stop the fire in New York: kind, generous, also smart.”

The Cuomo administration has estimated that when the “apex” of the coronavirus outbreak in New York arrives, 37,000 ventilators will be needed. An earlier order from China for 17,000 ventilators ultimately only yield about 2,500 machines, the governor said. The federal government has sent about 4,000 ventilators.

Cuomo said the total federal stockpile of ventilators was only about 10,000 and confirmed Saturday President Donald Trump’s comments during a Friday briefing that the federal government had sent additional ventilators to New York that day. The governor could not immediately provide an exact number of ventilators received recently from the Trump administration.

Trump on Friday also said he believed New York already has enough ventilators and suggested the state should’ve prepared years ago by buying more of them.

“We’re doing our best for New York… but we have a lot of states that need to be taken care of,” the president said. “We happen to think he’s well served with ventilators but we’re going to find out.”

The biggest piece of assistance from the federal government will be when the temporary 2,500-bed hospital being built at the Javits Convention Center in New York City begins accepting Covid-19 patients on a broad scale, Cuomo said.

That hospital was initially intended as a backfill for patients with other ailments.

Cuomo also said that his order to take 20 percent of ventilators not in use from upstate hospitals would garner about 500 ventilators to be deployed to the New York City area, where the majority of hospitalizations from the coronavirus are. The outbreak is also growing on Long Island, which now accounts for 22 percent of hospitalizations statewide. New York City accounts for 65 percent.

Cuomo is facing pushback from upstate Republican congressional members and local officials over the plan to redeploy ventilators.

The governor also plans to sign an executive order for medical students who have not yet graduated to begin practicing, as part of an effort to secure additional staff.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/04/04/cuomo-says-more-ventilators-inbound-from-china-oregon-1271848

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U.S. Navy Ship Virus Relief Efforts ‘A Joke’ As Hundreds of Beds Lay Empty – Newsweek
U.S. Navy Ship Virus Relief Efforts ‘A Joke’ As Hundreds of Beds Lay Empty – Newsweek

The relief effort of the U.S.N.S. Comfort, a hospital ship deployed to receive patients with conditions other than COVID-19 to create more beds at New York City hospitals for virus patients, has come under criticism following delays in admitting patients.

The ship, equipped with 1,000 hospital beds and 1,200 medical workers, has reportedly only taken 20 patients aboard since it began operations on April 1, with hundreds of beds on the ship remaining unused.

But various military protocols and other red tape, including nearly 49 medical conditions other than the COVID-19 virus that disqualify a patient from being admitted onto the ship (such as those in need of obstetric or pediatric care), have reportedly caused major roadblocks in providing the relief the city’s hospitals need, The New York Times reported.

“The process continues and we are honestly looking forward to seeing a significant increase in patients being transferred to the Comfort,” Capt. Patrick Amersbach, of the U.S.N.S. Comfort, told reporters on Thursday.

The U.S.N.S. Mercy, which docked in Los Angeles with the mission last Friday and is equipped with 800 medical staff, has treated a total of 15 patients, five of whom have been discharged, the ship’s commanding officer Capt. John Rotruck said.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy, Elizabeth Baker, said “We’re bringing [patients] on as fast as we can bring them on.”

Neither ship accepts walk-in patients. All patients must be evaluated at local hospitals first and be tested for the virus before being allowed to board the ships, which adds to the delay in the process of getting patients aboard the ships.

Michael Dowling, the president and chief executive officer of Northwell Health, New York’s largest hospital system, told the Times, “If I’m blunt about it, it’s a joke. Everyone can say, ‘Thank you for putting up these wonderful places and opening up these cavernous halls.’ But we’re in a crisis here, we’re in a battlefield.”

Various hospitals have been refitted to create more space for virus patients, making use of lobby space and conference rooms, Dowling explained. His facilities are hosting around 2,800 infected patients, up from 100 on March 20. Nearly 25 percent have serious conditions and are in intensive care units.

With New York placed under lockdown, there are less patients suffering from car accidents and gunshot wounds or other accidents requiring emergency care. Therefore, there are fewer non-virus patients to send to the U.S.N.S. Comfort, as the city copes with thousands of people infected with the virus, Dowling said.

“It’s pretty ridiculous,” he said. “If you’re not going to help us with the people we need help with, what’s the purpose?”

The commanding officers of both ships have said they would accept COVD-19 virus patients if they were ordered to do so.

“If that demand signal ramps up, we’ll certainly be ready to accommodate that,” Capt. Rotruck told reporters Thursday.

Both Capt. Rotruck and Capt. Amersbach have said the ships would need to be reconfigured if COVID-19 virus patients were to be admitted.

Various large public venues in New York City have been converted into hospital spaces since the outbreak to help hospitals cope with the growing number of infected patients, including in Central Park where a field hospital was erected.

Other recent builds include a makeshift hospital at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, the home of the U.S. Open, and at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which has nearly 3,000 beds.

Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Navy for further comment on the latest situation.

The virus, which was first reported in Wuhan, China, has affected over a million people across 181 countries and regions, including more than 245,500 in the U.S., the epicenter of the outbreak. While over 212,000 have recovered from infection but more than 53,100 have died globally.

New York is the worst-hit state in the U.S., with over 92,300 confirmed cases, including more than 51,800 patients in New York City, according to figures released Thursday from the office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates the spread of COVID-19 across the U.S.

Data on COVID-19 cases is from Johns Hopkins University unless otherwise stated.

World Health Organization advice for avoiding spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Hygiene advice

  • Clean hands frequently with soap and water, or alcohol-based hand rub.
  • Wash hands after coughing or sneezing; when caring for the sick; before, during and after food preparation; before eating; after using the toilet; when hands are visibly dirty; and after handling animals or waste.
  • Maintain at least 1 meter (3 feet) distance from anyone who is coughing or sneezing.
  • Avoid touching your hands, nose and mouth. Do not spit in public.
  • Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or bent elbow when coughing or sneezing. Discard the tissue immediately and clean your hands.

Medical advice

  • Avoid close contact with others if you have any symptoms.
  • Stay at home if you feel unwell, even with mild symptoms such as headache and runny nose, to avoid potential spread of the disease to medical facilities and other people.
  • If you develop serious symptoms (fever, cough, difficulty breathing) seek medical care early and contact local health authorities in advance.
  • Note any recent contact with others and travel details to provide to authorities who can trace and prevent spread of the disease.
  • Stay up to date on COVID-19 developments issued by health authorities and follow their guidance.

Mask and glove usage

  • Healthy individuals only need to wear a mask if taking care of a sick person.
  • Wear a mask if you are coughing or sneezing.
  • Masks are effective when used in combination with frequent hand cleaning.
  • Do not touch the mask while wearing it. Clean hands if you touch the mask.
  • Learn how to properly put on, remove and dispose of masks. Clean hands after disposing of the mask.
  • Do not reuse single-use masks.
  • Regularly washing bare hands is more effective against catching COVID-19 than wearing rubber gloves.
  • The COVID-19 virus can still be picked up on rubber gloves and transmitted by touching your face.

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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-update-new-york-city-usns-comfort-navy-hospital-ship-patients-1495928

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Two passengers dead on Coral Princess cruise ship, captain says – The Washington Post
Two passengers dead on Coral Princess cruise ship, captain says – The Washington Post

Two people on the Coral Princess cruise ship, which reported 12 positive cases of coronavirus on Thursday, died overnight, according to an announcement from the ship’s captain Saturday morning.

He did not say whether those passengers had confirmed cases of coronavirus but said they were being treated in the medical center when they died, according to a recording of the announcement provided to The Washington Post.

“I know how difficult this news is to bear, but given the current situation, we remain committed to transparent and consistent communication with you,” he said. “This information will need to be shared with shoreside authorities and will become public, so I wanted you to hear it from me first.”

[Zaandam, Rotterdam cruise ships arrive at South Florida port with plan for most passengers to leave by Friday night]

The cruise line did not immediately respond to questions about the deaths, but confirmed another part of the captain’s announcement: Coral Princess, which was originally heading for Port Everglades in Broward County, docked in Port Miami on Saturday morning.

The company did not explain why it changed course but informed authorities in Broward County on Friday that it would not be arriving Saturday as planned.

“Disembarkation of guests is expected to take several days due to limited flight availability,” the cruise company said. “Guests requiring shoreside medical care will be prioritized to disembark first.”

[Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.]

The ship appeared to be following the playbook of Zaandam and Rotterdam, two Holland America Line ships that arrived in Port Everglades on Thursday after four passengers on Zaandam died. Princess Cruises said guests who are deemed “fit to fly” are expected to start disembarking Sunday and will transfer straight to Miami International Airport to catch flights home.

[‘The holiday of a lifetime’: An oral history of the infected, rejected Zaandam cruise ship]

Anyone with respiratory symptoms who is not too sick to need hospitalization on land — or who is recovering from being sick previously — will stay on the ship until they are cleared by doctors on board.

The ship is carrying 1,898 people, including 1,020 guests.

Coral Princess left San Antonio, Chile, on March 5. A week later, Princess Cruises announced it was suspending operations, a move the rest of the industry followed. But only some passengers were able to disembark on March 19 in Buenos Aires, and ports in Uruguay and Brazil denied requests to let passengers off.

Everyone had free run of the ship until Tuesday, when the operator said a “higher-than-normal number” of people reported flu-like symptoms and ordered passengers to stay in their rooms.

Read more:

Fort Lauderdale-bound Coral Princess confirms 12 coronavirus cases on board

Carnival’s CEO says cruise ships aren’t riskier for getting sick. Public health experts tell a different story.

Coronavirus live updates

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/04/04/two-passengers-dead-coral-princess-cruise-ship-captain-says/

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Trump fires the inspector general who helped spark impeachment inquiry – Vox.com
Trump fires the inspector general who helped spark impeachment inquiry – Vox.com

President Donald Trump has fired the intelligence community inspector general who first told Congress of the whistleblower complaint that ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment. The president informed the House and Senate intelligence committees of the firing in a letter on Friday.

Michael Atkinson, then inspector general of the intelligence community, told Congress last September about a whistleblower complaint that alleged Trump had communicated improperly with the president of Ukraine. With his firing, Atkinson becomes the latest of a series of administration officials involved in the impeachment process to be fired or reassigned.

In formal letters to the respective chairs and vice chairs of the Senate and House intelligence committees, Trump wrote that he chose to remove Atkinson from his office, effective 30 days from Friday, because he no longer has faith in the appointed official.

“As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as president, have the power of appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general,” Trump wrote. “That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.”

Trump said that he will submit a nomination for a replacement to the job, which investigates and audits the work of the national intelligence director and his staff, “at a later date.”

While the president does have the power to remove Atkinson, a number of his critics — particularly Democratic lawmakers — have argued the inspector general was removed as retribution for his role in the impeachment proceedings.

“President Trump’s decision to fire Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson is yet another blatant attempt by the President to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing,” House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff said in a statement.

Similarly, Sen. Mark Warner — the Democratic vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee — said in a statement that Trump had targeted Atkinson for serving honorably.

“In the midst of a national emergency, it is unconscionable that the president is once again attempting to undermine the integrity of the intelligence community by firing yet another intelligence official simply for doing his job,” Warner said.

And in a statement, the chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, Michael Horowitz, defended his colleague.

“Inspector General Atkinson is known throughout the Inspector General community for his integrity, professionalism, and commitment to the rule of law and independent oversight,” Horowitz said in a statement. “That includes his actions in handling the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, which the then Acting Director of National Intelligence stated in congressional testimony was done ‘by the book’ and consistent with the law.”

According to reporting by Politico, Atkinson himself was only informed of his firing on Friday evening, around the same time that the letters to Congress went out. According to that same reporting, Atkinson has been placed on administrative leave for the remainder of the mandated 30 days’ notice to Congress.

Trump nominated Atkinson to the inspector general position in November of 2017.

Briefly, Atkinson’s role in the impeachment process

In September of 2019, Atkinson brought a whistleblower complaint before Congress that alleged Trump had pressed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the overseas business dealings of Hunter Biden, son of former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Atkinson first brought the complaint to then acting national intelligence director Joseph Maguire, after assessing it and deeming it of “urgent concern.” Maguire did not bring it to Congress within seven days, as is required by law, and instead brought the issue before the Justice Department.

So Atkinson wrote a letter to Congress, telling them about the complaint, after which a congressional investigation was opened against the president, two articles of impeachment were brought, the president was impeached, and — after a dramatic series of hearings — was ultimately acquitted.

Trump has removed nearly everyone involved in the impeachment inquiry

Throughout the impeachment process, Trump described the process as a “witch hunt” and vehemently denied he’d committed any impeachable acts.

And in the weeks since his acquittal on February 5, many officials involved in the proceedings have been fired, reassigned, or have left their posts.

Immediately after his acquittal, Trump removed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a Ukraine expert who testified during the impeachment inquiry — and his twin brother, who did not — from the National Security Council. Then he fired his ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, who had been a major campaign donor and who testified that he’d helped lead a campaign to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate the Bidens. Sondland also told the House Intelligence Committee that the Trump administration had indeed engaged in quid pro quo. In March, Trump announced his former acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — who told reporters Trump tried to trade Ukrainian aid for political favors — would now be the administration’s special envoy to Northern Ireland.

Other key witnesses left government. Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a career diplomat who testified that she was recalled from her post because of her anti-corruption work, retired from the foreign service. Kurt Volker, the special envoy to Ukraine, resigned during the proceedings and later testified that he did not think the Bidens had behaved corruptly.

William Taylor, a diplomat who testified that Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pushed for investigations into the Bidens, and Tim Morrison, the former top Ukraine official on the National Security Council, both left government as well.

And even Maguire, the national intelligence director who did not bring the Ukraine whistleblower complaint to Congress, was removed in February, one week after his staff briefed members of Congress on Russian interference in the upcoming presidential election.

Atkinson has been targeted by the president before. In January, Trump tweeted that Atkinson was involved with Democrats in whipping up the impeachment charges against him. The New York Times reported in November that Trump was then considering firing Atkinson for being “disloyal” by bringing the whistleblower complaint to light.

By firing Atkinson late on a Friday night, Trump has indicated that, even in the midst of a global pandemic, actions taken during his months-long impeachment investigation are not far from his mind.

Source Article from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/4/4/21207988/trump-intelligence-inspector-general-atkinson-ukraine-impeachment

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Spain behind U.S. in total number of coronavirus cases – CBS This Morning
Spain behind U.S. in total number of coronavirus cases – CBS This Morning

Spain now has the second-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases behind the U.S., while China held a nationwide day of mourning as it gradually brings the disease under control. The United Nations said it will make a decision later in the month as to whether it will postpone September’s General Assembly meeting in New York. Roxana Saberi breaks down the virus’ global impact from the U.K., where the death toll has jumped to over 3,300.

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Each weekday morning, “CBS This Morning” co-hosts Gayle King, Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil deliver two hours of original reporting, breaking news and top-level newsmaker interviews in an engaging and informative format that challenges the norm in network morning news programs. The broadcast has earned a prestigious Peabody Award, a Polk Award, four News & Documentary Emmys, three Daytime Emmys and the 2017 Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast. The broadcast was also honored with an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award as part of CBS News division-wide coverage of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Check local listings for “CBS This Morning” broadcast times.

Source Article from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htif0jPuw3c

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Chinese-American Artist Creates A Comic About ‘The Wuhan I Know’ : Goats and Soda – NPR
Chinese-American Artist Creates A Comic About ‘The Wuhan I Know’ : Goats and Soda – NPR

Since the coronavirus outbreak began, Laura Gao has been troubled by the disgust and pity directed at her hometown.

Laura Gao


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Laura Gao

Since the coronavirus outbreak began, Laura Gao has been troubled by the disgust and pity directed at her hometown.

Laura Gao

Back in January, Laura Gao, a 23-year-old product developer for Twitter living in San Francisco, was preparing to visit her relatives in Wuhan, China. The trip was to celebrate her grandmother’s 80th birthday.

But in the days leading up to her flight, Gao’s relatives told her to cancel her trip. The coronavirus was spreading throughout the city.

Gao, a native of Wuhan, stayed in San Francisco and on January 23, the day after her flight would have landed, the city went on lockdown. If she’d taken her trip, Gao thinks she’d still be in Wuhan today.

“Instead, I’m here in San Francisco seeing the other side of the story,” Gao says. “There was a lot of anger and panic and pity that was coming from not only the media, but the people around me.”

As the virus spread, Wuhan quickly captured the world’s attention. For many Americans, this was the first time they had ever heard of the city — and in the frightening context of coronavirus.

She decided to make a comic telling her own story and highlighting her favorite parts of the city.

“I’ve always been an artist, and I believe that comics are a great way to marry imagery with the power of words to express a story,” Gao says.

The comic is called, “The Wuhan I Know.”

It starts with Gao’s childhood when she moved with her parents to a small town in Texas, “where Wuhan was more foreign than Mars.”

Not only had people never heard of Wuhan, she says they were largely uninterested in learning about her hometown. They would ask her if she was from Beijing or Shanghai as if those were the only cities in China.

They had no idea that Wuhan was — and still is — one of the fastest growing cities in Central China, with a population of more than 11 million people. It’s bigger than New York, London or Tokyo.

When she’d try to tell them what the city was like, they were often disinterested. Eventually, she gave up.

“I would just be like, ‘I’m just from China. That’s all you really need to know,'” Gao says.

But now, Gao says it feels as if everyone knows about Wuhan — but not the full story.

“It’s disheartening to know that all they know are the bad parts of it,” Gao says. “About the virus and about the wet markets that people always want to bash on and point fingers at.”

Gao says she wants people to get to know the Wuhan beyond the headlines. And while she’s been hesitant to speak up in the past, this time she says she’s ready to stand up and share her city with the world.

Laura Gao’s mother (in the red dress) poses with her family in front of the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan before leaving for college in 1985. Gao visited that landmark for the first time 20 years later.

Courtesy of Laura Gao


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Courtesy of Laura Gao

The comic has sections highlighting Wuhan’s history, architecture and economy. That includes the city’s most famous landmark the Yellow Crane Tower. Gao writes, that in the sun, it shines like gold.

But her favorite section showcases Wuhan’s street food.

“Whenever I go to Wuhan, my favorite part is waking up in the morning, running outside to the street where they’re completely lined left and right with all these food stalls of so many different kinds of food,” Gao says.

Some of her favorite Wuhanese dishes include rè gān miàn or hot and dry noodles, doù pí, sticky rice with meat and veggies wrapped in bean skin and fried in a giant wok and yā bó zi or duck neck.

When she first decided to share the comic back in March, she recalls, “I was a bit hesitant. I was like, I know this is kind of a sensitive topic. I don’t know what I’ll get from it,” Gao said. “But I got all kinds of responses that really warmed my heart.”

The comic has been re-shared by thousands of people on Twitter and liked by even more.

Many people have reached out to Gao directly to let her know that her comic has had a positive impact in their lives.

She’s heard from people who are from Wuhan like herself or have family there. But she’s also heard from people in countries like Iran and Italy who also feel as if their countries are being misrepresented by the coronavirus. Thanks to her comic, they feel proud of their homes.

People have also reached out to Gao to tell her that the next trip they want to take is to visit Wuhan. Now that they know more about it, they want to visit its sites and taste its food.

Gao even shared the comic and the feedback she’s received with her grandmother.

She told Gao: ‘Thankfully we’re getting better and I see the rest of the world is also suffering. I want to send my love to them as well.'”

Gao talks to her family in Wuhan frequently and fortunately she says, things are starting to return to normal.

The authorities are beginning to open the city back up and she says her family is allowed to walk around in their own neighborhood.

Slowly, Wuhan is returning to the city she knows.

See Laura Gao’s comic “The Wuhan I Know,” below.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/04/823825436/the-wuhan-i-know-a-comic-about-the-city-behind-the-coronavirus-headlines

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Why these 8 Republican governors are holding out on statewide stay-at-home orders – CNN
Why these 8 Republican governors are holding out on statewide stay-at-home orders – CNN

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/04/politics/republican-governors-stay-at-home-orders-coronavirus/index.html

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How to make your own face mask – CNN
How to make your own face mask – CNN

By Scottie Andrew, CNN
Illustrations: Leah Abucayan, CNN

Updated 4:53 AM ET, Sat April 4, 2020

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    CNN’s Harmeet Kaur and Tami Luhby contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/04/health/how-to-make-your-own-mask-wellness-trnd/index.html

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    Trump Says He Won’t Wear Face Mask Because He Meets ‘Presidents’ – Newsweek
    Trump Says He Won’t Wear Face Mask Because He Meets ‘Presidents’ – Newsweek

    Although the CDC recommended that the American public begins voluntarily wearing face coverings in some public settings to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the U.S., President Donald Trump said Friday during the coronavirus task force meeting that he would not be wearing one because of the requirements of his job.

    U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Friday that individuals who are asymptomatic can still transmit the virus to others and that “simple cloth coverings” worn over the face can, along with social distancing measures, help to curb community spread.

    Trump, however, said the recommendation was advice that he would not be taking.

    “I just don’t want to wear one myself,” Trump told reporters. “It’s a recommendation, they recommend it. I’m feeling good.”

    “Somehow, sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful resolute desk, the great resolute desk, I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don’t know,” Trump continued. “Somehow, I don’t see it for myself. I just don’t.”

    “Maybe I’ll change my mind,” Trump added. “But this will pass and hopefully it will pass very quickly.”

    CDC recommends wearing a cloth face covering in public areas where social distancing could be hard to maintain, such as pharmacies and grocery stores. Personal protective equipment [PPE] such as N95 respirators are not involved in the CDC’s recommendation because they “must be reserved for health care workers,” Surgeon General Adams said.

    Personal protective equipment [PPE] such as N95 respirators are not involved in the CDC’s recommendation because they “must be reserved for health care workers,” Adams said.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that individuals wear face masks if taking care of a person suspected of carrying coronavirus or for persons who are exhibiting symptoms of the virus, such as coughing or sneezing.

    Newsweek reached out to the WHO for comment.

    Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti recommended on Wednesday that residents of his city begin wearing face masks in public before the CDC announced its recommendation.

    “Early data suggests many who are infected are not symptomatic, which is why we are recommending you use cloth face coverings plus physical distancing for essential activities,” Garcetti tweeted. “Do not use surgical and N95 masks, which are reserved for first responders and medical workers.”

    “This is not an excuse to get closer,” Garcetti said at a Thursday press conference. “This isn’t an excuse to suddenly all go out. You need to stay at home. But when you have to go out, we’re recommending that we use non-medical grade masks or facial coverings.”

    Recent data indicated 12,267 total positive confirmed cases of coronavirus in California.

    p:last-of-type::after, .node-type-slideshow .article-body > p:last-of-type::after {
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    Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/cdc-recommends-masks-trump-says-he-wont-wear-one-because-he-meets-presidents-prime-ministers-1496064

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    Donald Trump fires intelligence watchdog who sparked impeachment process – The Guardian
    Donald Trump fires intelligence watchdog who sparked impeachment process – The Guardian

    Donald Trump has fired the inspector general for the intelligence community who handled the whistleblower complaint that led to his impeachment, prompting fierce criticism from Democrats.

    The US president chose a Friday night, with America consumed by the coronavirus pandemic, to tell the House of Representatives and Senate intelligence committees of his decision to dismiss Michael Atkinson.

    In a letter, Trump claimed it was “vital” that he had confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general, and “that is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general”.

    The president would nominate an individual who has his full confidence at a later date, he added.

    There was swift condemnation from Democrats. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, said: “President Trump fires people for telling the truth.

    “Michael Atkinson is a man of integrity who has served our nation for almost two decades. Being fired for having the courage to speak truth to power makes him a patriot.”

    Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee and a prominent figure in the impeachment hearings, described the move as “yet another blatant attempt by the president to gut the independence of the intelligence community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing”.


    Inspector general of the intelligence community Michael Atkinson. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

    He added: “At a time when our country is dealing with a national emergency and needs people in the intelligence community to speak truth to power, the president’s dead of night decision puts our country and national security at even greater risk.”

    Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress think tank in Washington, tweeted: “Leave it to Trump to use a global pandemic as cover for his retaliation against those who helped bring to light his wrongdoing. Disgusting.”

    Atkinson was the first official to alert Congress last year to an anonymous whistleblower complaint that described a phone call in which Trump pressured the president of Ukraine to announce an investigation into his political rival, Joe Biden.

    In letters to Congress in August and September, Atkinson said he believed the complaint was urgent and credible. But Joseph Maguire, who was acting director of National Intelligence at the time, decided it was not urgent and tried to withhold the complaint from Congress.

    Under huge political pressure, the White House eventually released the complaint, triggering an investigation by the Democratic-controlled House, which charged Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and voted to impeach a president for only the third time in history.

    Trump was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate in February in what critics described as a show trial with no documents or witnesses allowed. Nevertheless, the president claimed he had been vindicated following a “witch hunt” and purged two officials who testified.

    Trump chose Atkinson, who had served in the justice department for 15 years, for inspector general in late 2017 and he was confirmed in May 2018. At his Senate confirmation hearing, Atkinson promised whistleblower protection that “validates moral courage without compromising national security and without retaliation”.

    In November last year, the New York Times reported that Trump had discussed with aides the possibility of firing Atkinson because he could not understand why the inspector general failed to dismiss the complaint. In a tweet, he suggested that Atkinson should be forced to testify at the impeachment hearings.

    The removal of Atkinson fits a long pattern of retribution against the intelligence community. In May 2017 he fired James Comey, the director of the FBI, who was leading an investigation into his contacts with Russia during the presidential election.

    More recently Maguire was also ousted and replaced by Richard Grenell, who had been US ambassador to Germany and is a strong Trump backer. The president has nominated Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe to the permanent position but he must await Senate confirmation.

    Last month more than a hundred intelligence and national security professionals signed a joint letter warning that Trump “has created an existential danger to the United States” and endorsing Biden for president.

    Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/04/donald-trump-fires-intelligence-watchdog-michael-atkinson-impeachment

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    CNN’s Jim Acosta blasted for ‘mansplaining’ after interrupting Dr. Birx to attack Trump – Fox News
    CNN’s Jim Acosta blasted for ‘mansplaining’ after interrupting Dr. Birx to attack Trump – Fox News
    Video

    Trump updates guidance on face coverings, says hospitals treating uninsured COVID-19 cases will be reimbursed

    President Trump leads the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing.

    Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.

    CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta was widely blasted for interrupting Dr. Deborah Birx during Friday’s coronavirus briefing to attack President Trump.

    Birx took a moment at the podium to address the “who knew what when” concerns and said all the countries affected by the pandemic can “look back” to develop a timeline but not while “in the middle” of the crisis.

    “We can talk about why didn’t Italy do something or Spain do something or Germany do something, or we can really say right now — we all can do something,” Dr. Birx explained. “We can do the social distancing and all of the pieces that we know is starting to work around the globe in country after country. And then when we get through all of this, we can ask the questions about could we have done some piece of this better as a global community.”

    ABC’S JONATHAN KARL KNOCKS CNN’S JIM ACOSTA IN NEW BOOK: HE EXPLICITLY PLAYS INTO TRUMP’S STRATEGY WITH THE MEDIA

    She then pivoted to the apparent errors the World Health Organization (WHO) made leading up to the outbreak in the U.S. as something that should be examined.

    “I will remind you that on February 3rd, the head of the WHO said there was no reason to ever do a travel ban,” Dr. Birx continued. “It wasn’t until January 14th that we knew that there was human-to-human transmission,”

    Acosta quickly derailed her observations about WHO to knock President Trump.

    “Dr. Birx, the president was saying this was going to go away,” Acosta said. “It’s April.”

    “It is going to go away,” President Trump fired back. “I said it was going away and it is going away.”

    TRUMP RIPS CBS REPORTER OVER QUESTION ON KUSHNER’S STOCKPILE REMARKS: ‘YOU OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF’

    Many took to social media to blast the reporter.

    “Jim Acosta’s interruption of Dr. Birx is an example of how CNN’s echo-journalism model is destroying the media’s credibility,” George Washington University Law professor Jonathan Turley reacted. “Every question from Acosta is an effort to score points rather than elicit information. It is a press pandemic that continues to rage without relief.”

    Some accused Acosta of attempting to “mansplain” to the female medical expert.

    “‘Dear Diary: While I’m no expert, I tried #Mansplaining to an expert medical expert named Dr. Birx. @Acosta,'” former CNN commentator Paris Dennard quipped.

    “@Acosta just tried to mansplain to Dr. Birx,” GOP national spokeswoman Elizabeth Harrington tweeted.

    Others pointed out how Acosta interrupted Dr. Birx as she was being critical of WHO, who critics have accused of shielding China amid the outbreak.

    “Of course Acosta interrupted Birx as she was making an interesting comment about WHO,” Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross said.

    TRUMP SPARS WITH JIM ACOSTA AT CORONAVIRUS BRIEFING: ‘THIS IS WHY PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO LISTEN TO CNN ANYMORE’

    CNN did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

    Acosta has made a name for himself in the Trump era for his hostile exchanges with the president.

    CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

    However, he is even criticized among his White House press corps colleagues. In his new book, ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl knocked his CNN counterpart, accusing him of “playing into the explicit Trump strategy of portraying the press as the opposition party.”

    “The surest way to undermine the credibility of the White House press corps is to behave like the political opposition,” Karl wrote. “Don’t give speeches from the White House briefing room.”

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnns-jim-acosta-accused-of-mansplaining-after-interrupting-dr-birx-to-attack-trump

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    Detroit bus driver dies from coronavirus days after making angry video about coughing passenger – CNN
    Detroit bus driver dies from coronavirus days after making angry video about coughing passenger – CNN

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/03/us/detroit-bus-driver-dies-coronavirus-trnd/index.html

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    3M pushes back after Trump orders company to stop exporting N95 masks – New York Post
    3M pushes back after Trump orders company to stop exporting N95 masks – New York Post

    WASHINGTON — Manufacturing giant 3M pushed backed against President Trump in a statement on Friday that suggested it would not comply with a White House order to stop exporting masks to Canada and Latin America.

    The Trump administration on Thursday invoked the Defense Production Act, compelling 3M to prioritize orders for desperately needed N95 respiratory masks for the US government’s national stockpile.

    The Minnesota-based company, one of the largest manufacturers of the masks, said it was looking forward to implementing the order and had already been going “above and beyond” in recent weeks to churn them out as quickly as possible amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    But 3M criticized a previously unreported request from the White House that it also stop sending any N95 masks to Latin America and Canada, citing “significant humanitarian implications” given the great need for them in the US and complaints from governors around the country, including New York’s Andrew Cuomo, that they wind up in bidding wars for supplies against each other and other countries.

    “The Administration also requested that 3M cease exporting respirators that we currently manufacture in the United States to the Canadian and Latin American markets,” the Friday morning statement read.

    “There are, however, significant humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America, where we are a critical supplier of respirators,” it continued.

    The manufacturing company said it feared other countries would retaliate if it stopped exporting masks made in the US, “as some have already done.”

    “If that were to occur, the net number of respirators being made available to the United States would actually decrease. That is the opposite of what we and the Administration, on behalf of the American people, both seek.”

    Dr. Nicole McCullough, a global health and safety expert at 3MREUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi

    The bombshell sparked a diplomatic scramble, with Ontario Premier Doug Ford telling US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that the new order would potentially jeopardize the health of Canada’s frontline workers, he said in a tweet.

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the order a “mistake.”

    “It would be a mistake for both of our countries to limit our access to goods and personnel,” Trudeau said Friday morning, saying Canada would “continue to keep trade open with the United States.”

    The president and his top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, both lashed into the Minnesota-based company on Thursday night, criticizing 3M for continuing to send respirators overseas when the US is facing a critical domestic shortage.

    Trump tweeted that his administration “hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their masks,” and threatened the company “will have a big price to pay.”

    At a White House briefing Thursday evening, Navarro said he’d experienced issues making sure 3M products manufactured around the world were “coming back here to the right places.”

    In its statement, 3M said it would ramp up overseas production and was exporting 10 million N95 respirators manufactured by its factory in China.

    Several other companies including General Electric, Phillips and General Motors have also been recently compelled to produce ventilators in separate Defense Production Act cases.

    Source Article from https://nypost.com/2020/04/03/3m-pushes-back-after-trump-orders-it-to-stop-exporting-n95-masks/

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    Married for 51 years, they died of Covid-19 six minutes apart – CNN
    Married for 51 years, they died of Covid-19 six minutes apart – CNN

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/03/us/nfl-agent-buddy-baker-parents-coronavirus-trnd/index.html

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    Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what’s happening Friday – Chicago Tribune
    Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what’s happening Friday – Chicago Tribune

    Eckhouse’s family, spread across Chicago and its suburbs, usually conducts a Seder with a large group, each participating by lighting candles, reading the Passover story and, for the children, searching for the hidden matzo. This year, they will try to replicate what they can on Zoom, the video conferencing service.“It’s very interactive,” Eckhouse said of her family’s Seder. “But it’s either do it this way, or don’t do anything at all.” Read more here. —Madeline Buckley and Javonte Anderson

    Source Article from https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-pandemic-chicago-illinois-news-20200403-dr4twatabrcx5ccwzcws4uwngu-story.html

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    Trump to Fire Intelligence Watchdog Who Had Key Role in Ukraine Complaint – The New York Times
    Trump to Fire Intelligence Watchdog Who Had Key Role in Ukraine Complaint – The New York Times

    The official described the move as part of a broader shake-up of the intelligence community that the president has set in motion in the past several weeks. He recently installed Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany known for his combative conservatism, as acting director of national intelligence, a position where presidents typically look to install career officials or apolitical appointees. And Mr. Trump has nominated one of his top allies in Congress, Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas, to the take over the post permanently.

    The ouster of Mr. Atkinson came as the White House announced five nominees for inspector general positions. They included Brian D. Miller, an aide to Mr. Trump in the White House counsel’s office, who was tapped to be the newly created special inspector general for pandemic recovery.

    Mr. Miller has served as an inspector general for the General Services Administration, but in more recent years he has performed a more political role. Among other things, he helped respond to oversight requests for White House documents during Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial. His nomination requires Senate confirmation.

    Mr. Trump also nominated a senior Customs and Border Protection policy official, Jason Abend, to be the Department of Defense inspector general. That position is vacant and is held on an acting basis by Glenn Fine, the deputy inspector general at the Pentagon and a longtime Justice Department inspector general with a reputation for independence.

    Earlier this week, a group of fellow inspectors general named Mr. Fine to be the chairman of the new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, with control of an $80 million budget to police how the government carries out the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. If Mr. Abend is confirmed, Mr. Fine would lose his acting role and could no longer lead the committee.

    Mr. Trump also nominated three current and former Justice Department officials to be the new inspectors general at the C.I.A., the Department of Education and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

    Mr. Trump has been focused for weeks on rooting out administration officials perceived as disloyal.

    In February, after the Republican-controlled Senate acquitted Mr. Trump of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress, the president ousted other administration officials who cooperated in the impeachment inquiry by providing testimony, including Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, and Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, a National Security Council aide.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/us/trump-inspector-general-intelligence-fired.html

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