The mistakes that turned New York into an epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic

Out of the three of them, unfortunately, he has been the worst in taking decisive action,” New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams says of de Blasio. In a recent conversation with Yahoo News, he struggled to find words to describe the inadequacy of Trump's response, but was hardly more generous to de Blasio, with whom he shares a near-identical political outlook. Freddi Goldstein, a spokeswoman for City Hall, countered such claims in an email to Yahoo News.

Americans stranded in India fear for their safety and wonder when they can return home

Firefighter and paramedic Michael Cannon and nurse Rose Barnes told Yahoo News they traveled to New Delhi March 13 on what should have been one of the happiest trips of their life, to bring the two-and-a-half year old girl home with them to Murrieta, Calif. But instead, they faced suspicion from locals and are now stuck in India awaiting news on when they can return home, and whether the child they hoped to welcome into their family can accompany them. India issued its official first day of a nationwide lockdown on March 25, with police enforcing the strict measures on its 1.3 billion people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the “total lockdown” was to “save India, to save its citizens, your family.”

The coronavirus pandemic is straining hospitals, but many medical school grads can't get jobs

The number of medical school graduates is increasing faster than the number of residency slots, thanks in part to a cap on federal funding for residency programs that has been in place for over 20 years. Without securing a residency, medical school graduates cannot go on to become physicians. Some find themselves in their mid-20s with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt after eight years of higher education, earning a living driving for car services or as baristas.

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  How to prepare, protect yourself from coronavirus

  KGO – San Francisco
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  Macerich Provides COVID-19 Update

  PR Newswire

Ex-Venezuelan spy chief Carvajal discussing surrender with U.S. authorities: sources

The former head of Venezuela's military intelligence unit, Hugo Carvajal, is discussing his possible surrender with U.S. authorities, three people familiar with the matter said on Saturday, after prosecutors charged him this week with drug trafficking alongside Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Carvajal, a former general and ally of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, has been in hiding since a Spanish court in November approved his extradition to the United States. It was unclear when or if he would surrender as the people said talks were ongoing.

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  News Analysis: The new U.S. hope for replacing the president of Venezuela: Coronavirus

  LA Times
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  Venezuelan ex-general surrenders to US on drug trafficking charges

  AFP

Fact check: Could your December cough actually have been coronavirus? Experts say more research is needed

A handful of widely circulated Facebook posts have asserted that people in the United States likely contracted the coronavirus as early as last fall. Many of the posts currently circulating include the profile photo of a Facebook user named Donna Lee Collier. "Our area has had a very virulent 'flu' season with many of my friends testing negative for flu," she said in a Facebook message.

Coronavirus Comes to the Kremlin

Russian media reported that two Kremlin officials may have tested positive for the coronavirus. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed he was aware of one of those cases, but claimed no knowledge of the second. State media outlet TASS speculated that one of the infected persons may have been a staffer responsible for awards, who traveled to Spain and later attended Putin's presidential awards ceremony in occupied Crimea.

'The Other Option Is Death': New York Starts Sharing of Ventilators

A New York hospital system has begun treating two patients instead of one on some ventilators, a desperate measure that could help alleviate a shortage of the critical breathing machines and help hospitals around the country respond to the surge of coronavirus patients expected in the coming weeks. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital began “ventilator sharing” this week, said Dr. Laureen Hill, chief operating officer at the Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center system. Doctors have developed protocols for the maneuver and are rapidly scaling it up while also sharing their methods with the federal and state governments and other hospitals.

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  Trump faces off with General Motors over ventilators

  Yahoo Finance Video
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  Trump Threatens to Invoke Defense Production Act if GM Fails to Respond to Ventilator Demands

  National Review

China sends medical aid to Pakistan to combat virus outbreak

China sent a plane loaded with medical personnel and supplies Saturday to help Pakistan fight the spread of the coronavirus in one of the world's most populous nations. Across the Middle East and elsewhere, the outbreak has raised concerns that health systems strapped by multiple wars, refugee crises and unstable economies won't be able to handle the growing number of cases. In Iran, which is battling the worst outbreak in the region, state TV said Saturday another 139 people had died from the virus.

Stay In the Lines With These Neat Science Coloring Pages

No money required—all you need is a printer and some colored pencils. From Popular Mechanics

In reversal, Trump uses Defense Production Act to force GM to make ventilators

President Trump on Friday ended nine days of equivocating over whether to deploy the Defense Production Act, announcing that he would use his presidential powers under the legislation to compel General Motors to produce ventilators for the U.S. medical system. The White House released a statement by Trump saying he had signed a memorandum instructing the Department of Health and Human Services to “use any and all authority available under the Defense Production Act to require General Motors to accept, perform, and prioritize Federal contracts for ventilators.” In invoking the act, Trump blamed GM for the delays.

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  Trump blasts GM, Ford over ventilators; could order action

  Reuters
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  Cuomo Says Ventilator Needs Not Based on ‘Feelings’ After Trump Attack

  The Daily Beast

Coronavirus: Tesla donates hundreds of ventilators to New York

Elon Musk has promised to provide New York with hundreds of ventilators to help meet demand from the growing coronavirus outbreak. The Tesla chief executive said the first batch of donated machines would be delivered later on Friday. The ventilators were purchased from US government-approved manufacturers in China.

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  #GetUsPPE Announces Perspective Piece in the New England Journal of Medicine on Medical Equipment Shortage Crisis Due to Covid-19

  PR Newswire
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  Trump attacks GM and Ford on Twitter, demands they make ventilators

  USA TODAY

Deadliest Day in Italy, Spain Shows Worst of Virus Not Over

Both countries are in almost complete lockdown, with their governments counting on limited social interactions to help contain the spread of the disease. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez convened an emergency cabinet meeting to try to chart a way out of the crisis rapidly engulfing the nation. We may be entering a phase of stabilization, but we haven't reached the peak yet,” Health Minister Salvador Illa said at a news conference in Madrid.

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  U.S. Infections Top 100,000; L.A. Warns of Surge: Virus Update

  Bloomberg
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  Coronavirus news - live: Boris Johnson tests positive, London tries to avert 'armageddon' and US cases overtake China

  The Independent

Pope holds dramatic solitary service for relief from coronavirus

Pope Francis said the coronavirus had put everyone "in the same boat" as he held a dramatic, solitary prayer service in St. Peter's Square on Friday, urging the world to see the crisis as a test of solidarity and a reminder of basic values. "Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities," he said, speaking from the steps of St. Peter's Basilica into an eerily empty and rainy square before delivering an extraordinary "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) blessing - something he normally does only twice a year. The Vatican called the service "An Extraordinary Prayer in the Time of Pandemic," a sombre echo of an announcement by Italian officials minutes earlier that the coronavirus death toll in the country had surged past 9,000.

The UK government claims it failed to take part in an EU scheme for coronavirus ventilators because it didn't see the email asking it to take part

Getty The UK government claims it failed to take part in an EU scheme to secure ventilators to tackle the coronavirus outbreak because it did not see the relevant emails. Downing Street initially claimed it was not taking part in the scheme because 'we are no longer a member of the EU,' prompting claims on social media that Boris Johnson was putting 'Brexit over breathing. But it later backtracked and claimed that it had not taken part because it did not receive emails from the EU, insisting that the decision was not ideologically motivated.

Former Republican senator Tom Coburn dies aged 72

The former Republican senator Tom Coburn has died at 72, according to a newspaper in his native Oklahoma. Coburn, the paper said, served in the Senate from 2005 to 2015 and in the US House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001. After leaving the Senate, he pushed for a constitutional convention and advocated for a range of conservative fiscal causes.

• Tom Coburn, GOP ‘Dr. No’ to Senate Democrats, Dies at 72

  Bloomberg
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  Former Sen. Tom Coburn, known as a political maverick, dies

  NBC News

This TSA officer has coronavirus symptoms. He can't get tested

Shoup said he began feeling ill upon returning from a conference of TSA officers in Las Vegas the last week of February. Shoup is the president of TSA Local 555, part of the American Federation of Government Employees, and he was one of about 200 attendees at the gathering of union presidents and board members. TSA tally continues to climb: Dozens of TSA workers nationwide positive for coronavirus in past 2 weeks They spent their days in training sessions, shaking hands and greeting each other, followed by evenings at the casinos, which have since closed on the orders of Nevada's governor.

China threatens to strike back after Taiwan deal

China has denounced a U.S. act that increases American support for Taiwan internationally.

AP Sources: Alleged Maduro co-conspirator is in DEA custody

But he was charged Thursday with allegedly running with Maduro, socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello and another retired army general a narcoterrorist conspiracy that U.S. prosecutors say sent 250 metric tons of cocaine a year to the U.S. and turned the Venezuelan state into a platform for violent cartels and Colombia rebels. The Justice Department had offered a $10 million reward for Alcalá's arrest. Alcalá was being flown on a chartered plane to the U.S. from Barranquilla, Colombia, after waiving an extradition hearing and agreeing to collaborate with prosecutors, said the four people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss actions that had not yet been made public.

New Yahoo News/YouGov coronavirus poll: 59 percent of Americans say Trump's Easter timeline is 'too soon' to restart economy

A large majority of Americans disagree with President Trump that the nation's battle against the coronavirus is winding down and that normal economic activity should resume sooner rather than later, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll — and that divide appears to be eroding public trust in Trump's leadership during the pandemic. As the virus continues to spread exponentially — the U.S. now leads the world in cases, with more than 85,000 — the poll found that 59 percent of Americans think that Easter, which falls on April 12, is too soon to “open the country up for business,” even though the president has repeatedly said he hopes to do just that.

Coronavirus unemployment benefits. Here's who qualifies and how much they get.

The coronavirus relief package dramatically expands unemployment insurance to for the jobless during the outbreak, aimed at easing the suffering imposed by the crisis as claims last week topped 3 million and shattered records. The second is an extra $600 per week over the next four months for those who are out of work and getting jobless benefits in their state. The unemployment benefits are worth an estimated $260 billion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

New York's coronavirus death toll passes 500, but Cuomo shares some 'good news'

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Friday announced the state's coronavirus death toll has passed 500, but he did have a bit of good news to offer. Cuomo on Friday said 519 people have died from the COVID-19 coronavirus in New York, up from 385 fatalities reported the day before. "That is going to continue to go up, and that is the worst news that I could possibly tell the people of the state of New York," the governor said.

Russia confirms coronavirus case in Putin's administration, tightens curbs

The Kremlin confirmed a coronavirus case in President Vladimir Putin's administration on Friday and the government said measures imposed in Moscow to fight the virus should be extended across Russia. The Kremlin said it was taking measures to stop the virus spreading further after a staff member in the presidential administration contracted the virus. It said the person had not come into contact with Putin, but declined to identify them.

Italy again reported the highest single-day death toll since the coronavirus outbreak began: 919 deaths. Its cases have surpassed China's.

Italy's total coronavirus cases rose to 86,498 on Friday, surpassing China's total. Italy's death toll hit 9,134, an increase of 919 deaths from Thursday. Italian healthcare workers have reported shortages of hospital beds, a lack of personal protective equipment, and a growing number of infections among medical staff members.

Man Charged With Making Death Threats to Nancy Pelosi in Coronavirus Rant

Prosecutors said that Perry wrote, “If youre a dem or apart of the establishment in the democrats side I view you as a criminal and a terrorist and I advise everyone to Go SOS and use live rounds. The post, which used an abbreviation for “shoot on sight,” included a screenshot of what appeared to be two tweets by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader. One, by Schumer himself, was critical of President Donald Trump's handling of the health emergency.

How old are coronavirus patients in the US? We looked at hospitalization data from 19 states

A USA TODAY analysis of data reported by 19 states shows that Americans of all ages seem to be equally susceptible to a coronavirus infection. States are reporting cases in every age range, though people in their 50s have slightly more confirmed cases on average. While the disease can infect people of all ages, the worst effects are seen among older populations, according to figures reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.