In shadow of coronavirus, Congress contemplates 'one of the biggest rule changes in the last century'

As the House of Representatives prepares to pass a historic $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces a bigger challenge: figuring out a way for 435 members to cast votes in the time of social distancing. The pandemic has left multiple members of Congress in quarantine and led to restrictions on movement that could prevent the House from voting. While House leadership has indicated they hope to pass the initial coronavirus aid bill quickly using a voice vote, the likely need for further relief and other legislation has led Pelosi to consider new procedures, including measures for remote voting that a report from the House Rules Committee described as “one of the biggest rule changes in the last century.”

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.

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.”

Germany has a remarkably low coronavirus death rate — thanks largely to mass testing, but also culture, luck, and an impressive healthcare system

Germany's death rate from the coronavirus is substantially lower than that seen in Italy, Spain, and the UK. Spain's rate is 7.6% and Italy's is 10.2%. This is because Germany is testing as many as 120,000 people a week, identifying many milder cases that don't end in death.

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.

Are you a healthcare worker? Crocs will give you a free pair of shoes

The Colorado-based maker of Crocs announced Wednesday that it was prepared to donate — and ship free — up to 10,000 pairs a day of its colorful, molded-resin clogs to members of the medical community workers across the country. The "Free Pair for Healthcare" program will work like this: Every day, at approximately 9 a.m. Pacific, the Crocs' website will begin taking orders for one pair of shoes per healthcare worker from select classic clog or Crocs At Work styles up to a daily limit of 10,000 pairs. “Like everyone, we've been closely monitoring the news and working hard to map out a way to most effectively help where we can," Crocs President and Chief Executive Andrew Rees said Wednesday in announcing the initiative.

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  Krispy Kreme to Give Away Thousands of Free Doughnuts to Healthcare Workers

  Meredith Videos
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  Crocs Is Donating Free Shoes to Medical Workers In the U.S.

  Teen Vogue

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.

S.African police fire rubber bullets at shoppers during lockdown

South African police fired rubber bullets towards hundreds of shoppers queueing outside a supermarket in Johannesburg as authorities battled to keep people at home in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus. With 1,187 confirmed infections and one death, the country has the highest numbers of confirmed infections on the continent. President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered a 21-day lockdown for the country's 57 million inhabitants, deploying police and the military to enforce the restrictions.

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  American couple has adoption halted during India's coronavirus lockdown

  Yahoo News Video
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  Africa lockdowns begin as coronavirus cases rise above 1,000

  NBC News

Stacks of Urns in Wuhan Prompt New Questions of Virus’s Toll

The long lines and stacks of ash urns greeting family members of the dead at funeral homes in Wuhan are spurring questions about the true scale of coronavirus casualties at the epicenter of the outbreak, renewing pressure on a Chinese government struggling to control its containment narrative. The families of those who succumbed to the virus in the central Chinese city, where the disease first emerged in December, were allowed to pick up their cremated ashes at eight local funeral homes starting this week. As they did, photos circulated on Chinese social media of thousands of urns being ferried in.

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.

China threatens to strike back after Taiwan deal

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

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  U.S. increases support for Taiwan, China threatens to strike back

  Reuters
• U.S. increases support for Taiwan in recognition battle with China

  Reuters

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

Trump demands appreciation from governors for coronavirus response

President Trump used his daily coronavirus briefing to attack Democratic governors who in his estimation had shown insufficient gratitude for his administration's response to the pandemic. “I want them to be appreciative,” Trump said, arguing that failing to show appreciation was insulting not just to him but to the Army Corps of Engineers, which has been part of the federal response to the pandemic. The president said he has told Vice President Mike Pence not to call governors who haven't shown proper deference to his administration.

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  Trump criticizes governors who have not been 'appreciative' of the administration's efforts to fight the coronavirus

  Yahoo News Video
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  Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer Fires Back After Trump Slams 'Young Woman Governor'

  HuffPost

A Connecticut doctor has been charged after authorities said he deliberately coughed on his coworkers

A Connecticut doctor was arrested on suspicion of coughing and hugging two co-workers in spite of social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Cory Edgar, 48, was charged with a breach of peace misdemeanor, according to local news outlets. A doctor at the University of Connecticut Health Center was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for coughing and hugging coworkers, local news outlets reported.

101-year-old Italian man, born amid Spanish flu pandemic, survives coronavirus illness, official says

An official from the city of Rimini on the northeast coast of Italy says the man, identified publicly as only Mr. P., was released from the hospital earlier this week. Italy, particularly the northern part of the country, has faced a severe public health crisis amid the COVID-19 outbreak as hospitals have been pushed to their limits with the mass influx of patients sickened by the highly contagious virus. 'Every part of me hopes it doesn't come to that': What if Italy's coronavirus lockdowns don't work?

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  IATSE Sets New Measures to Help Members During Coronavirus Pandemic

  Variety
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  OUTFRONT Media Updates Guidance Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

  Zacks

Africa lockdowns begin as coronavirus cases rise above 1,000

Lockdowns have begun in Africa as coronavirus cases rise above 1,000, while Nigeria announced it is closing airports to all incoming international flights for one month in the continent's most populous country. Rwanda said all unnecessary movements outside the home are banned for two weeks except for essential services such as health care and shopping. The East African nation, which has 17 cases, told all public and private employees to work from home.

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  Domino's hiring extra staff as people order lockdown pizzas

  Yahoo Finance UK
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  Photos: In locked down India, poor migrants are on a long march back home

  Quartz

A 90-year-old woman in Washington state recovered from the coronavirus, and she credits family, God, and potato soup

The Family of Geneva Wood Geneva Wood had a stroke in December that left her recovering in a Washington state nursing home. Last month, Life Care Center at Kirkland went on lockdown after several of its residents were diagnosed with the new coronavirus. Wood, who was one of them, was hospitalized and declined ventilation.

China's Wuhan, where the coronavirus emerged, begins to lift its lockdown

The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged, began lifting a two-month lockdown on Saturday by restarting some metro services and reopening borders, allowing some semblance of normality to return and families to reunite. After being cut-off from the rest of the country for two months, the reopening of Wuhan, where the epidemic first erupted in late December, marks a turning point in China's fight against the virus, though the contagion has since spread to over 200 countries. Authorities took draconian measures to stop people from entering or leaving the industrial city of 11 million people in central China.

Dour Moscow mayor сomes to fore as 'PM for coronavirus'

At a televised meeting with Vladimir Putin, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin flatly told the President that official figures on COVID-19 cases were far from the reality. That's because people are staying home sick and because there has not been enough testing, he said Tuesday, so "no one knows the real picture". After that reality check, the official narrative changed swiftly: Putin, who had called the situation "under control", on Wednesday gave a grim-faced address to the nation.

Has Joe Biden wrapped up the Democratic presidential contest? Will the November election be canceled?

Just about one month and a million years ago, the Democratic presidential contest was going full tilt. Voters in 14 states and American Samoa went to the polls — many standing less than a socially distant six feet apart — to cast Super Tuesday ballots and revive the fading presidential hopes of Joe Biden. The novel coronavirus has Biden and Bernie Sanders off the campaign trail.

Coronavirus lockdown in India: ‘Beaten and abused for doing my job’

India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, suddenly announced on 23 March that the entire country would be put under lockdown. This left many delivery services and vendors of essential services unprepared, leading to confusion and clashes between police and their staff in many areas. Suresh Shah and his brother, Ramprasad, have been selling vegetables in the Delhi suburb of Noida for more than 15 years.

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  Africa lockdowns begin as coronavirus cases rise above 1,000

  NBC News
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  'Go home!' South Africa has 1st death as lockdown begins

  Associated Press

Trump tweets blame in all directions over ventilators for coronavirus, except at himself

Hours after a Fox News interview in which he downplayed a national shortage of hospital ventilators to treat patients infected with the coronavirus, President Trump fired off a number of tweets Friday blaming General Motors and its CEO, Mary Barra, for not manufacturing more of them. The president explained in a later tweet that “P” stood for the Defense Production Act, which many U.S. governors have been demanding Trump use to compel businesses to produce badly needed medical supplies and equipment. Although he invoked the act as a standby, Trump hasn't issued any specific orders under it, claiming that just the threat of it has prompted companies to step up production on their own.

Without any interventions like social distancing, one model predicts the coronavirus could have killed 40 million people this year

Without intense government intervention, the novel coronavirus could infect 7 billion people and kill 40 million this year, according to a new report from researchers at the Imperial College of London. Without implementing strategies like lockdowns to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, there would have been 7 billion infections and 40 million deaths in 2020 alone, according to a report published Thursday from researchers at the Imperial College of London. The report, according to co-author Charles Whittaker, is meant to project the impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Coronavirus: 3 migrant children in US custody in New York test positive

Three unaccompanied minor children in U.S. custody in New York have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said Thursday. The children, whose ages and nationalities weren't released, are in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agency said it is doing an evaluation of the children and will not release them from New York care provider facilities.

• Judge mulls request to release migrant children over virus

  Associated Press
• 3 migrant children in US custody test positive for virus

  Associated Press

Coronavirus response coordinator questions report that had predicted 2.2 million deaths in the U.S. from the pandemic

At a press briefing, Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, questioned a report that had predicted 2.2 million people in the United States would die due to the coronavirus.

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  Australian federal, state leaders meet to discuss coronavirus pandemic

  Reuters
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  This Is What Job Hunting During The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Like

  HuffPost Life