Coronavirus In Maryland: January 30, 2021, Afternoon Update

Coronavirus In Maryland: January 30, 2021, Afternoon Update

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  • Gaza is open again, to the south. But for how long?

    A fleet of yellow Mercedes taxis lines up outside Gaza's newly reopened Rafah crossing into Egypt, polished again and ready to roll, but with no idea for how long. Uncertainty is a fact of life in the Palestinian border town, where 4,500 people have crossed into Egypt in the two weeks since one of Gaza's few lifelines to the outside world swung open on Feb. 9. The opening eased the years-long blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt on the coastal strip, compounded by measures imposed by all sides to halt the spread of COVID-19.

  • McConnell says he'd support Trump if he wins 2024 nomination

    Less than a month after excoriating Donald Trump in a blistering floor speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he would “absolutely” support the former president again if he secured the Republican nomination in 2024. “I've got at least four members that I think are planning on running for president, plus governors and others,” McConnell said. McConnell's remarks underscore an awkward balancing act he sought to maintain since Trump lost the election, reflecting the reality that McConnell’s own path back to power in the Senate hinges on enthusiasm from a party base that still ardently supports Trump.

  • Thousands rally in Armenia after PM warns of coup attempt

    Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned of an attempted military coup against him on Thursday, and thousands took to the streets of the capital to support him after the army demanded he and his government resign. Russia, an ally of Armenia which has a military base in Armenia, said it was alarmed by events in the former Soviet republic and called for the situation to be resolved peacefully and within the constitution. Pashinyan, 45, has faced calls to quit since November after what critics said was his disastrous handling of a six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and surrounding areas.

  • No Need to Call an Architect—These 9 Room Dividers Elegantly Get the Job Done

    From ornate to subtle, these beautiful screens double as functional artOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Indonesia presses regional effort to resolve Myanmar crisis

    Regional diplomatic efforts to resolve Myanmar's political crisis intensified Wednesday, while protests continued in Yangon and other cities calling for the country's coup makers to step down and return Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government to power. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi visited the Thai capital, Bangkok, and held three-way talks with her Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai and Myanmar’s new foreign minister, retired army colonel Wunna Maung Lwin, who also traveled to Thailand.

  • A Frasier revival is headed to Paramount+

    Frasier Crane is headed back on the air. A revival of the hit sitcom Frasier has been officially announced at Paramount+, with star Kelsey Grammer set to return. The news was unveiled during a ViacomCBS presentation on Wednesday focused on Paramount+, the rebranded version of CBS All Access that's launching in March. "Having spent over 20 years of my creative life on the Paramount lot, both producing shows and performing in several, I'd like to congratulate Paramount+ on its entry into the streaming world," Grammer said. "I gleefully anticipate sharing the next chapter in the continuing journey of Dr. Frasier Crane." Frasier, a spin-off of Cheers, originally ran for 11 seasons from 1993 through 2004, and a potential return has been discussed for years. Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli will write and produce the revival, which Paramount+ promised "will have everything you love about the original: coziness, great writing, and of course, a cast led by" Grammer. Stars David Hyde Pierce, Jane Leeves, and Peri Gilpin aren't currently attached to the revival, according to Variety. This was just one of a number of Paramount+ reboots and revivals discussed on Wednesday, with others including Rugrats and Criminal Minds, as ViacomCBS reaches into its catalog in hopes of gaining an upper hand in the continuing streaming wars. More stories from theweek.comDemocrats should take the Romney-Cotton proposal seriouslyThe MyPillow guy might be Trump's ultimate chumpThe GOP's apathy for governing is being exposed

  • Don't trade us for vaccines: Filipino nurses

    A possible plan by the Filipino government of the Philippines to send nurses abroad in exchange for vaccines... isn't going down well with some of those nurses.A senior official said on Tuesday (February 23) that the country will let thousands of its healthcare workers, mostly nurses, take up jobs in Britain and Germany if the two countries agree to donate coronavirus vaccines.Melbert Reyes is president of the Philippines Nurses Association:“When we first read and heard about it we were saddened and we were hurt. It is as if we are like an object that can be traded for the vaccines, it's as if we are commodities."The Philippines has among Asia's highest number of coronavirus cases.It also currently limits the number of medical professionals leaving the country to 5,000 a year, but is now willing to lift that cap.Filipino nurses have fought to lift the deployment ban to escape poor working conditions and low pay at home."We hope our government officials will see our worth as part of the healthcare team and institution that takes care of each and every Filipino in our country."Britain's health ministry said it was not interested in such a deal and its priority was to use shots domestically. But added that it would share surplus vaccines internationally in the future.Germany has not responded.

  • The U.S. Ad Council's new national COVID-19 vaccine ad campaign goes for the soft sell

    Many people are counting the hours until they can get their COVID-19 vaccination, and a much smaller number will never get the shot, but about 40 percent of Americans say they are on the fence — and that's the group the Ad Council is targeting with its new ad campaign, launching Thursday. The ads will run for months on TV, radio, streaming services, social media, and other platforms. They will evolve with the availability of the vaccine and any new developments. The ad campaign's tagline is "It's Up to You" — specifically, it's up to you to learn about the vaccines, says Ad Council president and CEO Lisa Sherman. But the ads also suggest it's up to everyone to end this pandemic so we can hug our loved ones again without potentially infecting them with a deadly virus. The Ad Council directs viewers to a new website, GetVaccineAnswers.org, with information about the vaccines and where they can get inoculated. The Ad Council is the nonprofit group behind such public service ads as the Smokey Bear campaign and "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk" ads. This ad campaign, using more than $50 million in donated funds and $500 million worth of donated media and talent, is one of the organization's biggest and most ambitious efforts. "We're dealing with the biggest issues of our lifetime," Sherman said. "We recognized pretty quickly that unless people could learn more about the vaccine and get educated, they may not take them. And then we wouldn't be any better off next year than we are this year." The Ad Council shaped its campaign on months of in-depth focus groups and surveys. "Some possible messaging approaches, such as encouraging Americans to be vaccinated because it's 'the right thing to do,' were rejected as pushy or accusatory in surveyed groups," The Washington Post reports. The soft sell worked better. People need good information "to help them make good decisions for themselves," Liz Hamel, who oversees coronavirus surveys at the Kaiser Family Foundation, tells the Post. "We know that most people who are still deciding whether to get the vaccine want it to be their personal choice." The Ad Council's ads will fill the gap between an aborted $300 million ad blitz envisioned by the Trump administration and the Biden administration's coming pro-vaccine campaign. These ads pull the heartstrings, but other Ad Council COVID-19 campaigns are a little more fun. More stories from theweek.comDemocrats should take the Romney-Cotton proposal seriouslyThe MyPillow guy might be Trump's ultimate chumpThe GOP's apathy for governing is being exposed

  • Sanctions prompt Venezuela to expel head of EU delegation

    Venezuela’s government on Wednesday ordered the expulsion of the chief European Union diplomat in the South American nation following the bloc’s decision to impose sanctions on several Venezuelan officials accused of undermining democracy or violating human rights. Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa was given 72 hours to leave the troubled country. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Brilhante Pedrosa was declared persona non grata by decision of President Nicolás Maduro.

  • UN: India searching for Rohingya adrift without food, water

    The U.N. refugee agency said the Indian coast guard had answered its plea to look for a boat carrying Rohingya refugees believed to be adrift in the Andaman Sea without food and water for several days. The boat was believed to have left Bangladesh two weeks ago and then broken down at sea, with the U.N. and rights groups reporting many of the about 90 refugees on board now suffering acute dehydration. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Wednesday it does not know the boat’s exact current location.

  • Elephant-riders join Myanmar coup protests

    Video obtained by Reuters shows protesters, some with signs, riding on seven elephants ahead of other demonstrators who were marching and on motorcycles.It comes as Myanmar's military-appointed foreign minister flew into Thailand on Wednesday, a Thai government source said, as Myanmar's neighbors intensified efforts to resolve a crisis that began when its army seized power in the Feb. 1 coup.This week has seen huge rallies and a general strike to denounce the coup and demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, despite a warning from authorities that confrontation could get people killed.

  • While President Biden visits storm-torn Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz will be giving a speech on 'cancel culture' in Florida

    The president will tour the state with Gov. Greg Abbott.

  • Billie Eilish's documentary gives an intimate look at her secret relationship with rapper 7: AMP - and why she decided to end it

    They began dating in late 2018, when Eilish was 16. The film chronicles her frustration with his "lack of effort" and "self-destructive" behavior.

  • How a woman lives in a 500-square-foot apartment with 2 roommates, a dog, 100 houseplants - and zero clutter

    Maximalist Bruna Mello lives in a sunny, vibrant tiny apartment in South London, and she doesn't let the small space keep her from collecting things.

  • Journalist Tim O'Brien, who's seen Trump's taxes, thinks Trump's accountant will now flip in D.A. inquiry

    Bloomberg's Tim O'Brien, one of the few journalists who has seen former President Donald Trump's tax returns, told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Thursday night he will sleep better now that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance finally has eight years of Trump's financial documents, from 2011 to 2019. Trump "is very afraid of what's in these documents, I think," because they put him in serious criminal jeopardy, O'Brien said, but he isn't the only one implicated. O'Brien went on to explain why he thinks it's likely Trump's chief accountant, Allen Weisselberg, is likely to flip on Trump. "The thing to really focus in on here is that it's not just the tax records that Cy Vance has now," O'Brien said. "He probably has reams and reams of the accountant's work product. This is a criminal case, they're going to need to prove criminal intent on the part of Trump, his three eldest children, Allen Weisselberg, and anyone else in the Trump Organization who's fallen under the parameters of this investigation. And if there are email and notes and other records of communication about what they intended to do when they inflated the value of buildings so they could get loans against them and then turned around and deflated the value of the buildings so they could pay lower taxes on them, and there's a communication around that that predates any of these tax entries, that is gold for a prosecutor." A few hours earlier, O'Brien told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace that the particular eight years of documents Vance's team has "is important, because it predates Trump's ascent into the White House, and I think helps build the narrative around the money trail and Trump's motivations for his destructive and obscene dance with people like Vladimir Putin. It's a shame they couldn't go back further — think this is one of the tragic misses of Robert Mueller's investigation, he could have gone back further, I think, than Cy Vance is able to into Trump's finances." O'Brien also underscored that the investigation implicates at least Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, and "it also targets people inside the Trump Organization who might flip on Trump if they're exposed to criminal liability," but "the brass ring in all of this is that if Trump has a criminal conviction, he cannot run for president again, and that's looming over this entire thing as well." More stories from theweek.comDemocrats should take the Romney-Cotton proposal seriouslyThe MyPillow guy might be Trump's ultimate chumpThe GOP's apathy for governing is being exposed

  • Coinbase says the entire crypto market could be destabilized if Bitcoin's anonymous creator is ever revealed or sells their $30 billion stake

    Satoshi Nakamoto owns about 5% of the bitcoin market. If their 1.1 million cache was transferred, bitcoin prices could plummet, Coinbase said.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene escalates LGBTQ rights debate with attack on colleague's transgender daughter

    A debate on the House floor over a bill that would extend civil rights protections to the LGBTQ community spilled over into the halls of Congress on Wednesday.

  • Acting Capitol Police chief: Phone logs show Jan. 6 National Guard approval was delayed

    Acting U.S. Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman testified on Thursday that cellphone records show former USCP chief Steven Sund requested National Guard support from the House sergeant-at-arms as early as 12:58pm on Jan. 6, but he did not receive approval until over an hour later.Why it matters: Sund and former House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving clashed at a Senate hearing on Tuesday over a dispute in the timeline for when Capitol Police requested the National Guard during the Capitol insurrection.Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeIrving insisted that he has no recollection of receiving the request until after 2pm. Lawmakers are looking for accountability over that hour of lost time, when pro-Trump rioters were able to breach and ransack the Capitol."I did not get a request at 1:09 that I can remember," Irving, who resigned after the insurrection, testified. "The first conversation I had with chief Sund in that timeframe was 1:28, 1:30. In that conversation, he indicated that conditions were deteriorating and he might be looking for National Guard approval."Details: Pittman testified to a House subcommittee that Sund's phone records show the former chief first reached out for National Guard support to Irving at 12:58pm.Sund then spoke to former Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger to make the same request at 1:05pm, per Pittman.Pittman says Sund repeated his request to Irving at 1:28pm, then spoke to him again at 1:34pm, 1:39pm and 1:45pm.Go deeper: Pittman testifies officers were unsure of lethal force rules on Jan. 6Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

  • New York prosecutors finally have Trump's tax records — and the public will likely never see them

    In the race to get former President Donald Trump's tax records, New York prosecutors have won. While it was more of a marathon than a sprint, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office confirmed Thursday that it had received Trump's tax records a year and a half after first requesting them. Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance and his team will now be able to dig through what sources tell CNN are "millions of pages" of documents spanning January 2011 to August 2019. Vance got the documents, which include financial statements and engagement agreements, from Trump's accounting firm Mazars USA. The transfer happened within an hour of the Supreme Court ordering that Mazars hand over the documents on Monday, Vance's spokesperson told reporters. Forensic accountants and analysts are now prepared to root through the records to find potential fraud or wrongdoing by the former president. But because the records were handed over as part of a grand jury investigation, they're unlikely to ever be made public. Democrats in the House had meanwhile been trying to access Trump's tax returns from the time they gained a majority two years ago. Courts had ruled both for and against the Democrats' subpoenas, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ultimately decided in December not to rule in the case, essentially letting Trump run out the clock. It's unclear if Congress will try to pursue Trump's records again now that he's out of the White House. More stories from theweek.comDemocrats should take the Romney-Cotton proposal seriouslyThe MyPillow guy might be Trump's ultimate chumpThe GOP's apathy for governing is being exposed

  • Biden orders airstrikes against infrastructure used by 'Iranian-backed militant groups' in Syria

    The Department of Defense said the strikes were carried out at the president's direction following attacks on the US military in Iraq.