- U.S.Yahoo News
Former head of pandemic response team speaks out: 'I'm frankly scared'
The official who oversaw epidemic preparedness for the National Security Council under President Obama said the absence of public guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic leaves her “frankly scared” — and that eliminating her position weakened the American response to the coronavirus when it emerged 18 months later. Beth Cameron, who served as senior director for global health security and biodefense on the NSC until early 2017, was interviewed on the Yahoo News “Skullduggery” podcast. “I'm frankly scared that our CDC is not out in front talking about this,” Cameron said.
- U.S.Associated Press
Inmates kill 6 others at women's prison in Honduras
A group of inmates at a women's prison in Honduras used a fire to distract prison officials and murdered six other prisoners, authorities said Sunday. The National Penitentiary Institute said in a statement that the incident began around 11 p.m. Saturday when an inmate set fire to an area at the prison north of Tegucigalpa where two newly encarcerated women were undergoing a 14-day quarantine for the new coronavirus. Amid the confusion, a group of inmates broke out of two other cells and headed to the prison gymnasium, where they killed six other women who had recently entered the prison.
- PoliticsThe Week
Warren reportedly turning back to wealthy donors in effort to boost Biden
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is reportedly reaching back into her old toolbox in an attempt to help former Vice President Joe Biden. Warren has agreed to host a gathering of big money donors for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, The New York Times reports. During Warren's own presidential campaign, which ended shortly after Super Tuesday in March, the senator progressive Democratic senator vowed not to attend private events or call wealthy potential donors for contributions.
- BusinessReuters
Project leader: Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine trial has 50% chance of success - Telegraph
The University of Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine trial has only a 50% chance of success as the coronavirus seems to be fading rapidly in Britain, the professor co-leading the development of the vaccine told the Telegraph newspaper https://bit.ly/2LQTNos. Adrian Hill, director of Oxford's Jenner Institute, which has teamed up with drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc to develop the vaccine, said that an upcoming trial, involving 10,000 volunteers, threatened to return "no result" due to low transmission of COVID-19 in the community. "It's a race against the virus disappearing, and against time", Hill told the British newspaper.
- U.S.USA TODAY
In CA: Some communities are beginning to reopen, just in time for Memorial Day
Desert Sun reporter Nicole Hayden and photojournalist Vickie Connor went inside the coronavirus unit at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage. They report that a day in the life of the COVID-19 unit “not only presents daily challenges in addressing rapidly changing patient care, but also in coping with the heaviness of the frontlines versus how the rest of the world is experiencing the pandemic. Freedom' to gamble again Here in Riverside County, which has been approved for accelerated reopening, six casinos in or near the Coachella Valley opened their doors today to guests who were eager to gamble on slot machines and play card games, despite a request from Gov. Gavin Newsom to stay closed.
- U.S.Business Insider
Alabama hospitals are out of ICU beds, Montgomery's mayor says. That 'dire' situation could crop up across rural America as states reopen.
Montgomery, Alabama is "down to just a handful of ICU beds," according to Mayor Steven Reed, and the city has begun transferring critical patients to Birmingham. As states reopen and the coronavirus spreads through rural America, small-town and rural-adjacent hospitals could face overwhelming waves of COVID-19 patients. Experts told Business Insider they feared what fast upticks in coronavirus cases could mean for rural facilities that don't have the staff or resources to handle the influx.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
This Giant Monument to Elon Musk Has Tulsa Residents Furious
In a dystopian bid to lure Tesla's Cybertruck Gigafactory to Tulsa, the Oklahoma state monument—a seven-story, 22-ton statue of an oil worker called The Golden Driller—has been redesigned as an effigy of Elon Musk. The likeness of X Æ A-12's multibillionaire father, now called The Driller 'Golden Elon,' is one of the largest free-standing statues in the U.S. “Tulsa is a city that doesn't stifle entrepreneurs - we revere them!” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum wrote on Facebook, prompting an onslaught of enraged replies.
- BusinessTODAY
If you refuse to take a crowded flight, can you get a refund?
NBC senior business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle answered this question Wednesday on TODAY, explaining that "across the board, most airlines are enhancing cancellation policies to help people who've got trips planned." Below are details on specific airline change and cancellation policies for passengers who check in, get to the gate and choose not to take their flight because the plane is too crowded. Alaska Airlines will rebook passengers "uncomfortable with flying for any reason" or offer them credit for future travel on another flight, according to a statement to TODAY.
WorldYahoo News VideoFormer head of pandemic response team at the NSC speaks out: 'I'm frankly scared'
The official who oversaw epidemic preparedness for the National Security Council under President Obama said the absence of public guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic leaves her “frankly scared. She also believes and that eliminating her position weakened the American response to the coronavirus when it emerged 18 months later.
- PoliticsNBC News
White House, State Dept. fail to turn over documents related to firing of watchdog
The White House and the State Department failed Friday to hand over documents related to probe by both chambers of Congress into President Donald Trump's abrupt firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations launched an investigation last week into Linick's removal earlier this month and demanded that administration officials turn over all documents related to that firing by Friday, May 22.
- U.S.Associated Press
Former US Rep. Allen West recovering after Texas crash
Former U.S. Rep. Allen West of Florida was recovering Sunday after suffering a concussion, several fractured bones and cuts in a motorcycle crash in Texas, according to a post on his Facebook page. The post said West was driving back from a rally in Austin focused on reopening the state amid the coronavirus pandemic when the accident occurred Saturday. A post on his page later on Sunday said West, who was in stable condition, was expected to be released Monday and then plans to take a week off to recuperate.
WorldAFPShiite Iran marks end of Ramadan on two different days in rare event
Shiite Iranians in a rare event mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan this year on separate days -- Sunday or Monday -- depending on different religious authorities' edicts. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced Saturday evening on his official website that the Eid al-Fitr festival would fall on Sunday this year. But the country's other senior Shiite clerics, or "marjas" -- whose guidance believers follow and who are seen as a "source of emulation", such as Javadi Amoli, Makarem Shirazi and Safi Golpayegani, among others -- have issued separate statements saying the holiday would be celebrated on Monday.
- WorldBBC
Western Australia hit by 'once-in-a-decade' storm
The severe weather is the result of the remnants of tropical cyclone Mangga interacting with a cold front, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. A senior official in the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) said it would be a "once-in-a-decade" storm. "Normally our storms come from the south-west and this will come from the north-west," DFES acting assistant commissioner Jon Broomhall told journalists.
- WorldReuters
South African president says lockdown to ease from June 1
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday a further easing of South Africa's coronavirus lockdown from June 1, allowing the vast majority of the economy to return to full capacity. Africa's most industrialised economy has been largely shut down since late March, when the government enforced severe restrictions to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus which has so far infected 22,583 people and killed 429. Ramaphosa, who has been under pressure from rival political parties and a variety of industries to ease the restrictions, said following broad consultations the cabinet had decided to move the country to "level three" of its five-level lockdown system.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Oxford scientists working on a coronavirus vaccine say there is now only a 50% chance of success because the number of UK cases is falling too quickly
YouTube/University of Oxford Oxford scientists working on a coronavirus vaccine say the chances of success are now 50%. They say that's because the number of people with the virus in the UK is falling too quickly. "At the moment, there's a 50% chance that we get no result at all," scientist Adam Hill said this weekend.
- WorldCBS News
Navajo Nation enters 57-hour lockdown as virus death toll rises
As states across the country are reopening, the Navajo Nation is entering a strict 57-hour lockdown in another attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus. The tribe's death toll reached 149 on Friday as the virus continues to disproportionately affect people of color in the U.S. The Navajo Department of Health in coordination with the Navajo Epidemiology Center and the Navajo Area Indian Health Service reported 95 new COVID-19 cases of COVID-19 for the tribe on Friday. The total number of positive cases has surpassed 4,500, pushing the tribe's healthcare system past its capacity.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Police say Dominic Cummings controversy will make lockdown impossible to enforce
The police will no longer be able to enforce lockdown because Dominic Cummings' actions have completely undermined their authority with the public, it was claimed last night. Senior policing figures and frontline officers said they feared people would no longer be willing to adhere to the Government's guidance, making their job virtually impossible. Many senior officers had already admitted they were struggling to explain the rules to an increasingly confused public.
- U.S.Associated Press
Restrictions eased while virus deaths decline in New York
New Yorkers experiencing cabin fever after two months of coronavirus quarantine received an unexpected reprieve when Gov. Andrew Cuomo eased the state's ban on gatherings in time for the Memorial Day weekend. New York state on Saturday reported its lowest number of daily coronavirus deaths — 84 — in weeks in what Cuomo described as a critical benchmark. “In my head, I was always looking to get under 100,” Cuomo said.
- PoliticsThe Week
Trump reportedly may form a commission to examine allegations of online bias
President Trump is toying with the idea of establishing a White House commission that would look into allegations of online bias and censorship by social media companies, The Wall Street Journal reports. Trump has long accused tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Twitter of harboring anti-conservative biases, and, though it's unclear if anything will come to fruition, it appear he's now trying to take action. "Left-wing bias in the tech world is a concern that definitely needs to be addressed from our vantage point, and at least exposed [so] that Americans have clear eyes about what we're dealing with," a White House official told the Journal.
- WorldNBC News
Taliban leverages pandemic to burnish image as violence in Afghanistan surges
A perfect storm has gathered over one of the world's most benighted nations, Afghanistan, where ordinary citizens are facing a fresh form of misery. Taliban militants have announced they will keep fighting since they say there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in areas under the group's control, a senior militant in the province of Ghazni has told NBC News. An exception to the ongoing tensions will be a three-day Eid ceasefire starting Sunday, the Taliban announced in a tweet Saturday.
- WorldThe Independent
Expletive-filled video of Bolsonaro swearing at cabinet meeting released by Brazil's Supreme Court
The populist president, who has faced sustained criticism over his approach to the coronavirus emergency as Brazil's death toll surges to over 20,000, is at the centre of a criminal investigation into claims he sought to replace top federal police officials. Sergio Moro, the ex Justice Minister, alleges Mr Bolsonaro sacked the federal police chief as he wanted someone in the position who would feed him police intelligence. Mr Moro, who headed up a major corruption clampdown, handed in his notice last month after Mr Bolsonaro sacked the federal police director-general without conferring with him.
WorldAFPChina 'open' to international effort to identify virus source: FM
China is "open" to international cooperation to identify the source of the novel coronavirus, but any investigation must be led by the World Health Organization and "free of political interference", China's foreign minister said Sunday. Wang Yi blasted what he called efforts by US politicians to "fabricate rumours" about the origins of the virus and "stigmatise China". The United States and Australia have called in recent weeks for an investigation into the source of the pandemic.
- WorldReuters
France wants its citizens to holiday at home this summer
The French government does not want its citizens to travel abroad this summer and recommends they take their holidays in France, Environment Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Sunday. Earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron said it was unlikely that French people would be able to undertake major foreign trips this summer and that even trips within Europe may have to be limited to reduce the risk of a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic. Borne, in an interview with France Inter radio, also said that next week the government would decide on possibly loosening rules on French domestic travel, currently limited to a maximum 100 kilometers from home.
- WorldBBC
Iran oil tanker reaches Venezuela amid US tension
The first of five Iranian oil tankers has entered Venezuela's waters carrying more than a million barrels of fuel. The Iranian tankers are being escorted by the Venezuelan navy and air force. The US, which has has imposed sanctions on both countries, says it is monitoring the convoy.
- HealthUSA TODAY
Plasma from recovered coronavirus patients boosts others' survival rate, study says
A new study of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 suggests that a century-old technique involving blood plasma transfusions from recovered patients could improve survival rates if done early enough. The study conducted at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital was posted on the medRxiv public preprint server Friday. It compared the results of 39 COVID-19 patients who received transfusions to 39 who did not.
