- U.S.Yahoo News
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.
- WorldYahoo 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.”
- BusinessYahoo News Video
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.
- WorldReuters
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.
- HealthUSA TODAY
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.
- U.S.NBC News
Alabama girl, 4, missing for nearly two days, found safe
Rescuers scouring the rural plains of Alabama on Friday found a missing 4-year-old girl, nearly 48 hours after she initially vanished, authorities said. Evelyn Vadie Sides and her dog were located about 3:20 p.m. near Lee Road 65, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones announced.
- WorldThe Daily Beast
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.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
'Each day we get news of another brother or sister who has fallen': United Auto Workers announce death of fourth Fiat Chrysler employee due to the coronavirus
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images The United Auto Workers union on Thursday confirmed the fourth known death of a Fiat Chrysler union employee due to the novel coronavirus. The announcement comes as some North American plants run by members of the Detroit Big Three — which includes FCA, Ford, and General Motors, all of which are unionized with the UAW — prepare to come back online amid the pandemic. Three other known FCA union members have died due to the coronavirus, with the UAW announcing the third death on Wednesday and the first two on Tuesday.
- WorldBloomberg
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.
- U.S.Yahoo News
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.
- U.S.Yahoo News
Senator says White House turned down emergency coronavirus funding in early February
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, says that Trump administration officials declined an offer of early congressional funding assistance that he and other senators made on Feb. 5 during a meeting to discuss the coronavirus. The officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, said they “didn't need emergency funding, that they would be able to handle it within existing appropriations,” Murphy recalled in an interview with Yahoo News' “Skullduggery” podcast. “What an awful, horrible catastrophic mistake that was,” Murphy said.
- BusinessThe New York Times
'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.
- WorldReuters
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.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
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
- WorldAssociated Press
'Off the charts': Virus hot spots grow in middle America
The coronavirus continued its unrelenting spread across the United States with fatalities doubling in two days and authorities saying Saturday that an infant who tested positive had died. It pummeled big cities like New York, Detroit, New Orleans and Chicago, and made its way, too, into rural America as hotspots erupted in small Midwestern towns and Rocky Mountain ski havens. Worldwide infections surpassed the 660,000 mark with more than 30,000 deaths as new cases also stacked up quickly in Europe, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
- U.S.USA TODAY
Coronavirus lockdowns: These states are ordering residents to stay home or shelter in place
A growing number of states and counties across the nation are cracking down on residents' movements amid the spread of the coronavirus – a new normal that's led to more than 100 million Americans being ordered to stay home. It will go into effect Saturday and runs until April 10 at 5:00 p.m. The order was based on models released by the Minnesota Department of Health and University of Minnesota that predicted more than 70,000 residents could die if no action was taken.
WorldYahoo News VideoChina threatens to strike back after Taiwan deal
China has denounced a U.S. act that increases American support for Taiwan internationally.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
Instacart workers are planning to strike until the company gives them hazard pay and safety gear
Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Instacart workers are planning to strike on Monday until the company gives them hazard pay and safety gear. The workers are asking the company for an additional $5 per order and an automatic tip of 10% of the order total, as well as safety gear like hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and soap. Instacart said any Shopper impacted by a mandatory quarantine will receive up to 14 days of pay.
- PoliticsYahoo News
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.
- WorldBBC
Coronavirus: India defiant as millions struggle under lockdown
The Indian government has defended its handling of the coronavirus outbreak after a strict lockdown - introduced with little warning - left millions stranded and without food. The country's response had been "pre-emptive, pro-active and graded", it said in a statement. India's population of 1.3 billion was given less than four hours' notice of the three-week lockdown on Tuesday.
WorldAFPVenezuelan ex-general surrenders to US on drug trafficking charges
A retired Venezuelan general who was charged by the United States with "narco-terrorism" along with President Nicolas Maduro and other officials has surrendered in Colombia to US authorities, prosecutors said Saturday. "The national Attorney General learned that Mr Cliver Alcala surrendered to US authorities," the Colombian prosecutor said in a statement, adding there was no arrest warrant when he gave himself up. Alcala turned himself in on Friday to the Colombians, who in turn handed him over to US authorities, the El Tiempo de Bogota newspaper said.
- WorldReuters
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.
- U.S.The New York Times
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.
- WorldAssociated Press
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.
- U.S.USA TODAY
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.
