Month: April 2020

Pamela Austin, a recruiter at Adventist Health Bakersfield in California, made seven job offers to foreign nurses in February and just finished a first round of interviews with 12 more candidates. They are from all over the world, including the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Australia and Malaysia.The international candidates fill the private hospital’s critical need for experienced nurses who can work in emergency rooms and intensive care units, Austin said — jobs that can’t be met only with U.S. nurses, many of whom are recent graduates.That need could go unfilled, however, if U.S. President Donald Trump extends a 60-day hold on green cards he ordered in the name of protecting American jobs amid the coronavirus outbreak.”It would be a huge setback,” Austin said. “Those are holes I don’t have people to fill.”Trump says the measure is necessary at a time when unemployment has climbed to levels last seen during the Great Depression.A car drives on a highway parallel to a border fence between the United States and Mexico in El Paso, Texas, April 22, 2020.Critics have dismissed the move as the president’s veiled attempt to achieve cuts to legal immigration that he previously suggested but couldn’t persuade Congress or the courts to accept — and to distract voters from his handling of the pandemic.But immigrant advocates and political opponents are not the only ones who oppose the measure: Hardliners from Trump’s base say it doesn’t go far enough to limit immigration.The order “is designed to satisfy powerful business interests that value a steady flow of cheap foreign labor,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, wrote in a letter to the president Thursday.The Center for Immigration Studies, another hardline group, said the 60-day pause “will provide little relief to Americans” and criticized an exemption for foreigners who agree to invest at least $900,000 in the U.S.The proclamation, signed Wednesday, excludes temporary nonimmigrant visas for hundreds of thousands of workers a year, including farm workers, software engineers and others in fields deemed to have labor shortages. It doesn’t apply to green-card applicants already in the United States.Many families will be barred from immigrating as long as the freeze lasts — more than 200,000 people at last year’s levels. Spouses of U.S. citizens and their children under 21 are exempt, but parents, adult children, grandchildren, adult siblings and other relatives aren’t.Carl Shusterman, a Los Angeles immigration attorney who advises hospitals, said he had hoped Trump’s proclamation would provide a blanket exemption for nurses, who often arrive on green cards. Instead, it only exempts health care workers whose work is deemed essential to recovering from the COVID-19 outbreak.”Embassies and consulates make the decisions,” he said. “They don’t have any special expertise in COVID-19, like none of us do.”Houston immigration attorney Raed Gonzalez said he doesn’t expect the suspension to have much of an effect — at least in the short term — because embassies and consulates had already halted routine visa processing last month in response to the pandemic.”This is more of a show from the administration than anything else,” he said.But other immigrant advocates predict profound changes if the measure becomes permanent.This undated image from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service shows the front of a sample ‘green card,’ formally known as a Permanent Resident Card.Doug Rand, co-founder of Boundless, a company that advises families and individuals on green cards, estimates 358,000 applicants a year would be unable to get permanent residency if the order were extended.He said the casualties would include roughly 50,000 diversity visas each year for countries that send fewer people to the U.S., and that the measure would have a big impact on immigrants from Asia, Central America and eastern Europe.Rand says Trump is using the pandemic to achieve changes to the immigration system that he couldn’t get past Congress or the courts. He called the 60-day halt a “double fig leaf” to make the measure more palatable.”I don’t think it takes much guesswork that President Donald Trump is going to use his discretion to extend it 60 days from now and again and again and again,” Rand said.The edict has similarities to legislation Trump tried unsuccessfully to pass in 2017 that would slash legal immigration, largely through family-based visas that the president has referred to derisively as “chain migration.”Last month, the administration effectively suspended asylum by rapidly expelling anyone who enters the country along borders with Mexico and Canada. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week extended the policy through May 20 on public health grounds.Trump told reporters that he may extend the most recent order or modify it next week, in two months or “as we go along” to be “made tougher or made less tough.””We don’t want to hurt our businesses, and we don’t want to hurt our farmers,” he said Wednesday. “Very important.”Joe Biden, Trump’s presumed Democratic rival in November’s election, echoed those who called the measure an attempt to divert attention from the president’s handling of the pandemic.”Rather than execute a swift and aggressive effort to ramp up testing, Donald Trump is tweeting incendiary rhetoric about immigrants in the hopes that he can distract everyone from the core truth: He’s moved too slowly to contain this virus, and we are all paying the price for it,” Biden said Tuesday.Matt Hill, a campaign spokesman, said Thursday that Biden would not maintain the policy if elected. 
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President Donald Trump signed a $484 billion bill Friday to aid employers and hospitals under stress from the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 50,000 Americans and devastated broad swaths of the economy.The bill is the latest effort by the federal government to help keep afloat businesses that have had to close or dramatically alter their operations as states try to slow the spread of the virus. Over the past five weeks, roughly 26 million people have filed for jobless aid, or about 1 in 6 U.S. workers.Trump thanked Congress for “answering my call” to provide the critical assistance and said it was “a tremendous victory.” But easy passage of this aid installment belies a potentially bumpier path ahead for future legislation to address the crisis.Trump said most of the funding in the bill would flow to small business through the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides money to small businesses to keep workers on their payroll.“Great for small businesses, great for the workers,” Trump said.The measure passed Congress almost unanimously Thursday as lawmakers gathered in Washington as a group for the first time since March 27. They followed stricter social distancing rules while seeking to prove they can do their work despite the COVID-19 crisis.“Millions of people out of work,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “This is really a very, very, very sad day. We come to the floor with nearly 50,000 deaths, a huge number of people impacted, and the uncertainty of it all.”Anchoring the bill is the Trump administration’s $250 billion request to replenish a fund to help small- and medium-size businesses with payroll, rent and other expenses. This program provides forgivable loans so businesses can continue paying workers while forced to stay closed for social distancing and stay-at-home orders.The legislation contains $100 billion demanded by Democrats for hospitals and a nationwide testing program, along with $60 billion for small banks and an alternative network of community development banks that focus on development in urban neighborhoods and rural areas ignored by many lenders. There’s also $60 billion for small-business loans and grants delivered through the Small Business Administration’s existing disaster aid program.Passage of more coronavirus relief is likely in the weeks ahead. Supporters are already warning that the business-backed Paycheck Protection Program will exhaust the new $250 billion almost immediately. Launched just weeks ago, the program quickly reached its lending limit after approving nearly 1.7 million loans. That left thousands of small businesses in limbo as they sought help.Pelosi and allies said the next measure will distribute more relief to individuals, extend more generous jobless benefits into the fall, provide another round of direct payments to most people and help those who are laid off afford health insurance through COBRA.Democrats tried to win another round of funding for state and local governments in Thursday’s bill but were rebuffed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who says he’s going to try pump the brakes on runaway deficit spending. McConnell says he doesn’t want to bail out Democratic-governed states for fiscal problems that predated the pandemic, but there’s plenty of demand for state fiscal relief among Republicans, too.After the Senate passed the bill Tuesday, McConnell said Republicans would entertain no more coronavirus rescue legislation until the Senate returns to Washington in May. He promised rank-and-file Republicans greater say in the future legislation, rather than leaving it in the hands of bipartisan leaders.Pelosi attacked McConnell for at first opposing adding any money to his original $250 billion package and saying cash-strapped states should be allowed to declare bankruptcy, a move that they currently cannot do and that would threaten a broad range of state services. McConnell’s comments provoked an outcry — including from GOP governors — and he later tempered his remarks.The four coronavirus relief bills approved so far by Congress would deliver at least $2.4 trillion for business relief, testing and treatment, and direct payments to individuals and the unemployed, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The deficit is virtually certain to breach $3 trillion this year. 
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President Donald Trump said Friday that he wouldn’t approve a $10 billion loan for the U.S. Postal Service unless the agency raised charges for Amazon and other big shippers to four to five times current rates.”The Postal Service is a joke because they’re handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies and every time they bring a package, they lose money on it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.The president was responding to a question about reports his administration plans to force major changes in postal operations as the price for approving a $10 billion loan that was included in the government’s $2 trillion economic rescue package.Under the rescue package legislation, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin must approve the loan before the Postal Service can receive the money. Officials at the Postal Service had no immediate reaction to Trump’s comments.Trump said the changes the administration would insist on would make it a “whole new ballgame” at the Postal Service. He said the Postal Service did not want to make the changes because they did not want to offend Amazon and other companies.Looking at Mnuchin, who was with him in the Oval Office, the president said, “If they don’t raise the price of the service they give … I’m not signing anything and I’m not authorizing you to do anything.”‘Postal reform program’Mnuchin told reporters that he had Treasury officials working with the Postal Service on the terms of the loan if postal officials decided they need more money.”We are going to post certain criteria for [a] postal reform program as part of the loan,” Mnuchin said. He said the Postal Service board already was searching for a new postmaster general to run the agency and undertaking reforms of operations.The Washington Post, which first reported the administration’s push for changes at the Postal Service, quoted unnamed officials as saying that senior Postal Service officials had been told the administration wanted to use the $10 billion loan as leverage to influence how much the agency charges for delivering packages and how it manages its finances.Trump has complained for years that the Postal Service is being exploited by Amazon and other shippers and that that is why the agency is losing so much money.
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When Seblewongel Alemu learned Thursday that she would get a $5-an-hour pay hike upon returning to the South Dakota pork processing plant where she likely had contracted COVID-19, she greeted the news with just a trace of enthusiasm.
 
“What matters the most is our health,” she told VOA by phone, not long after receiving a local union’s text message about the new incentive at the Smithfield Foods plant in the city of Sioux Falls. Now recovering, Seblewongel added, “It is important that they put in proper safety measures and we will not be exposed to such danger again.”
 
The meat-packing plant is one of the nation’s hot spots for novel coronavirus infections. More than 800 of its 3,700 workers have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the South Dakota Department of Health confirmed, according to the local KELOLAND News site. It said at least two deaths have been connected to the plant.   
Smithfield shuttered the plant – which accounts for roughly 5% of U.S. pork production, in the form of bacon, fresh pork, hot dogs, deli and smoked meats – on April 14. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report urging Smithfield to step up efforts to fight COVID-19 so the plant can reopen safely.   
 CDC makes recommendations
 
Last week, CDC investigators who visited the plant found that at least one department had fewer workers on its production lines – a result of both illness and intentional social distancing – and had slowed speeds accordingly. Managers said they were installing more hand-sanitizing dispensers plus plexiglass barriers between close workstations.
 
The CDC report also encouraged Smithfield to take steps such as improving health screening, relaxing sick-leave policies, increasing cleaning and access to handwashing, and improving social distancing. Where assembly line work makes that difficult, it recommends more personal protective equipment.Seblewongel Alemu, recovering from COVID-19, wants to make sure enhanced safety measures are in place before she returns to work at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She is shown here in a Skype screen grab. The report emphasized its recommendations “are discretionary and are not required or mandated by CDC.” It also noted that, while its recommendations were for this specific Smithfield plant, “broader interim recommendations for meat and poultry processing industries are in development.”
 
Smithfield, contacted at headquarters in the Virginia city for which it’s named, declined VOA’s requests for comment. A representative directed queries to the company’s web page on its COVID-19 response. Neither Smithfield nor the CDC report gave a specific date for reopening the Sioux Falls facility.
 
Workers at the idled plant are getting two weeks of “shutdown pay” at their standard rate for a 40-hour work week. A deal announced Thursday with Smithfield will bring workers an extra $5 an hour for their basic 40-hour week, effective May 1 through July 31, said a spokesperson for the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union’s Local 304A.  
 Language challenges
 
Smithfield managers cited communication problems, given “approximately 40 different languages spoken by employees,” CDC investigators found. Their report urged Smithfield to try to overcome those barriers. Gathering demographic information could “provide a better understanding of what workplace factors may have contributed to the spread of COVID-19 among employees,” the report said.
 
The plant’s most prevalent languages are English, Spanish, Swahili, Nepali, French and Vietnamese – along with Kunama, Tigrinya, Amharic and Oromo, spoken in Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. At least 1,000 of Smithfield’s workers come from those two Horn of Africa countries, said Aschenaki Bekele, chairman of the Ethiopian Collaboration Union in Sioux Falls.FILE – A truck arrives at Smithfield Foods’ pork plant in Smithfield, Virginia, Oct. 17, 2019.“I work with a lot of immigrants,” said Seblewongel, a fluent English speaker originally from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. She joined Smithfield five years ago, shortly after moving to Sioux Falls with her then-husband and their adolescent daughter. She packages processed foods on the night shift, with co-workers who are mostly Spanish speakers and Asians, including Nepalese.
Many immigrants are willing to take on the physical demands of meat packing as they try to advance, several Ethiopian and Eritrean workers in Sioux Falls told VOA, and they appreciate overtime. Production work there starts at $15 an hour, with benefits, according to a Smithfield ad posted in early April.
 Employment concerns
 
But immigrants, like other workers, fear losing their jobs.
 
“After the outbreak was announced in the U.S., we never stopped working,” Seblewongel said. “I had to keep working without any protective [equipment] in place because I have no other means of income. But we were always afraid we might be too exposed to the virus.”
 
Kooper Caraway, president of the Sioux Falls AFL-CIO, said workers at Smithfield had “raised the alarm” about COVID-19 risks by mid-March.
 
“They asked the plant to institute staggered scheduling, to institute temperature checks and secondary screening, to institute social distancing and things like this,” he said. “But unfortunately, the management didn’t take those calls seriously until dozens of workers had already tested positive.”
 
Caraway also noted that because the Sioux Falls plant has “people from all over the world,” workers “were in a position to be able to identify the plant as a potential hot spot very soon, because they were getting calls” of warning from relatives and friends abroad, in eastern Asia and elsewhere.Machine operator Halefom Tesfalem says Smithfield Foods should have taken more coronavirus precautions at its plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Shown here in a Skype screen grab, he is recovering from COVID-19.Complaints of lax precautions
 
Halefom Tesfalem, an Eritrean who works as a sanitation department machine operator, contends that Smithfield didn’t take enough precautions – even after the first COVID-19 case was detected. The CDC report said that was on March 24. Halefom tested positive on April 7.
 
“There was no formal guidance telling us that there were infectious cases and that measures would be taken. There were broader alerts that suggested that we take cautious measures,” he said, suggesting that safeguards such as social distancing and temperature checks began too late. Though workers suspected of infection were told to go home, “others were convening in the cafeteria and other places.”
 
Halefom said many of the infections in Sioux Falls “are from workers bringing it to their homes.”
 
After two weeks of isolating at their respective homes, both Seblewongel and Halefom say they are feeling better. Their symptoms are subsiding. Halefom says he’s grateful he didn’t infect any of his three family members. Selbewongel remains fearful of spreading the disease to her daughter – 17-year-old Hanan Mustefa, a high school junior – so she continues to wear a facemask and gloves.
 
“The last 14 days felt like I was somewhere far away. …I didn’t know if I would come out alive, if I would ever go back to work or if I would ever see my daughter again,” Seblewongel said, describing uncertainties “as painful as the virus.”
 
Concerns over the pandemic prompted Smithfield Foods to temporarily close two other plants in mid-April: in southeastern Wisconsin and in Missouri. Smithfield is a wholly owned subsidiary of the WH Group Ltd. of Hong Kong, which calls itself the world’s largest pork company.
 
At least two major U.S. beef packing companies also have suspended operations this month because of COVID-19, the farm journal AgWeb reports. JBS USA closed its plant in Greeley, Colo., after at least two employees died. National Beef Packing Co. halted work at its facility in Tama, Iowa.This report originated with VOA’s Horn of Africa Service, with Carol Guensburg contributing. Salem Solomon provided some translation. 
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday lengthened her stay-at-home order through May 15, while lifting restrictions so some businesses can reopen and the public can participate in outdoor activities like golf and motorized boating during the coronavirus pandemic.
The measure immediately replaces one that was scheduled to expire next week. Michigan has had nearly 3,000 deaths related to COVID-19, behind only New York and New Jersey among U.S. states.
People are now required, rather than encouraged, to wear face coverings in enclosed public spaces such as grocery stores if they can medically tolerate it. Employers must provide non-medical grade masks to their in-person employees.
Landscapers, lawn-service companies, plant nurseries and bike repair shops can resume operating, subject to social-distancing rules. Stores selling nonessential supplies can reopen for curbside pickup and delivery. Big-box retailers no longer have to close off garden centers and areas dedicated to selling paint, flooring and carpet.
Whitmer said people with multiple in-state homes can resume traveling between them, though it is strongly discouraged.
“The vast majority of people in this state are doing the right things. We’ve seen the curve get pushed down,” the Democratic governor told The Associated Press. “I think it’s appropriate to reevaluate along the way. At this point we feel like’s good to have our first wave of reengagement in this way.”
The order continues to prohibit in-person work that is not necessary to sustain or protect life, with exemptions for various critical jobs. Restaurants remain closed to dine-in customers under a separate measure, and bars, movie theaters, gyms and other sports facilities also are still shuttered.
The prior stay-home order — in tandem with guidance issued by Whitmer’s office — prompted lawsuits on behalf of anglers, landscaping companies, cottage owners and others. Republicans who control the Legislature also criticized it and plan to vote Friday to limit her emergency powers despite a certain veto. Conservative demonstrators held a large rally at the state Capitol last week, and a much smaller protest took place Thursday outside the governor’s residence in Lansing.
Whitmer defended the previous order, which she issued April 9 and was stricter than one that took effect March 24. Imposing some of the country’s toughest restrictions, she said, was necessary because of what were rapidly rising cases and deaths that threatened to overwhelm hospitals.
“Michigan’s COVID-19 experience was tougher than just about any other state,” said Whitmer, whose moves have been backed by health experts and in public polling.
Landscaping and more outdoor activities, she said, were “naturally parts of our economy that we could move forward on” now. While golfing is allowed, the use of carts is not. State parks will generally remain open and people already were allowed to run, walk, hike and ride bikes.
Whitmer said her administration is talking with medical and business experts to assess different jobs and industries for risk, to promulgate safety protocols and to determine “markers” that need to be reached before reopening additional sectors. She said more will be revealed on Monday.
The order does not explicitly address Detroit-area automakers’ ability to restart plants. It continues to list “transportation and logistics” and “critical manufacturing” as sectors where some employees can go to work. Talks continue between the Detroit Three and the United Auto Workers union.
“This is one of what will be many waves,” Whitmer said. “My hope is that we can contemplate the next one. But it all depends on if people observe these best practices, if we can keep the COVID-19 trajectory headed downward and if we can keep people safe.”
 
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The G-20 is calling on “all countries, international organizations, the private sector, philanthropic institutions, and individuals” to contribute to its funding efforts to fight COVID-19, setting an $8 billion goal.An international forum for the governments and central bank governors of 19 nations and the European Union, the G-20 already has raised $1.9 billion, it said Friday. Saudi Arabia, the current holder of the G-20 presidency, contributed $500 million.“Global challenges demand global solutions, and this is our time to stand and support the race for a vaccine and other therapeutic measures to combat COVID-19,” Saudi G-20 Sherpa Fahad Almubarak said. “We commend the existing funding efforts from around the world and underscore the urgency to bridging the financing gap.”Britain says it has performed the first human trial of a coronavirus vaccine in Europe.A poultry vendor wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus prepares birds at a wet market in downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 24, 2020.Two volunteers were injected Thursday in the city of Oxford, where a university team developed the vaccine in less than three months. Hundreds of other volunteers will be injected with the trial vaccine, and the same number will get a vaccine for meningitis so the results can be compared. Volunteers will not know which vaccine they are getting.The trial offers new hope just as an antiviral drug proved ineffective against coronavirus on patients in China. In a randomized trial, Remdesivir, a drug made by California-based Gilead Sciences, did not show any benefits for COVID-19 patients, and it failed to reduce the presence of the virus in their bloodstreams.The United States conducted the first vaccine test in March in Seattle, Washington. Canada, Russia and other countries also are working on developing a vaccine, but experts say even if a successful one is developed soon, manufacturing and distribution would take a longer.Studies also have shown the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is not effective in treating the virus and could, in fact, endanger COVID-19 patients. U.S. President Donald Trump has touted the drug as an effective “game-changer” in treating the disease. On Thursday, he denied having changed his opinion.“We had a lot of very good results, and we had some results that perhaps aren’t so good, I don’t know. I just read about one,” Trump said at the daily briefing.The president also said he may extend social distancing guidelines beyond May 1 if he doesn’t feel the country is in a safe place.At noon Friday, Trump is scheduled to sign the $484 billion relief package that passed the House of Representatives on Thursday. The package was approved by the Senate earlier this week and would secure additional support for small business loans, help hospitals and expand COVID-19 testing.Students wearing masks to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus sit for the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams at a school in Hong Kong, April 24, 2020.With no proven remedy for the coronavirus, health officials worldwide are recommending protective measures such as hygiene, social distancing and wearing masks and gloves. But people in many places are growing tired of restrictions, even as the number of cases grows.Several European countries have seen a decrease in new cases and are preparing to gradually reopen businesses and ease restrictions.Some U.S. states are making similar plans.  Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is allowing some businesses to re-open Friday. Politicians and public health officials urged Kemp to reconsider, but Trump supported Kemp’s move.  At Thursday’s coronavirus briefing, however, the president said he “wasn’t happy” with Kemp who has given the green light for tattoo parlors, hair salons, gyms, bowling alleys and spas to open Friday.  Some Georgia business owners say it is too early to open and will not open their businesses Friday, despite facing financial collapse.There are at least 2.7 million cases of the virus worldwide and more than 190,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center in the U.S. state of Maryland.In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles were among those who were infected but recovered.In the United States, Sen. Elizabeth Warren reported Thursday that her eldest brother died from the disease on Tuesday. Warren was a former contender in the Democratic run for the presidency.The Australian government called on G-20 countries to push for the phasing out of so-called wildlife wet markets, which many consider a health risk for humans, as well as for animals.The coronavirus has had a devastating effect on the global economy, but the International Monetary Fund and other organizations warn that developing countries will be the worst hit.The United Nations food agency projects that some 265 million people could experience acute hunger this year, twice as many as last year.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on governments to ensure health care is available to all people and that economic aid packages help those most affected. 
 
  
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Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of profiles of Americans struggling with the economic impact caused by the coronavirus pandemic.Joyce Rydstrom of Alta, Iowa, had to shut the doors to her hair salon last month when the governor ordered a suspension of nonessential businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.Meanwhile, the meatpacking industry, a major driver of the Iowa economy, has suffered repeated blows as virus outbreaks have caused processing plants that usually operate around the clock to shut down for days at a time. The economy, both personal and statewide, seems anything but stable these days.Rydstrom has done hair for 36 years. She used to see 10 to 12 clients a day. Now, she joked, “I’m just seeing days.” While her husband, Dave, is able to continue growing his crops of corn, soybeans, hay and oats, she has been home with time on her hands. This week she planted her first vegetable garden.“Normally when I’m at the salon, I come home after a whole day and I’m pooped. I don’t want to go out and garden,” she said. But now, she added, “because I’m home, I thought, ‘Let’s just go for it.’”On Thursday the U.S. Department of Labor said that last week 4.4 million people filed initial unemployment claims. The New York Times reports nearly one in six American workers has lost a job recently. Over the past five weeks, a total of 26 million people have filed new unemployment claims.In many ways, Rydstrom and her family are lucky. Her husband has been able to work on his farm despite the shutdown. Her son’s and daughter’s families, with four kids each, live nearby. They still have income and have received their government stimulus checks. Her parents, who live in a neighboring county, are in good health.For their community, however, much depends on the continued operation of the Tyson Foods pork-processing plant in the county seat, Storm Lake. The pork industry has suffered twin blows: with restaurants closed, there’s a surplus of pork on the market, depressing the price; and pork processing plants have seen one closure after another after viral outbreaks among employees. The latest was Wednesday: a Tyson Foods plant in the city of Waterloo, about 250 kilometers east of Alta.Local news reports say some hog farmers are killing their pigs because they have nowhere to sell them and no room to keep them.Rydstrom worries about what will happen if the Tyson plant in Storm Lake – a hog slaughterhouse, meat packing plant and turkey processing plant – has to close.If it shuts down, she said, “that would devastate the majority of Buena Vista County.” She said a friend who works at the plant says employees are being “above and beyond cautious” to keep themselves safe and healthy.Joyce Rydstrom of Alta, Iowa, had to shut the doors to her hair salon in March amid the coronavirus pandemic. These days, she spends some of her free time gardening.Amid the uncertainty, Rydstrom said she misses the normal things she used to take for granted. Handshakes, for example. A friendly touch.“People need physical touch,” she said. She is mindful of her older clients who have lost spouses. “They’re living by themselves, a lot of these widow ladies, they want somebody to put their hand on their shoulder or even just give them a little extra brushing with their hair,” she said.While she’s had time off, she’s been trying to connect with long-term clients on the telephone.“I’ve been trying to keep in touch with them as best I can and let them know I’m thinking about them and holding a spot for them in my appointment book when the time comes,” she said.But Rydstrom’s business funds are running low. A neighbor and regular customer recently said he knew she couldn’t cut his hair for him and asked if he could borrow her hair-cutting clippers. She sent him home with them. Later, he sent them back – with $20.“I thought, there’s my income for a whole week,” she joked.Joking aside, her emergency fund is shrinking while the salon remains closed.“I have the internet to pay and the utilities to pay, and there’s no income,” she said. She has applied every week for unemployment, which, thanks to federal funds, has been expanded to include the self-employed but has not received a response yet. And the federal stimulus money hasn’t come. She said by the time she’s able to get back to work, her “little cushion” of reserve funding will be used up.“When I go back to work, I will be starting at ground zero,” she said in an email. “I will have to build up my bank account again.”Yet, she added, “I am not going to lose sleep over it. I feel God gave me the salon years ago, and he is going to help me once again to work again where he wants me. It won’t come overnight, but I am confident that I will be OK.” 
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration on Thursday, saying industry cannot avoid the Clean Water Act when it pumps wastewater into the ground instead of directly into oceans and rivers.In a 6-3 decision, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the majority. He said putting the polluted water into the ground before it eventually reaches oceans and rivers is “the functional equivalent” of directly releasing it into the ocean, and permission from the Environmental Protection Agency is needed.In his dissenting opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that according to current laws, a permit is needed only for directly dumping polluted water into a waterway.Attorney David Henkin argued the case on behalf of the environmental group Earthjustice.“This decision is a huge victory for clean water. The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s effort to blow a big hole in the Clean Water Act’s protections for rivers, lakes and oceans,” he said.Thursday’s decision stems from a case in Hawaii involving the question of whether a sewage treatment plant needs permission from the EPA to pump treated wastewater into the ground instead of straight into the Pacific Ocean.Environmentalists said even through this indirect route, the dirty water damaged a fragile coral reef.President Donald Trump has promised to cut government regulations and rules he says stifle business and kill jobs. But environmentalists say cutting back on such enforcement and oversight is harmful not only to the air and water but also to human health. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump said he would probably sign on Thursday night a $484 billion bill aiding small businesses and hospitals severely impaired by the coronavirus pandemic.The funds in the fourth spending package in just two months will allow tens of millions more Americans to receive critical relief since COVID-19 forced the closure of much of American commerce.More than 26 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since the outbreak began, and the figure grew by 4.4 million last week, according to numbers released Thursday.The legislation was overwhelmingly approved on a 388-5 vote in the House as Trump and Vice President Mike Pence held a coronavirus briefing for reporters at the White House.“We’re very close to the vaccine” for the novel virus, Trump said, adding that “unfortunately we’re not very close to testing” it.Scientists say if preliminary research goes well on vaccine candidates, they would be ready for clinical trials in a year to 18 months.Fauci points to problemsThe nation’s top infectious-disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told Time magazine on Thursday that there are still problems in the United States securing supplies needed to conduct coronavirus tests, such as swabs and chemicals.”I am not overly confident right now at all that we have what it takes” to do testing, said Fauci, a prominent member of the White House coronavirus task force. “We’re doing better, and I think we’re going to get there, but we’re not there yet.”Trump, asked about Fauci’s comment, replied: “If he said that, I don’t agree with him.”Don’t drink bleachDuring Thursday’s briefing, William Bryan, the acting undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, revealed that experiments with the virus indicate it dies faster when exposed to sunlight, in warm temperatures and under humid conditions.“The virus is dying at a much more rapid pace just from exposure to higher temperatures and just with exposure to humidity,” Bryan said. “You inject sunlight into that, you inject UV rays into that … the half-life [of the virus] goes from six hours to two minutes.”Trump then suggested it should be studied whether disinfectants and “ultraviolet light” could be injected inside the human body to fight the virus.His remark prompted cable news networks to quickly warn people not to drink or inject disinfectants, such as bleach.As of Thursday evening EDT, more than 867,000 people in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The nation has reported more than 49,000 deaths from the virus, nearly a third of them in New York City.About 14 percent of New Yorkers have likely had the disease, according to preliminary results of antibody testing released by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday.Officials in the northeastern state randomly tested 3,000 people at shopping locations to see if they had the antibodies that fight the coronavirus, an indication that they could have been infected and recovered without experiencing significant symptoms.’Promise made, promise kept’On the U.S. West Coast, the state of California recorded its deadliest 24-hour period from the virus, Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday, announcing that 115 people in the state had succumbed to COVID-19 the previous day, bringing the state’s total number of deaths to 1,469.California’s total hospitalizations and the number of people in intensive care because of the virus have both dropped, Newsom said.“But with deaths and still positives going up, again, I caution people that we’re not out of the woods,” said the governor.Newsom also announced that the federal government had sent the state 90,000 testing swabs out of a promised initial shipment of 100,000 — assistance that the president had committed to during a conversation with the governor the previous day.”Promise made, promise kept,” Newsom said.A social media account of the president’s reelection campaign promptly included the Democratic governor’s remarks in a video. 
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Trump administration officials on Thursday recommended granting U.S. energy regulators the ability to block imports of nuclear fuel from Russia and China and detailed plans for setting up a government stockpile of uranium sourced from domestic miners.The recommendations are meant to address growing concern in Washington that the United States has ceded its global leadership in nuclear technology in recent decades, and to boost domestic nuclear power producers and uranium miners suffering from a lack of investment.U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told reporters on a call that the report from the Nuclear Fuel Working Group was a “road map for what we think needs to be done to not only revitalize but re-establish American leadership in this entire industry.”President Donald Trump created the working group last July after he rejected a request by two U.S. uranium mining companies, Energy Fuels Inc and Ur-Energy Inc, seeking quotas for domestic uranium production to protect them against foreign competition.The report recommended enabling the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny imports of certain uranium supplies from Russia and China for national security purposes.FILE – U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette gestures during an interview after visiting the deepwater port in Sines, southern Portugal, Feb. 12, 2020.It also recommended that the Commerce Department extend the Russian Suspension Agreement, which established a maximum cap for imports of Russian uranium to 20% of the U.S. market, “to protect against future uranium dumping.” It also suggested “further lowering the cap” on Russian imports in the agreement, which expires this year.The report mentioned TVEL, a unit of Russian state-owned Rosatom, which launched a project in 2008 to develop replacement fuel for reactors using U.S. technology abroad and in the United States. That project is on hold, but would pose a risk to the U.S. nuclear industry if revived, it said.The report also recommended the U.S. government set up a uranium reserve allowing it to make direct purchases of uranium from domestic producers. Trump’s budget released in February proposed $1.5 billion over 10 years for the creation of a uranium reserve, but Congress has yet to act on it.Brouillette said it was possible Trump would issue executive orders to support the findings of the report, which also sought to boost research and development of new reactor technologies, and streamline permitting for uranium mining.Opposition to recommendationsAmerica Fitzpatrick, a senior representative of The Wilderness Society environmental group, said her organization opposed efforts to bolster the U.S. nuclear industry and worried that it would increase mining near national parks.”Enriching special interests with taxpayer resources so they can plunder national treasures like Bears Ears and the Grand Canyon will harm our land, water, and public health,” she said.Energy Fuels Inc and Ur-Energy Inc, as well as more than two dozen western state lawmakers, have argued that U.S. nuclear generators rely too heavily on foreign suppliers, including Russia, China and Kazakhstan. Canada has also long been a top supplier of uranium to the United States.The U.S. nuclear energy industry is suffering from high safety costs and low prices for natural gas, a competitor in generating power. Since 2013, about nine nuclear plants have closed, and eight are scheduled to close in coming years. 
 
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South Dakota health officials reported 98 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, as the statewide total rose to 1,956.More than half of the infections statewide have been tied to the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls. Employees who have confirmed infections grew to 801, and another 206 of their close contacts have tested positive.Nine people have died so far statewide, including two people who worked at Smithfield. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.Smithfield closed the plant indefinitely last week because of the outbreak and faced complaints that it wasn’t doing enough to protect its workers.Gov. Kristi Noem on Thursday released a memo from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that offers recommendations on how the plant can protect workers when it reopens. The governor said she would like to see that happen as soon as possible and offered help to Smithfield in implementing the recommendations.The memo recommended that the operators of the plant implement a strict social distancing policy and find ways to overcome language barriers.The CDC memo specifically addressed the situation at the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls but that also may give an indication of the broader recommendations that the agency is working on for meat processing plants nationwide.A CDC team toured the plant last week and reported that the company had slowed down production lines to space workers farther apart and installed about 800 Plexiglas barriers along the lines. But even though there were only a few workers left in the plant, some were still gathering closer than 6 feet apart when not at their work stations or not wearing face masks, the team found.Plant management told the CDC that more than 40 languages were spoken at the plant, making it difficult to communicate guidance to employees. The agency recommended that Smithfield post signs with pictograms and in more languages to communicate vital information to employees.Smithfield is also planning to give workers a new face mask every day and to equip production staff with face shields, according to the CDC.The CDC memo also stresses the importance reconfiguring parts of the plant to accommodate social distancing, including making sure workers don’t congregate in locker rooms, cafeterias or break areas.Smithfield has not said when it might reopen.The governor also used her Thursday briefing to raise issues with the federal dollars coming her way as part of coronavirus relief passed through Congress. She said the money must be spent on addressing the global pandemic, but she would rather use it to make up for revenue loss in the state budget.The state relies heavily on sales tax revenue, which Noem expects will be drastically behind expectations. The state also reported 5,128 people had made new claims for unemployment benefits last week. 
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The latest Nation’s Report Card shows eighth-graders’ scores in U.S. history and geography declining since 2014, results Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday called “stark and inexcusable.”Civics scores on the 2018 assessments were the same as in the last round of tests four years earlier, the newly released results show.The assessments, given for the first time digitally on tablets instead of paper, were administered to 42,700 eighth-grade students in 780 public and private schools across the nation.Also troubling, administrators said, was that lower-performing students lost more ground than middle- and higher-performing students, mirroring a pattern seen in recent reading and math scores. The problem is likely to be made worse by the loss of class time caused by the coronavirus, which is expected to have a greater impact on lower-performing students.The pattern “should motivate us all to address the factors behind these declines for struggling students,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board.Across all three subjects, a quarter or less of students scored at or above proficient, meaning they showed a solid understanding of challenging concepts. Another quarter or more failed to demonstrate a level of basic understanding, the results showed.”In the real world, this means students don’t know what the Lincoln-Douglas debates were about, nor can they discuss the significance of the Bill of Rights, or point out basic locations on a map,” DeVos said in a written statement. “And only 15% of them have a reasonable knowledge of U.S. history. All Americans should take a moment to think about the concerning implications for the future of our country.”The score gaps between white students and their black and Hispanic peers did not significantly change from 2014 to 2018.”Our nation is experiencing a teachable moment with the current health crisis in terms of how important it is to understand historical forces, the role of our civic institutions, and the impact of geographical conditions of our interconnected world,” said Peggy Carr, associate commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics, which runs the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card.”The results provided here,” Carr said, “indicate that many students are struggling to understand and explain the importance of civic participation, how American government functions, the historical significance of events, and the need to grasp and apply core geographic concepts.”The average U.S. history score was 263 out of 500 in 2018, four points lower than in 2014. The results categorized 15% of eighth-graders as proficient when asked, for example, to explain the significance of certain documents and ideas in American history. History scores declined across the board for white, black and Hispanic students, the results showed.The average geography score was 258 on a 500-point scale, three points lower than in 2014, with scores for white and black students showing declines. In 2018, 25% of students scored at or above the proficient level.The 2018 civics score measuring students’ knowledge of government was unchanged between 2014 and 2018. About 24% of students scored at or above proficient, and there was no significant change across ethnic groups.There has been improvement over time since the assessments were first administered in the 1990s. Civics and history scores have gone up overall and the score gap between white and Hispanic students in civics has narrowed by 10 points. Score differences also have narrowed between white students and black and Hispanic students in geography, but the gaps in history scores have remained about the same.
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American farmers are destroying crops and cutting production in response to disruptions in the food distribution system caused by COVID-19. Mike O’Sullivan reports that farmers and state officials are looking for ways to get food where it’s needed.
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Haitian authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into a February fire at an orphanage operated by a U.S.-based church near Port-au-Prince, where 13 children and two adults died.Authorities suspect the fire was started by candles used during frequent power failures.The Associated Press reported that at one point the Haitian orphanages run by the Church of Bible Understanding, were stripped of accreditation by Haitian officials over compliance with safety and health criteria and three years ago both of the church’s  homes in Haiti failed inspections but stayed open.The AP said an attorney for the church said the church, the orphanage operators and the Haitian government should all bear some responsibility.The operational problems and reported poor condition of the homes is glaring because of the revenue wealth and property assets of the church. 
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the coronavirus outbreak is “fast becoming a human rights crisis.”In a statement Thursday, he called on governments to ensure that health care is available and accessible to all people, that economic aid packages help those most affected, and that everyone has the ability to obtain food, water and housing.Women wearing face masks ride past the Opera House in Hanoi on April 23, 2020, as Vietnam eased its nationwide social isolation efforts.“We have seen how the virus does not discriminate, but its impacts do — exposing deep weaknesses in the delivery of public services and structural inequalities that impede access to them.  We must make sure they are properly addressed in the response,” Guterres said.He added: “And in all we do, let’s never forget: The threat is the virus, not people.”The U.N. chief’s message comes as world health officials warn that while some countries have seen great progress and are starting to relax lockdown measures, the fight against the virus is very much not over.”Make no mistake: We have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time,” said World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.  “Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics. And some that were affected early in the pandemic are now starting to see a resurgence in cases.”U.S. health officials also are urging the public to look ahead to the next flu season and get flu shots in order to help mitigate a potential huge strain on health resources if there are large numbers of flu and coronavirus patients at the same time.With the illnesses sharing similar symptoms, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told reporters, “We’re going to have to distinguish between which is flu and which is the coronavirus.”“I need them to help now to best prepare us by getting the flu vaccine and taking flu out of the picture,” he said.Many countries remain focused on stopping the current outbreak with stay-at-home measures in place.Those restrictions are complicating usual routines for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that starts this week.Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, banned tens of millions of people who live in big cities from traveling home. Officials in the capital city of Jakarta extended lockdown restrictions until May 22 and asked Muslims to forego attending mosques.Turkey’s health minister urged similar measures, saying people should put off the tradition of holding fast-breaking meals with friends and family for Ramadan until next year.A man wearing a face mask walks at sunset in a park in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on April 19, 2020.Turkey has been instituting weekend curfews and has banned those younger than 20 and older than 65 from leaving their homes.Muslims in Malaysia’s capital also have been told to pray from home with their mosques closed.Pakistan is taking a different approach, ignoring pleas from doctors and keeping mosques open, though encouraging people to observe social distancing rules.The question of whether to allow people to gather for worship is being confronted in many countries, and among many religions.U.S. officials largely told people to avoid gathering for the Christian Easter holiday earlier this month, while some churches have defied state lockdown orders and held in-person services.A federal judge in California said Wednesday he would reject a request by three churches seeking a temporary restraining order to set aside the governor’s orders.  They argue the government is violating the constitutional First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and assembly.But the judge said in such a time of emergency, the government has the power to “provide emergency remedies, which may infringe on fundamental constitutional rights.”  
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U.S. military officials are planning for additional battles against the coronavirus, even after the current pandemic subsides, pointing to evidence that suggests the virus will be cyclical.For weeks, infectious disease experts have been warning that COVID-19 could resurge in the United States in September and October as the weather begins to cool ahead of the winter months.  It is a threat that has resonated with some of the military’s most senior officials.“We are all talking about it,” U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Dave Goldfein, told defense reporters Wednesday.”The potential for it to come back in some cyclical way is likely,” he said. “All the projections are no vaccine for upwards of a year, so that means we’ve got to refine our ability to survive and operate.”Top military officials say despite the rapid spread of the virus, U.S. forces remain ready to defend the nation and its interests.  As of Wednesday, more than 56,000 active and part-time troops have been deployed to assist with relief efforts across the country.But the pandemic has also taken a toll.Key military exercises with partner forces in Africa, Asia and Europe have been downsized, canceled or postponed.JUST IN: US cancels Exercise #AfricanLion2020 “Out of an abundance of caution…to minimize the risk of exposure to US & partner nation service members” to #COVID19#coronavirus, per @USAfricaCommandExercise was to run March 23-April 4 in #Morocco#Tunisia#Senegalpic.twitter.com/8AvarK6Crl— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) March 16, 2020The U.S. military footprint in places like Iraq and Syria, where U.S. troops are working with local forces against the Islamic State terror group, has been downsized.”Looking ahead, we anticipate the Coalition supporting the #Iraq|i Security Forces from fewer bases w/fewer people” per @CJTFOIR on moving forces out of some “a few smaller bases”re fight vs #ISIS, #coronavirus— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) March 20, 2020And while military commanders note that U.S. troops are generally younger and healthier than the rest of the population, they have not been immune.To date, more than 3,500 active duty U.S. military personnel have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Pentagon figures. Eighty-five have been hospitalized. Two have died, including a sailor assigned to the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.When civilian employees, contractors and military dependents, like spouses and children, are included, the number of total coronavirus cases jumps to more than 5,700, with 25 deaths.Pentagon officials have taken measures to slow the spread, shifting 970,000 active duty and civilian employees to telework, while mandating the use of face masks, requiring physical (social) distancing and cleaning workspaces constantly for those who cannot work from home.The Air Force has taken additional measures to ensure there is no disruption to critical capabilities, isolating some bomber crews and nuclear missile crews.“The procedures in place, knock on wood, are working,” Goldfein said, adding that so far, neither group has recorded a positive COVID-19 test.Still, senior military officials on the Defense Department’s coronavirus task force are not taking such successes for granted.“It’s the job of the military to prepare for worst-case scenarios,” Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday. “We will plan for something worse to happen in the fall.”Part of that is aimed at making sure the military is ready in case it needs to deal with more conventional threats.To that end, the Pentagon is planning to ramp up testing, starting with those working on the most critical mission sets, such as nuclear capability and deterrence, followed by forces stationed around the world, and finally, those stationed in the U.S.Officials said they expect testing for the first group to be completed by the end of the month, though testing all U.S. forces for COVID-19 likely will not be completed until July or August.The other part is to make sure troops can continue to help at home.“You will see us continue with fiscal prudence, not wanting to overstate it, to be ready if something happens, there is the capacity to handle it,” said Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist.“We need to be prepared to have the masks and the facilities and the beds to be able to mitigate that risk,” he said.    
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U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday suspending for 60 days the issuance of permanent residency status, also known as green cards. He described it as an effort to protect American workers’ jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. While Trump said the order is “powerful,” as White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports, the action contains a wide series of exceptions and may only affect a small number of people. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday FILE – Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.He said he meant to explain that a season of COVID-19 combined with influenza “was going to be complicated, or difficult.”Trump initially said Redfield was misquoted and then took issue with the newspaper’s headline about its interview with the CDC director.The president repeatedly insisted Wednesday that any second wave of the coronavirus would not be as bad.“If it comes back, though, it won’t be coming back in the form that it was. It will come back in smaller doses we can contain,” Trump said. “But in my opinion from everything that I have seen it can never be like anything we witnessed right now. … It might not come back at all.”However, when Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, was asked by the president if there is a good chance COVID-19 will not return, she replied: “We don’t know.”Asked by a reporter about the top official of the government’s key vaccine agency being shuffled to another job for reportedly resisting the promotion of unproven treatments promoted by the president, Trump said, “I’ve never heard of him. I don’t know who he is.”Immunologist Rick Bright, who was leading a government effort to help develop a COVID-19 vaccine, has filed a whistleblower complaint, contending he was transferred from two key posts this week for questioning Trump’s desire to make chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine widely available before such drugs are scientifically tested for efficacy with the coronavirus.“I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit,” Bright said in a statement released Wednesday by a law firm. “I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way.”The career official said he had also resisted “efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections.”Bright was the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response.The coronavirus has killed more than 46,000 people in the United States, the most reported by any country. In total, more than 840,000 COVID-19 infections have been confirmed in the country.Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this story.
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Far-right computer hackers have published nearly 25,000 email addresses allegedly belonging to several major organizations fighting the coronavirus pandemic, including the World Health Organization, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the World Bank.The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activities, has yet to confirm the addresses are genuine but said that the hackers posted the email addresses across far-right messaging and chat sites, as well as Twitter, this week.“Using the data, far-right extremists were calling for a harassment campaign while sharing conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic,” SITE Executive Director Rita Katz said. “The distribution of these alleged email credentials was just another part of a monthslong initiative across the far right to weaponize the COVID-19 pandemic.”It is unclear where the hackers got the email addresses. Other victims of the hacks include the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Gates Foundation; and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a research center in the Chinese city where the COVID-19 outbreak began in December.While those affected by the security breach did not comment on the specifics of the case, NIH and the Gates Foundation both said they consistently monitor data security and take appropriate action.A Twitter spokeswoman said the company is taking action to remove in bulk any links that send users to far-right websites where the alleged email addresses can be found.An Australian cybersecurity expert, Robert Potter, told The Washington Post that the WHO’s password security is appalling and that he was able to get into its computer system simply by using email addresses the WHO posted on the internet.“Forty-eight people have ‘password’ as their password,” Potter said, adding that others used their own first name or the word “changeme.”He said the right-wingers may have been able to buy the WHO passwords on what is called the dark web, a part of the internet that is not seen by search engines.Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon College in North Carolina who monitors right-wing extremism online, said neo-Nazis and white supremacists are looking to exploit the coronavirus pandemic to stir up violence, chaos and anti-Semitism, hoping it will all lead to a collapse of society and a white power takeover.“The fantasizing about it is not limited. They are really doing that to a great extent — openly fantasizing about how this is the event they’ve been waiting for, this is going to bring about the societal collapse they all hope for … bringing down infrastructure and so on. That’s all fantasy/hopefulness on their part.”Squire said the password hack may be part of an effort to get people to read the WHO or Gates Foundation emails to look for what the extremists believe are conspiracies surrounding the pandemic, including far-right theories that the coronavirus was created and deliberately released from the Chinese or that COVID-19 is part of a Jewish plot.Masood Farivar contributed to this report.
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Billionaire Michael Bloomberg will help the state of New York design and fund a program to trace coronavirus infections as part of its strategy to contain the spread of the virus. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the initiative Wednesday, saying it would be done in unison with the neighboring states of New Jersey and Connecticut, and would launch in weeks. FILE – Billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jan. 19, 2020.“Mayor Bloomberg will design the program, design the training, he is going to make a financial contribution also,” Cuomo said of Bloomberg, who was the city’s mayor from 2002 to 2013. “He’s going to put together an organization that can help hire the people.” Other partners include Johns Hopkins University and global health organization Vital Strategies.   Bloomberg, who spent over a billion dollars of his own fortune earlier this year on a failed bid to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, is a well-known philanthropist. He has given away over $8 billion of his wealth to fund causes including climate action and gun control.  The governor’s office said Bloomberg is making an investment of “upwards of $10 million” in the coronavirus tracing initiative. There is an additional $1.3 billion in federal funds available to New York for tracing. In this April 18, 2020, photo, provided by the Office of New York State’s Governor, Governor Andrew Cuomo, speaks at a coronavirus press conference in the Red Room at the State Capitol in Albany.“He has tremendous insight both governmentally and from a private sector business perspective on this,” Cuomo said, pointing to Bloomberg’s offices in China and Europe having gone through coronavirus-related shutdowns and reopenings. New York state has confirmed more than a quarter million COVID-19 infections. More than 15,000 people have died, but the governor said Wednesday that deaths have stopped rising and are on a “gentle decline.”  Cuomo said that the state’s effort to double its testing capacity from 20,000 to 40,000 tests per day, plus the launch of a massive tracing operation, will help New York move into the low-level transmission phase and ultimately, be a key part of how it reopens its economy. Bloomberg plans to start with the state’s current corps of about 225 tracers and build it into the thousands. Cuomo said that the state and New York City’s public universities have about 35,000 medical students who will be an important resource for recruiting tracers. “We are going to have to hire many, many more tracers — the capacity is going to have to expand,” Cuomo said. He said the concentration of tracers would be in proportion to where infection rates are.Currently, the northern part of the state has only about 7% of the total infections, while New York City and its immediate suburbs account for 93%.  
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The U.S. Congress is set to pass a $484 billion interim aid bill Thursday, providing stop-gap funding for the $2 trillion CARES Act, the largest relief package in U.S. history. But even six weeks of record spending from the U.S. government has not been enough to contain the damage the coronavirus pandemic has inflicted on the nation’s economy and public health sector.The COVID-19 emergency lockdown has forced millions of Americans into applying for unemployment or waiting in line at food banks, while small business owners question whether they’ll ever reopen their doors. Here’s an overview of what U.S. lawmakers say is needed in the next major aid package intended to restart the economy.Extensive wish listBefore lawmakers had even passed the bill they are referring to as COVID 3, the to-do list for COVID 4 was growing.“COVID 4 will be much more along the lines of COVID 2, big, bold, robust, with new things in it,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday. “It’s going to have a lot of stuff, but I want to mention a few of the priorities that I have: Election reform, money for housing; there’s three months of rent forbearance but what do people do after that? The postal service, money for a heroes fund, people who are on the front lines, they should get extra money, and at the top of the list is a big, robust state and local plan.”U.S. President Donald Trump has also already begun outlining his wish list for the proposal, tweeting, “We will begin discussions on the next Legislative Initiative with fiscal relief to State/Local Governments for lost revenues from COVID 19, much needed Infrastructure Investments for Bridges, Tunnels, Broadband, Tax Incentives for Restaurants, Entertainment, Sports, and Payroll Tax Cuts to increase Economic Growth.”The broad outlines of that plan have bipartisan support. Many of the initiatives outlined in Trump’s tweet were floated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in press calls earlier this month. Pelosi called for fixes to underlying problems brought into focus by the crisis, including the need to fix the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges and development of rural broadband technology.Aid for state and local governmentsBut the most immediate need will be one that congressional Democrats tried – and failed – to address in the recent stop-gap measure: aid to state and local governments.Gov. Cuomo provides a coronavirus update during a press conference in the Red Room at the State Capitol in Albany, April 18, 2020, in this photo provided by the Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has dealt with having the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in New York city, said funding for state and local governments is a difficult pitch to lawmakers.“When they can do funding, where they can go hand it out to individuals and call them up and say, ‘I got you money, here it is that is more politically appealing.’ You give funding to a state, who do you call to say thanks, who even knows? Nobody. It’s just giving money to another government,” Cuomo said Tuesday.House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Tuesday that this aid would be “a very, very high priority item” this time around, adding, “We don’t want to see any critical personnel laid off because the states run out of resources, and local governments run out of resources.”This funding – which Democratic lawmakers are referring to as the heroes bill or heroes fund – would aid essential personnel that include medical workers and local police and fire departments. A proposal floated by Senate Democrats earlier this month would also provide a $25,000 premium pay increase for those essential workers as well as a $15,000 recruitment incentive for jobs in essential services.Medics and firefighters bring a patient to the ambulance in the rain amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak at the West Revere Health Center in Revere, Massachusetts, April 21, 2020.“The public very much cares about the health and well-being of our heroes: our health care workers and first responders, who risk their lives to save other people’s lives and now could lose their jobs,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday.A $500 billion bipartisan proposal put forward by Republican Senator Bill Cassidy and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is modeled on the requests from the National Governors’ Association and could be used to meet the current demand for essential services. The two senators say their proposal would also help “communities transition toward reopening by expanding testing and contact tracing, providing additional resources to residents, local hospitals, small businesses and schools.”More direct aidPeople wait outside a WIN job center in Pearl, Mississippi, April 21, 2020. WIN lobbies are closed statewide during the COVID-19 pandemic, but some staff continue to work with clients by providing unemployment benefits applications.Essential workers would not be the only Americans to receive aid under this next round of proposals. Many lawmakers have also noted that the round of direct stimulus payments to most lower- and middle-class Americans will not be enough to get the economy up and running again.“Does anyone truly think that a one-time $1,200 stimulus check is enough when 22 million Americans lost their jobs and we are nowhere near the economy being back to normal?” Democratic Representative Ro Khanna tweeted on April 18. Khanna said his proposal, co-sponsored with Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, would give $2,000 “to those who need our help the most.”Majority Leader Hoyer told reporters Tuesday the unemployment benefits addressing the 22 million Americans who have lost their jobs in just the last month may also have to be extended. He said nutritional assistance would be key in helping many out-of-work Americans.“They’re very concerning to us in terms of people who are trying to get food assistance at food banks and soup kitchens and other facilities. We’re trying to keep people afloat from the standpoint of having something to eat,” Hoyer added.Spiraling costsSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., speaks with reporters after the Senate approved a nearly $500 billion coronavirus aid bill, April 21, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.All of these initiatives would add to the unprecedented amount of money already spent by the U.S. government to contain the pandemic. Since March, U.S. lawmakers have passed four major pieces of legislation running into the trillions of dollars.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has cautioned against unrestrained spending to contain the economic damage, noting the two latest spending packages have been approved through fast-track procedures with only a handful of lawmakers actually in Washington for the passage.“We ought to bring everybody back, have full participation, begin to think about the implications for this country’s future for this level of national debt; begin to see some evidence of the economy beginning to get back to normal, hopefully in states that are less impacted,” McConnell warned Tuesday. 
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Health officials say two people died with the coronavirus in California weeks before the first reported death from the disease.  
Santa Clara County officials said Tuesday the people died at home Feb. 6 and Feb. 17. Before this, the first U.S. death from the virus had been reported on Feb. 29 in Kirkland, Washington. The Medical Examiner-Coroner received confirmation Tuesday that tissue samples sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested positive for the virus, officials said.
 
The announcement came after California Gov. Gavin Newsom promised a “deep dive” update Wednesday of the state’s ability to test for the coronavirus and to track and isolate people who have it, one of the six indicators he says is key to lifting a “stay-at-home” order that has slowed the spread of the disease while forcing millions of people to file for unemployment benefits.
“This will go to the obvious questions and queries that all of us are asking: When? … When do you see a little bit of a release in the valve so that we can let out a little of this pressure,” Newsom said Tuesday, teasing what he says will be the first of regular weekly updates on the state’s progress toward reopening.
Newsom says the state is testing an average of 14,500 people per day, up from just 2,000 tests per day at the beginning of April. Still, in a state of nearly 40 million people, that’s not enough for public health officials to know for sure the reach of the highly contagious virus that is still causing outbreaks across the state in nursing homes and homeless shelters.
Newsom said he wants the state to test at least 25,000 people per day by the end of April.
Over the weekend, the California Department of Public Health issued new testing guidance that, for the first time, recommends testing for people in high-risk settings even if they do not have symptoms. The new advice is aimed at hospitals, jails and homeless shelters — three places where physical distancing is difficult.
California has more than 35,600 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,300 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.  
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.  
California has been under a mandatory, statewide stay-at-home order for more than a month. Last week, Newsom said he won’t consider loosening that order until hospitalizations, particularly those in intensive care units, flatten and start to decline for at least two weeks. Tuesday, Newsom announced intensive care hospitalizations rose 3.8%.
Other indicators Newsom says he is monitoring include whether the state has adequate protective gear for health care workers, better treatment for the disease and expanded testing.
Some local governments are already loosening their stay-at-home orders. Officials in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, have allowed public and private golf courses to reopen while limiting play to foursomes, requiring physical distancing and face coverings and banning caddies, gatherings and dining in clubhouses.
At Van Buren Golf Center in Riverside, supervisor Angel Zabala said business was steady when the nine-hole course reopened Tuesday.  
“A lot of people are happy,” Zabala said. “People have expressed relief as far as we’re finally open.”
Newsom said his administration is getting calls from local governments around the state with questions about how they might gradually loosen their stay-at-home orders.  
“Everybody has a different timeline. So that’s the challenge,” Newsom said.
Newsom’s news conference, scheduled for noon Wednesday, will be watched closely by business groups who are clamoring to reopen so they can start paying their workers again.  
“We just hope (Wednesday) we might hear of some additional steps from the governor that small businesses will be able to take towards opening their doors and turning their lights on,” said John Kabateck, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.
Restaurants were some of the first businesses ordered to close because of the virus outbreak, and they have suffered some of the heaviest job losses. A survey of restaurant operators conducted by the National Restaurant Association found more than 1 million workers had either lost their jobs or been furloughed since March — at least 70% of all restaurant employees that were working in February.
But like most industries, restaurant operators are torn between the desire to get back to work and not wanting to rush back too soon and risk setting off another deadly outbreak of the disease, said Jot Condie, CEO of the California Restaurant Association.
“We’re hopeful that we get this right the first time,” he said.
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Laboratory and drug development services provider LabCorp said on Wednesday it would expand the availability of its antibody tests for the new coronavirus to more hospitals and healthcare organizations starting next week. The tests, earlier made available mainly to healthcare workers in late March, aim to identify individuals exposed to the virus but without any visible symptoms by detecting the presence of antibodies to the virus in blood samples. LabCorp said it offers separate tests to identify three major classes of antibodies for the virus. Physicians would be able to direct asymptomatic patients to the company’s approximately 2,000 patient service centers for specimen collection for the antibody test, SARS-CoV-2 IgG, starting April 27, the company said.While the tests are neither the sole basis for a diagnosis nor assurance of immunity, they could play a role in helping healthcare providers determine appropriate treatment for individuals suspected of having been infected with the virus, LabCorp’s Chief Medical Officer Brian Caveney said.LabCorp said it expects to be able to perform several hundred thousand tests per week by mid-May, as more tests receive regulatory clearance for emergency use. The antibody tests are in addition to LabCorp’s existing molecular test for COVID-19 that is already available nationwide through healthcare providers, the company said. These antibody tests have not yet been reviewed by the FDA, but are in accordance with the public health emergency guidelines issued by the health regulator, the company said. The company on Tuesday received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s clearance for at-home sample collection for its COVID-19 diagnostic kit, allowing patients to send in their nasal swab samples to the company’s labs for diagnosis. 
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Leading U.S. doctors’ organizations are urging the Trump administration to collect data to show who is dying from COVID-19. Data collected so far shows that the coronavirus is killing African-Americans at an alarmingly higher rate than it’s killing white people. More from VOA’s Carol Pearson.
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For the first time in history, the Muslim community in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis will hear the sound of “Adhan” — the call to prayer — over outdoor loudspeakers during the month of Ramadan, which is scheduled to begin Thursday night amid Minnesota’s stay-at-home order to fight the coronavirus pandemic.  
 
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced the decision Tuesday after issuing a permit allowing the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque to broadcast the daily call to prayer five times throughout the day using four loudspeakers placed outside the mosque.  
 
“In a time when physical distancing requires that we pray apart from one another. It’s incumbent on all of us elected and community leaders to make sure that we can create a sense of togetherness,” Frey told VOA. 
 
The city granted the initiative after the Muslim community and the CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) made the request to ensure people hear the sound, and they pray at home.  
 
“This will benefit the community and will provide a sense of joy and hope during this difficult time,” the mayor said. He said he hopes the daily broadcast will send a message that his city cares about Muslim communities during this period.  
 
“We love you, you are part of this city, and we want you to be able to get through this hard time with as much comfort and community and family as possible,” the mayor said. 
 
Sheikh Abdirahman Sharif, the imam of the Mdar Al-Hjirah Mosque, welcomed the decision and thanked the mayor of Minneapolis for allowing Muslims to hear the sound of the call prayer and to be connected to their mosque. 
 
“It’s a historic moment that a metropolitan city like Minneapolis offers a permit to a mosque to broadcast the call to prayer,” said Sharif. “The mayor has shown heroism. It’s an honor for us to be the first mosque in the USA to perform this, and we hope other cities should follow suite.” 
 
The broadcasts from dawn to sunset will reach thousands of residents, most of them Muslims who are living near the mosque.  
 
Asked how non-Muslims living near the mosque will react to the Muslim call to prayer, the mayor says many different religions are able to practice in some way that requires sound. 
 
“Pretty much every religion out there celebrates in some form through sound. And we felt strongly and feel strongly that our Muslim community should be no different,” the mayor said. 
 
Iman Sharif said he does not believe the public call to prayer will not ignite any Islamophobic or anti-immigrants from neighborhoods around the mosque. 
 
“The plan was supported by neighboring churches, and plus we believe when non-Muslim residents hear the sound of call to prayer, it will reduce their concern and stress against Muslims,” Sharif said.  
 
The Cedar-Riverside area is home to a large Muslim population from East Africa, who hope the sound of prayer will be a connector for those stuck at home because of COVID-19. 
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The Trump administration is ordering a 60-day suspension of immigration into the United States, specifically for individuals seeking permanent residence, also known as a green card. Trump said the move is necessary to protect American workers already suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.  
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