This article was updated on July 17 at 2:45pm.Few things have captured Donald Trump’s fickle attention for long during the pandemic, but for the past 10 days, the president has been highly focused on one issue. He has insisted on the need for America’s schools to reopen in August with students in classrooms five days a week, hoping that this might revive the economy, and with it his reelection chances in November.
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says unhoused people living in encampments should be allowed to remain where they are to help stop the spread of COVID-19, we go to Philadelphia, where the mayor has postponed the eviction of an encampment planned for this morning. “The Philadelphia Housing Authority has about 5,000 vacant properties,” notes Sterling Johnson, an organizer with Black and Brown Workers Cooperative, who joins us from the camp.
The United States hit an all-time high of 75,600 new COVID cases Thursday — the largest number recorded in a single day since the pandemic began. Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says the spike in cases resulted from states rushing to reopen their economies. We speak with investigative journalist Sonia Shah about the government’s failed response, the false idea that the virus is a “foreign incursion,” and “vaccine nationalism.
As the coronavirus spreads in Yemen, where the population already devastated by the world’s worst humanitarian crisis faces growing hunger and aid shortages, the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed coalition continues to drop bombs in the country. We speak to Yemeni scholar Shireen Al-Adeimi, who calls the ongoing crisis “Trump’s war.” “We’re seeing death rates that are just astronomical,” Al-Adeimi says.
Editor’s note: This week’s newsletter spotlights some of our favorite Books Briefing reading lists from the past few months. We’ll be back with a fresh newsletter next week.
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What We’re Reading(HERITAGE IMAGES / GETTY)
Your socially distanced summer-reading list (May 15, 2020)
“Books to bring on an airplane. Books to enjoy at the beach.
At the posthumous retrial of Joan of Arc in 1455, two decades after she was burned at the stake as a witch and a heretic, she was declared an innocent martyr. During the trial, a personal valet offered evidence of Joan of Arc’s piety and purity during her 19 years on Earth: “She never suffered from the secret illness of women.” As far as the people closest to her knew, he claimed, she never got her period.
My new husband is definitely Type 2.
Parenting advice on racial slurs, babysitting payment, and siblings’ front-seat wars.
We’re economists, and our analysis suggests Congress is seriously underfunding efforts to combat Covid-19.
An extension would give taxpayers until Oct. 15 to file their returns, though they would still have to pay what they owe by July 15.
The acting chair of the CEA will leave Trump without another senior economist as discussions start about a new economic aid package.
“We have a long road ahead of us to get those people back to work,” Jerome Powell said earlier this week.
As COVID-19 cases soar in the U.S. South and Southwest, we go to the hot spot of Arizona, where 88% of ICU beds are full and the family of one man accuses Arizona Governor Ducey and President Trump of being directly responsible for his death, after they downplayed the threat of the virus and obstructed local officials from requiring masks even as Arizona’s case numbers were exploding.
Phase 3 re-openings in Europe and North America, locust swarms in India, sunset soccer in Indonesia, a seawater pool in France, in-stream dining in Kuala Lumpur, flooding on the Yangtze river, Sammy the Seal in England, Godzilla in Yokosuka, Bastille Day fireworks in Paris, and much more.
Stores nationwide have reopened and in the process, many of them have implemented safety precautions to protect workers and shoppers from COVID-19. Recent research has shown that wearing a mask can significantly prevent contraction of COVID-19, yet some people still resist—and some do so violently.
There are a few things that equal the mediocrity and base idiocy of Donald Trump. Their names are Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and Jared. But, the greasy, sweaty, desperate nature of Donald Trump Jr. has a special patina of existential impotency that is hard to ignore. It’s hard to ignore, in part, because not unlike his father, Junior speaks at a loud blunt volume of dumb about 100% of the time.
Donald Trump Jr.’s newest idea is to self-publish a new book.
FRIDAY HARBOR, Washington—After a striking absence for most of the spring, the San Juan Islands’ Southern Resident killer whales made their return this month in glorious fashion: a full-on daily display of frolicking and foraging orcas by the 22 members of the J pod. Best of all, they appear to be well-fed and comparatively healthy.
New body-camera footage obtained by CNN Wednesday revealed that George Floyd’s final words were the same words uttered by Eric Garner in his last of 11 attempts to get New York City police officers to spare his life. “I can’t breathe,” both Black men said before they died. Both incidents led to protests throughout the nation.
Both men left behind children who are now without fathers.
The state asks a judge to overturn Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ orders that are more restrictive than Governor Brian Kemp’s, block her from issuing any more such orders.
Alarm over the missing data, which was restored Thursday, became the latest source of tension between the CDC and administration officials.
“I don’t think that should surprise anybody,” President Donald Trump’s niece told MSNBC.
The national “debate” over whether to do the literally smallest possible thing to end the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States—put on a damn mask when in a public place—continues to be virulently stupid and good evidence the United States really is an “exceptional” country in, ahem, at least one unfortunate way. We are extremely fortunate in that masks appear to be reasonably effective in combating this particular virus.
Hospital chains saw the summer as a potential respite when they could resume elective procedures. But that effort is colliding with a surge in new coronavirus cases nationwide.
Everyone thought they had a little more time to extend aid to Americans, but they apparently circled the wrong date.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Seema Verma has disputed the report, calling its findings “disingenuous.
Donald Trump’s niece said Ivanka “spouts bromides on social media, but either she tries to have an impact and fails, or just isn’t interested in having an impact.
Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.SPENCER PLATT / GETTYThis spring, the U.S. effectively paused its economy in order to buy its medical system some time in the fight against the coronavirus. But the country squandered the moment, failing to get the virus under control—and likely lengthening the economic drought.
The change in federal policy comes as surging coronavirus cases have strained the nation’s testing capacity
On this episode of the podcast Social Distance, the staff writer James Hamblin and the executive producer Katherine Wells discuss the perils of air travel and the best ways to prepare for it.Listen here:Subscribe to Social Distance on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or another podcast platform to receive new episodes as soon as they’re published.What follows is an edited and condensed transcript of their conversation.
