Tensions between Washington and Beijing escalated as President Trump said the U.S. death toll could reach , . The Supreme Court will hear cases remotely for the first time.
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J. Crew filed for bankruptcy protection, the first major U.S. retail business to fall victim to the pandemic.
President Trump accused the Chinese government of making a “horrible mistake” in its coronavirus response and of then orchestrating a cover-up that allowed the pathogen to spread around the world.
“My opinion is they made a mistake. They tried to cover it, they tried to put it out. It’s like a fire, ”Mr. Trump said on Sunday night during a virtual town hall on Fox News . “You know, it’s really like trying to put out a fire. They couldn’t put out the fire. ”
Mr. Trump, who has come under fierce criticism for his handling of the crisis, also issued the latest in a series of accusations from members of his administration laying blame on China for the creation and spread of the virus.
“We’re going to be giving a very strong report as to exactly what we think happened, ”Mr. Trump said. “And I think it will be very conclusive.”
Speaking on the ABC program “This Week,” Mr. Pompeo, the former C.I.A. chief and one of the senior administration officials who is most hawkish on dealing with China, said that there was “enormous evidence” that the coronavirus came from the lab but then declined to provide any details. He also said he agreed with the intelligence assessment.
The theories are not mutually exclusive: Some officials who have examined the intelligence Reports, which remain classified, say it is possible that an animal infected with the coronavirus in the laboratory was destroyed and that a lab worker was accidentally infected in the process. But that is just one of many theories still being examined.
China has previously denied the virus originated in a laboratory.
the editor in chief of the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, condemned the US administration for making accusations without presenting evidence.
“Don’t just say there’s enormous evidence, Pompeo should present them to the world, ”the editor, Hu Xijin, wrote on Twitter “By demanding to investigate Wuhan lab they are trying to create continuous controversy and focus, to fool the American public.”
China’s state-run news agency Xinhua released an animated video featuring Lego-like figures representing the two countries mocking the United States response to the virus.
The Times’s chief diplomatic correspondent for Europe, Steven Erlanger, reports that a backlash across the globe is building against Beijing for its initial mishandling of the crisis, creating a deeply polarizing battle of narratives and setting back China’s ambition to fill the leadership vacuum left by the United States .
J. Crew, known for producing preppy fashion with mass market appeal, filed for bankruptcy on Monday. The company is the first major retailer to fall victim to the pandemic that has hobbled the world economy.
J. Crew had struggled to keep up with changing tastes, but appeared to be adapting in recent months. The company had been planning an initial public offering this spring of Madewell, a popular denim brand among millennials, to pay down debt and revamp the J. Crew brand.
While it is the first major retailer to fall to the coronavirus, J. Crew is unlikely to be the last. The pandemic halved sales of clothing and related accessories in March and is believed to have had an even greater effect in April.
The pandemic’s economic repercussions will become clearer on Tuesday when Disney, which has been devastated by the coronavirus after a decade of spectacular growth, reports quarterly earnings .
Analysts are expecting per-share profit of (cents) , down 75 percent.
“From great to good to bad to ugly,” Michael Nathanson, a leading media analyst, wrote in a report of Disney’s extreme reversal in fortunes. “Recession will cause further pain.”
A few months ago, a coalition of news organizations asked the Supreme Court to allow live audio coverage of major arguments on gay rights and immigration. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. rejected the request within hours, in keeping with longstanding practice at an institution that almost never departs from tradition.
But on Monday, the court will break with history twice : hearing the first of 14 cases that will be argued in a telephone conference call and letting the public listen in. It is a momentous step for a cautious and secretive institution and yet another way in which the coronavirus pandemic has forced American society to adjust to a new reality.
“It’s a remarkable development and completely unexpected,” said Bruce Collins, general counsel of C-SPAN, which will offer live coverage of the arguments.
Among the cases the justices will hear by phone over the next two weeks are three on May (about subpoenas from prosecutors and Congress (seeking President Trump’s financial records) , which could yield a politically explosive decision this summer as the presidential campaign enters high gear.
Now that those barriers have been broken, the question is whether at least some of the changes may last beyond the coming two weeks.
The justices may not return to the bench in October if the virus is still a threat, as several of them are in the demographic group thought to be most at risk. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is , and Justice Stephen G. Breyer is 100. Four additional members of the court – Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Sonia Sotomayor – are 90 or older.
, and even as he pressed states to begin reopening their shuttered economies, parks, beaches and, by this fall, in-person school classes.
“We’re going to lose anywhere from 84, to , people, ”he said in a virtual town hall meeting on Fox News. “That’s a horrible thing. We shouldn’t lose one person over this. ”
But he credited himself with preventing the toll from being worse. “If we didn’t do it, the minimum we would have lost was a million two, a million four, a million five, that’s the minimum. We would have lost probably higher. ”
He acknowledged he was warned about the coronavirus in his regular intelligence briefing on Jan. 31 But asserted that the information was characterized as if “it was not a big deal.”
“On Jan. 31, I was told that there could be a virus coming in but it was of no real import, ”Mr. Trump said. “In other words, it wasn’t,‘ Oh, we’ve got to do something, we’ve got to do something. ’It was a brief conversation and it was only on Jan. 31. Shortly thereafter, I closed the country to China. ”
Mr. Trump said his travel limit, which was not absolute , was not driven by the Jan. 31 warning. “I didn’t do it because of what they said,” he noted. “They said it very matter-of-factly, it was not a big deal.”
During the Fox broadcast, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democrat presidential candidate, posted a short video on social media criticizing the incumbent’s leadership during the pandemic.
“Donald Trump thought the job was about tweets and rallies and big parades, ”a narrator says. “He never thought he’d have to protect nearly 2020 million Americans. So he did. ”
Some Angelenos complained on social media that there were no time slots available on the website, which states that testing is available by appointment only, with priority given to front-line workers and people with symptoms of Covid – . The tests are free for all residents of Los Angeles County, which is collaborating with the city on the effort.
The website made its debut last week after Mayor Eric M. Garcetti declared that Los Angeles would become the first major US city to offer all residents tests for the virus, which health officials said on Sunday had caused (1,
Mr. Garcetti said on Friday that he was very confident of the ability of the website to keep up with the demand for tests.
All of the appointments for Monday and Tuesday have been booked, according to the mayor’s office, which advised residents to keep checking for slots. The city and county have the capacity to do , (tests a day across 60 sites, Los Angeles officials said.
This plexiglass barrie r that can be mounted on a desk is one of many ideas being mulled by employers as they contemplate a return to the office after coronavirus lockdowns. Their post-pandemic makeovers may include hand sanitizers built into desks that are positioned at – degree angles or that are enclosed by translucent plastic partitions; outdoor gathering space to allow collaboration without viral transmission; and windows that actually open, for freer air flow.
The conversation about how to reconfigure the American office is taking place throughout the business world, and the question is whether any of the changes being contemplated will actually result in safer workplaces.
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“We are not infectious disease experts, we are simply furniture people,” said Tracy D. Wymer, vice president for workplace at Knoll, a company that makes office furniture and has been engaged by anxious clients to come up with ways to make workplaces less of a health risk.
The actual disease experts say that a virus-free office environment is a pipe dream. Dr. Rajneesh Behal, an internal medicine physician and the chief quality officer of One Medical, a primary-care chain that recently held a webinar for businesses on how to reopen, said, “A core message is, do not expect your risk goes down to zero . ”
On Sunday, Mr. Pence said he had made a mistake.
“I didn’t think it was necessary, but I should have worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic and I wore it when I visited the ventilator plant in Indiana, ”he said during an appearance on Fox News.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who made it a requirement that people in New York wear masks in public , said that it was “a sign of respect” to don the protective gear, showing that you care not only about your own health but about the well-being of your neighbor.
The decision not to wear a mask has, for some, become a rebellion against what they regard as an incursion on their personal liberties. For many others, the choice is a casual one more about convenience than politics. The choice can also be a reflection of vanity, or of not understanding when or where to wear one. Some people said they found masks uncomfortable, and thus a nuisance they were unwilling to tolerate. Others were skeptical about how much difference they made outside on a sunny day.
At least 19 countries began easing restrictions on public life on Monday, as the world tried to figure out how to placate restless populations tired of being inside and reboot stalled economies without creating opportunities for the coronavirus to re-emerge.
The steps, which include reopening schools and allowing airports to begin domestic service, offer the rest of the world a preview of how areas that have managed to blunt the toll of the coronavirus might work toward resuming their pre-pandemic lives. They also serve as test cases for whether the countries can maintain their positive momentum through the reopenings, or if the desire for normalcy could place more people at risk.
Most of the countries easing their restrictions are in Europe, including Italy, one of the places where the virus hit earliest and hardest, leaving (more than) , (dead) . The country plans to reopen some airports to passengers.
In Lebanon, bars and restaurants will reopen, while Poland plans to allow patrons to return to hotels, museums and shops.
India allowed businesses, local transportation and activities like weddings to resume in areas with few or no known infections. Wedding ceremonies with fewer than guests would be permitted and self-employed workers like maids and plumbers can return to work.
From the early. days of the Trump administration, Stephen Miller, the president’s chief adviser on immigration, has repeatedly tried to use an obscure law designed to protect the nation from diseases overseas as a way to tighten the borders.
Mr. Miller pushed for invoking the president’s (broad public health powers) in 6153895786001, when an outbreak of mumps spread through immigration detention facilities in six states. He tried again that year when Border Patrol stations were hit with the flu .
when vast caravans of migrants surged toward the border in 4043548, Mr. Miller looked for evidence that they carried illnesses. He asked for updates on American communities that received migrants to see if new disease was spreading there.
In
, dozens of migrants became seriously ill in federal custody, and two under the age of 18 died within three weeks of each other. While many viewed the incidents as resulting from negligence on the part of the border authorities, Mr. Miller instead argued that they supported his argument that President Trump should use his public health powers to justify sealing the borders.
On some occasions, Mr. Miller and the president, who also embraced these ideas, were talked down by cabinet secretaries and lawyers who argued that the public health situation at the time did not provide sufficient legal basis for such a proclamation.
Thousands of Palestinian workers have crossed into Israel, and there’s a fear that they might carry the virus home with them.
Reporting was contributed by Brooks Barnes, David Sanger, Marc Santora, Peter Baker, Adam Liptak, Rick Rojas, Caitlin Dickerson, Michael D. Shear, Matt Richtel and Neil Vigdor.
, and World Central Kitchen has stepped in to distribute meals in major cities. More than , coronavirus-related GoFundMe fund-raisers have started in the past few weeks. (The sheer number of fund-raisers means more of them are likely to fail to meet their goal, though.) () I should wear a mask ?
The C.D.C. has has (recommended) that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms . Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing.
() How do I get tested ?
If you’re sick and you think you’ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the CDC recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’s a chance – because of a lack of testing kits or because you’re asymptomatic, for instance – you won’t be able to get tested.
() How does coronavirus spread?
It seems to spread very easily from person to person, especially in homes, hospitals and other confined spaces. The pathogen can be carried on tiny respiratory droplets that fall as they are coughed or sneezed out. It may also be transmitted when we touch a contaminated surface and then touch our face.
() Is there a vaccine yet ?
No. Clinical trials are underway
. in the United States, China and Europe. But American officials and pharmaceutical executives have said that a vaccine remains at least (to) months away. () What makes this outbreak so different?
Unlike the flu, there is no known treatment or vaccine, and little is known about this particular virus so far. It seems to be more lethal than the flu, but the numbers are still uncertain. And it hits the elderly and those with underlying conditions – not just those with respiratory diseases – particularly hard.
() What if somebody in my country family gets sick?
If the family member does not need hospitalization and can be cared for at home, you should help him or her with basic needs and monitor the symptoms, while also keeping as much distance as possible,
according to the guidelines issued by the CDC If there’s space, the sick family member should stay in a separate room and use a separate bathroom. If masks are available, both the sick person and the caregiver should wear them when the caregiver enters the room. Make sure not to share any dishes or other household items and to regularly clean surfaces like counters, doorknobs, toilets and tables. Don’t forget to wash your hands frequently. () I must stock up on groceries?
Plan two weeks of meals if possible. But people should not hoard food or supplies. Despite the empty shelves, the supply chain remains strong. And remember to wipe the handle of the grocery cart with a disinfecting wipe and wash your hands as soon as you get home.
() Can I go to the park?
Yes, but make sure you keep six feet of distance between you and people who don’t live in your home. Even if you just hang out in a park, rather than go for a jog or a walk, getting some fresh air, and hopefully sunshine, is a good idea.
() I should pull my money from the markets?
That’s not a good idea. Even if you’re retired, having a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds so that your money keeps up with inflation, or even grows, makes sense. But retirees may want to think about having enough cash set aside for a year’s worth of living expenses and big payments needed over the next five years.
() What should I do with my (k)?
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