Big Time News Blog: 04/18/20

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Hannity Lauds South Dakota, Home of Worst U.S. Virus Cluster, for Never Having to Shut Down

Fox News host Sean Hannity touted South Dakota on Thursday night as a state that has never had to shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, leaving unmentioned that it is home to the country’s worst coronavirus cluster.Applauding President Donald Trump’s latest guidelines for governors to explore reopening their states during the crisis, Hannity kicked off his primetime broadcast by pointing to the Upper Midwest state as a good example of an area that can quickly get back to work.“Earlier today, [Trump] unveiled—finally we can hopefully move on— the federal government’s three-phase plan to reopen America again,” he said. “Starting as early as May 1 but actually earlier in some places. South Dakota never closed—at all! Even their restaurants stayed open.”Later in Hannity’s monologue, after noting that many industries and essential businesses have remained open through the pandemic, he once again pointed to the state as an exemplar for returning to normal.“The details of this plan include what will be a data-driven, multi-layered model that allows governors to react to their own state’s unique circumstances,” Hannity said. “For example, densely populated New York City will not be on the same timeline as Montana or South Dakota, which never shut down anything.”South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, however, has come under fire recently for refusing to implement statewide stay-at-home orders even though her state’s confirmed cases have been surging and a pork processing plant in Sioux Falls has now become the largest single-source hotspot in the country. “I don’t believe it’s appropriate considering the data, the facts, and the science that we have,” Noem, a Republican, said Tuesday amid calls for her to sign a shelter-in-place order.Besides holding up a state that’s currently seeing a surge in coronavirus cases as a place that doesn’t need social distancing restrictions, the TV talk show host unveiled his personal plan to reopen Yankee Stadium and other New York City sports venues in the near future. The city, of course, is the epicenter of the pandemic and has already had more than 11,000 deaths.Hannity, who workshopped his proposal during an earlier radio interview with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, explained that his plan would call for all stadium workers to be tested for COVID-19 daily and attendees to have their temperature taken before entering the stadium. Saying he would also agree to wear a mask and gloves to attend a game, Hannity then weighed in on what concessions could be served. “You probably can’t eat popcorn because you have to keep your mask on the whole time, but you could probably eat a hot dog,” he enthusiastically proclaimed. “Open up your respirator, take a bite, and you chew it under your mask. I have to drink my beer if I’m at a game, so if I have to use a straw and slip it in, I will do that. Whatever it takes to get my beer, I want to have a beer.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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The 10 Most Challenging Puzzles To Try While You Stay Home

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Beijing Admits to Undercounting Coronavirus Deaths, Raises Wuhan Death Toll by 50 Percent

The Chinese Communist Party has revised its reported death count in Wuhan by exactly 50 percent, an attempt to improve the “credibility of the government” as residents and experts have warned the actual count is far higher that what's been previously reported.In an interview Friday with the Xinhua state news agency, officials pointed to unreported deaths at homes as the reason for the revision, to show "accountability to history, to the people and the victims," and to promote "open and transparent disclosure of information and data accuracy." Deaths rose 1,290 to 3,869 in the revised number.But Wuhan residents have warned that the death count is at least 40,000, pointing to increased demands on funeral homes and cremation numbers, which the government has censored reporting on. U.S. intelligence has also told the White House that mid-level bureaucrats in Wuhan have been lying about the number of cases, with some experts estimating that the total caseload in China could be close to three million, way above the official count of over 82,000 officially confirmed cases.“The provinces report nonsense, such as Jiangsu with zero deaths in a population of 80 million,” Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute told National Review. “The lessons China learned are all wasted, even harmful if decision-makers elsewhere believe China is offering accurate information and represents a model.”Wuhan lifted its total lockdown earlier this month, but city doctors have warned that tens of thousands of asymptomatic cases could exist, in comments that were subsequently removed from publication by the government.

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China says there has never been a cover-up on coronavirus outbreak

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Friday there has never been a cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak in China and the government does not allow any cover-ups. Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing that the revision of the case toll in Wuhan, where the epidemic first emerged in late 2019, was the result of a statistical verification to ensure accuracy and that revision is a common international practice. Wuhan's health authority earlier on Thursday revised up its cumulative death toll by 50% to 3,869 to rectify what it called incorrect reporting, delays and omissions.

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Turkish Banks Ask Regulator to Help Smooth Tensions With Erdogan

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IMF, World Bank pledge help amid calls for more debt relief

The 189-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending agency, the World Bank, on Friday pledged to step up their efforts to cushion the blow to the global economy from the coronavirus pandemic. The two agencies' assurance came at the end of their spring meeting where they heard calls for them to provide more debt relief to poorer nations being battered by the health crisis. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President David Malpass both stressed that their agencies are well aware of the rising threat from a health crisis that is expected to plunge the global economy into the deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

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Jeff Bezos Buys a Fourth Apartment in a Luxe Manhattan Building

It seems the Amazon CEO has plans to create a multi-floor dream home overlooking Madison Square Park

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Essential Gifts for Bakers That Go Beyond the Kitchen

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Small-business loan program ran out of money within minutes, some banks say

“It was Hunger Games,” said one senior banking executive.

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Biden looks to placate Sanders by letting him keep delegates

Seeking to avoid the bitter feelings that marred the 2016 Democratic convention, Joe Biden’s campaign is angling to allow Bernie Sanders to keep some of the delegates he would otherwise forfeit by dropping out of the presidential race. Under a strict application of party rules, Sanders should lose about a third of the delegates he’s won in primaries and caucuses as the process moves ahead and states select the actual people who will attend the Democratic National Convention. The rules say those delegates should be Biden supporters, as he is the only candidate still actively seeking the party’s nomination.

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CDC Wants to Know if Some Sailors on Stricken Carrier Developed Coronavirus Immunity

Medical personnel will take a nasal swab sample and blood tests for sailors on the carrier, which remains docked in Guam.

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Fact check: Trump did host rallies, play golf as as COVID-19 outbreak ramped up

A social media post implied that President Donald Trump was golfing or campaigning as the coronavirus spread. We find this to be true.

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Asia virus latest: China revises death toll, Duterte threatens crackdown

The Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged raised its death toll by 50 percent to a total of 3,869. The revision came as a growing chorus of world leaders suggested China had not been entirely open about the full domestic impact of the virus. The additional deaths in Wuhan were cases that were "mistakenly reported" or missed entirely, according to the official announcement.