“GENEVA — Deaths from COVID-19 and COVID-related causes are likely to be two to three times the number that countries have recorded in their official data, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
Some six to eight million people may have now died from COVID-19 or its effects since the start of the pandemic, compared with 3.4 million deaths recorded in countries’ official reporting, Dr. Samira Asma, assistant director of the WHO’s data division, told reporters.
The WHO also estimates that at least three million people may have died from COVID-19 in 2020, compared with 1.8 million recorded in official data.” Read more at Boston Globe
“In what White House press secretary Jen Psaki called ‘the art of seeking common ground,’ President Biden made a $1.7 trillion infrastructure proposal as a counteroffer to the GOP's $568 billion plan. The new White House plan, which is down from the original $2.3 trillion proposal, lowers funding for roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects, while also shifting funding for research and development to other bills that Congress is considering. The White House has set a Memorial Day deadline for making progress on infrastructure talks, but the Biden administration and Republicans remain divided both on the scope of the infrastructure plan and how it will be funded. While the White House has proposed raising the corporate tax rate, Republicans adamantly oppose doing so and would rather fund the plan by charging people fees to use the infrastructure. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the GOP would support a plan costing up to $800 billion. Psaki has indicated that Biden is unwilling to make the major compromises necessary to get down to that number, saying that the Republican offer ‘excludes entirely some proposals that are key to our competitiveness,’ including ‘critical investments in our power sector, building and construction, workforce training, veterans hospital construction and the care economy.’” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Israel's and Hamas's fragile truce was holding on Saturday, with both sides declaring a win at the end of 11 days of fighting. Hamas wasted no time proclaiming victory in the nearly two-week conflict that killed more than 200 people, mostly in Gaza. For the militant group, its willingness to fire thousands of rockets toward Israel increased its popularity among some Palestinians while also undermining the standing of the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. While militarily Hamas was outmatched, some say that its operation was a political win. Hamas, which started firing rockets at Israel in response to Israeli police actions at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and the possible eviction of Palestinian families in the city’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, also helped trigger communal violence between Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens for the first time in decades. ‘On the military battleground, they were defeated,’ said retired Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, the former head of analysis at Israel’s military intelligence agency. ‘But on the political level, Hamas doesn’t fight Israel—it fights Abu Mazen and the moderates in the Arab world. And there, they have succeeded regardless of what has happened on the military battleground.’
For Israel, the days of fighting ‘changed the equation’ with Hamas, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the barrage of airstrikes and ground attacks have inflicted blows that the Islamist movement and the general public have yet to fully comprehend. The Israeli military said the attacks destroyed a network of some 60 miles of tunnels in Gaza that were used to transport rockets and personnel, as well as part of Hamas' weapons manufacturing capabilities. Many in Israel wanted Netanyahu to continue the military assault and, upon announcement of the cease-fire, Netanyahu was assailed by political foes and allies for what they called a premature end to the campaign. It's unclear how long the truce will last, but one Israeli military official said that for the fighting to have been a success, no attacks should be launched from Gaza for ‘at least five years.’” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“A Georgia state judge on Friday ordered Fulton County to allow a group of local voters to inspect all 147,000 mail-in ballots cast in the 2020 election in response to a lawsuit alleging that officials accepted thousands of counterfeit ballots.
The decision marks the latest instance of a local government being forced to undergo a third-party inspection of its election practices amid baseless accusations promoted by President Donald Trump that fraud flipped the 2020 contest for President Biden.
The inspection in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, is likely to proceed differently than an audit underway in Maricopa County, Ariz., where Republican state senators ordered county election officials to hand over equipment and ballots to a private company called Cyber Ninjas for examination. That process has come under widespread criticism for lacking security measures and failing to follow the rigorous practices of government recounts. On Thursday, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) urged local officials to toss their machines after the audit is complete because their security is now in doubt.
In Georgia, Superior Court Judge Brian Amero ruled on Friday that the nine plaintiffs and their experts could examine copies of the ballots but never touch the originals, which will remain in the possession of Fulton election officials. Further details of how the inspection will proceed are expected next week, said one of the plaintiffs, Garland Favorito.
The order for the new ballot inspection comes after Georgia officials did three separate audits of the vote last year, including a hand recount, which produced no evidence of widespread fraud.” Read more at Washington Post
Ouija, a Dutch Shepherd that has been taking part in testing at the National Veterinary School of Alfort in France.
PHOTO: DMITRY KOSTYUKOV FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL“Dogs have long been trained to detect odors associated with drugs or explosives and to identify diseases like cancer, malaria and diabetes. Soon, the four-legged animals and their more than 300 million scent receptors could be detecting Covid-19 at an event near you. Theoretically, any dog can be trained to detect the disease in humans within weeks. Studies have shown that the animals can identify Covid-19 with roughly 82% to 99% sensitivity and 84% to 98% specificity, meaning dogs may be more precise than many rapid antigen tests. A test’s sensitivity indicates its ability to correctly detect an infection, while its specificity shows how well it can avoid giving false positives. There are still plenty of unanswered questions, such as if Covid-19-sniffing dogs can be confused by other viruses or by vaccinations. But countries such as the United Arab Emirates are already investing in training dogs to screen people. The U.A.E. has 39 dogs being used to screen people at malls and public events and in crowded living facilities. In France, about 1,000 dogs are already working for government institutions and could soon be trained to detect Covid-19 at places such as airports, concerts and sports venues. Dominique Grandjean, a researcher in France who was among the first to evaluate the potential of Covid-19-sniffing dogs, says that dog screenings would cost as little as one euro per person ($1.22) as opposed to roughly €75 for a nasal swab test. The World Health Organization said that trained dogs could be used to screen hundreds of people daily.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“LONDON — British broadcaster BBC, seen as a respected source of news and information around the world, is facing questions at home about its integrity following a scathing report on its explosive 1995 interview with Princess Diana.
Britain’s justice secretary said Friday that the government would review the rules governing oversight of the BBC after an investigation found that one of its journalists used ‘deceitful behavior’ to secure the interview and the corporation obscured this misconduct for 25 years.
Princes William and Harry, Diana’s sons, excoriated the BBC late Thursday, saying there was a direct link between the interview and their mother’s death in a traffic accident two years later as she and a companion were being pursued by paparazzi.” Read more at Boston Globe
“WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Prisons, its staff depleted by Trump-era hiring freezes, is advertising for thousands of jobs. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is bringing on dozens of lawyers after being gutted by four years of budget cuts. The Agriculture Department is moving to replace hundreds of scientists who fled or were forced out by the last administration.
At the Justice Department, officials are looking to hire civil rights attorneys — and the Energy Department is recruiting for senior energy efficiency and renewable energy roles that went unfilled when Donald Trump was president.
That’s a fraction of the growth in the federal bureaucracy that the Biden administration would like to see, according to a $1.5 trillion preliminary budget the White House released in April, which directs billions of dollars into hiring to help curb climate change, restore enforcement of environmental and workplace laws, and expand safety net programs in housing, education, public health, and veterans’ health.
President Biden vowed during his campaign to restore faith in a federal bureaucracy his predecessor villainized as an unaccountable ‘deep state’ — and with debate stirring in Congress on $6 trillion in spending proposed by the White House, that shift now involves persuading Americans to embrace a bigger government.
Already, the vision is colliding with the reality that even in just a single term, Trump succeeded in his goal of cleaving and disrupting the federal government.
Some programs that are crucial to Biden’s agenda are so short-staffed that his administration can’t yet fully implement his policies, among them enforcement of fair-housing and workplace safety laws. A number of decisions by the Trump administration, including the relocation of key economic research and land management offices, are proving hard to reverse.
The annual list of troubled federal programs, released in March by the Government Accountability Office, is longer than ever, a shift workforce experts attribute to vast areas of the government the Trump administration ignored. Auditors spotlighted ‘high-risk’ areas vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement, ranging from oversight of the federal prison system to the Department of Health and Human Services’ leadership and coordination of public health emergencies.” Read more at Boston Globe
“In 2008, deep-blue California banned same-sex marriage. In 2018, steadfastly conservative Arkansas and Missouri increased their minimum wage. And last year, Republican-controlled Arizona and Montana legalized recreational marijuana.
These moves were all the product of ballot initiatives, a century-old fixture of American democracy that allows voters to bypass their legislatures to enact new laws, often with results that defy the desires of the state’s elected representatives. While they have been a tool of both parties in the past, Democrats have been particularly successful in recent years at using ballot initiatives to advance their agenda in conservative states where they have few other avenues.
But this year, Republican-led legislatures in Florida, Idaho, South Dakota and other states have passed laws limiting the use of the practice, one piece of a broader G.O.P. attempt to lock in political control for years to come, along with new laws to restrict voting access and the partisan redrawing of congressional districts that will take place in the coming months.
So far in 2021, Republicans have introduced 144 bills to restrict the ballot initiative processes in 32 states, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a liberal group that tracks and assists citizen-driven referendums. Of those bills, 19 have been signed into law by nine Republican governors. In three states, Republican lawmakers have asked voters to approve ballot initiatives that in fact limit their own right to bring and pass future ballot initiatives.” Read more at New York Times
“The three known survivors of the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Okla., in which white mobs gunned down Black people in the streets and Black-owned businesses were burned to the ground, appeared before a congressional committee on Wednesday, arguing that justice was far overdue.
Adding a personal touch to a House Judiciary subcommittee considering reparations for survivors and descendants of the massacre, the three centenarians recalled how the violence, among the worst attacks of racial violence in U.S. history, changed the trajectory of their lives. They described feeling safe, even prosperous, before the attack, surrounded by friends and family in a neighborhood of mostly Black-owned businesses.
Then, on June 1, a day that is rarely mentioned in history textbooks, the neighborhood of Greenwood, home to a business district known as Black Wall Street, was destroyed by a white mob. The mob looted and set fire to the businesses, and historians estimate up to 300 people were killed, 8,000 left homeless, 23 churches burned and more than 1,200 homes destroyed.” Read more at New York Times
“Wyoming state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, a Republican who has announced his intention to challenge Rep. Liz Cheney (R) for her House seat, acknowledged Thursday that he had impregnated a 14-year-old and had a relationship with her when he was 18, comparing the teen intimacy to Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Romeo and Juliet.’
Bouchard first acknowledged that he impregnated a girl when he was 18 in a Facebook Live video, but did not initially disclose her age. He confirmed to the Casper Star-Tribune that the girl was 14 and the couple, who were both living in Florida, later married when she was 15 and he was 19.
‘So, bottom line, it’s a story when I was young, two teenagers, girl gets pregnant. You’ve heard those stories before,’ he said in the Facebook Live video. ‘She was a little younger than me, so it’s like the Romeo and Juliet story.’
An 18-year-old having sex with a 14-year-old is considered statutory rape in most states. His actions would have been illegal under current Florida state law. It’s not clear what Florida’s laws were at the time as Bouchard did not specify the year the girl was impregnated. In cases where a pregnancy was involved, Florida law at the time allowed for people to marry at any age with a judge’s approval and consent from a parent.” Read more at Washington Post
“Two federal prison officers charged with neglecting their duties when accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in a Manhattan jail cell are expected to avoid prison time as part of deal struck Friday with federal prosecutors.
Officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, who were assigned to Epstein's special housing unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center during the August 2019 overnight shift, admitted that they ‘willfully and knowingly’ falsified documents showing that they had conducted required cell patrols, according to court documents.
At the time they should have been tending to their duties, prosecutors had asserted that the officers appeared to be sleeping, lingering in an office common area or browsing the Internet.” Read more at USA Today
“Louisiana State Police on Friday released body-camera videos from the arrest of Ronald Greene, a Black man whose death in custody triggered fresh outrage this week after leaked footage showed Greene pleading with troopers who stunned him, dragged him and left him shackled facedown.
State Police Superintendent Col. Lamar Davis also said he had replaced the leader of a troop dogged by allegations of abuse and made other changes to his command staff. Video of Greene’s May 2019 arrest obtained by the Associated Press — withheld for two years by authorities amid accusations of a coverup — added to mounting scrutiny of Troop F, which saw four of its members charged this year after an excessive force investigation.” Read more at Washington Post
“715% — The increase in the number of people screened at TSA checkpoints for the first 16 days of May compared with last year. While the numbers are still down 35% in comparison to 2019 due to restrictions in international travel and a decline in business trips, it is still evidence of a solid recovery.
$408 — The average price of a round-trip ticket sold in early May for summer travel, just $18 less than the same period in 2019. Tickets bought for this summer in the fourth quarter of last year were $71 cheaper on average.
$18,000 — The approximate average proposed fine by the Federal Aviation Administration for passengers who have engaged in disruptive behavior during the pandemic. In two thirds of the 18 cases against passengers, masks were specifically mentioned as a trigger for arguments between passengers and crew.
56.7% — The percentage of hotel rooms that were filled during the week of May 2-8, an eight-week low and below both the 2020 and 2019 level for the same period. That reflects an increasing supply in available hotel rooms, with many now beginning to reopen. For the same week last year, 68.1% of hotel rooms were filled, with many being used by traveling healthcare workers.
76% — The percentage that the number of people arriving to the U.S. by air is down compared with 2019 levels. This fiscal year, only 2.5 million international air passengers have arrived each month, compared with 10.6 million a month during 2019.
59 — The number of flights Delta and United will operate to Dubrovnik, Croatia, in July and August, compared with zero in the summer of 2019. Dubrovnik has become a popular destination because Croatia has declared itself open to any tourist who is vaccinated or can provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“LONDON — Britain’s Prince Harry revealed more of his mental suffering — and anger at his father, heir to the throne — in a series of interviews with his production partner, Oprah Winfrey, revealing that he spent years drinking excessively and taking drugs to numb the pain of his mother’s death and to calm his anxiety at performing royal duties.
The deeply personal narrative by the runaway prince is being rolled out in a series of episodes of a new documentary series, called ‘The Me You Can’t See,’ that the prince is co-creating with Winfrey for the streaming service Apple TV Plus. The series deploys celebrities — Harry, singer Lady Gaga, actress Glenn Close, basketball star DeMar DeRozan — to both de-stigmatize mental illness and draw more eyeballs.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Friday blasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over her mask policy for the House floor, likening it to the Holocaust.
‘This woman is mentally ill,’ Greene said on Real America’s Voice. ‘You know, we can look back at a time in history when people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany. And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.’
The comments mark the latest in a string of controversial remarks for Greene.” Read more at The Hill
“An FBI intelligence analyst has been charged with removing caches of classified documents, including sensitive information on government informants and national defense, for more than a decade and storing them at her home.
The indictment unsealed against Kendra Kingsbury, 48, of Dodge City, Kansas, charged her with two counts of unauthorized possession of national defense documents. The charges did not include allegations that the analyst had shared the information.
Kingsbury is scheduled for arraignment June 1 in Kansas City, Missouri. An attorney for the analyst could not be reached for comment.” Read more at USA Today
“More than half a million bees died in Massachusetts after they were left on a hot UPS truck for weeks, according to CBS Boston.
A million bees were meant to be shipped to beekeepers in New England, but were held up in the town of Shrewsbury, nearly 50 miles west of Boston, due to faulty packaging, according to UPS. A beekeeper had been called in by UPS on Wednesday because they had been getting loose, but more than half of the bees had already died. Whatever bees survived were located and released by the beekeeper UPS brought in.
Anita Deeley, a former Massachusetts Department of Agriculture inspector and a beekeeper, told the station the situation was, ‘really, really sad, ‘and the bees could have been saved if someone was called immediately.” Read more at USA Today
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