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newstfionline · 3 years

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Thursday, February 4, 2021

Pressure builds on schools to reopen during pandemic (AP) Pressure is building on school systems around the U.S. to reopen classrooms to students who have been learning online for nearly a year, pitting politicians against teachers who have yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In Chicago, the rancor is so great that teachers are on the brink of striking. In California, a frustrated Gov. Gavin Newsom implored schools to find a way to reopen. In Cincinnati, some students returned to classrooms Tuesday after a judge threw out a teachers union lawsuit over safety concerns. While some communities maintain that online classes remain the safest option for everyone, some parents, with backing from politicians and administrators, have complained that their children’s education is suffering from sitting at home in front of their computers and that the isolation is damaging them emotionally. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a recent study that there is little evidence of the virus spreading at schools when precautions are taken, such as masks, distancing and proper ventilation. But many teachers have balked at returning without getting vaccinated first.

House Dems make case for conviction; Trump denies charges (AP) Donald Trump endangered the lives of all members of Congress when he aimed a mob of supporters “like a loaded cannon” at the U.S. Capitol, House Democrats said Tuesday in making their most detailed case yet for why the former president should be convicted and permanently barred from office. Trump denied the allegations through his lawyers and called the trial unconstitutional. The dueling filings offer the first public glimpse of the arguments that will be presented to the Senate beginning next week. The impeachment trial represents a remarkable reckoning with the violence in the Capitol last month, which the senators witnessed firsthand, and with Trump’s presidency overall. Held in the very chamber where the insurrectionists stood on Jan. 6, it will pit Democratic demands for a final measure of accountability against the desire of many Republicans to turn the page and move on. The impeachment trial, Trump’s second, begins in earnest on Feb. 9.

Activists wary of broader law enforcement after Capitol riot (AP) As federal officials grapple with how to confront the national security threat from domestic extremists after the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol, civil rights groups and communities of color are watching warily for any moves to expand law enforcement power or authority. They say their communities have felt the brunt of security scrutiny over the last two decades and fear new tools meant to target right-wing extremism or white nationalists risk harming Muslims, Black Americans and other groups, even if unintentionally. “The answer ought to be to sort of pause. Because the instinct to do something is something I’m really quite afraid of,” said Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, one of more than 130 civil and human rights organizations that say the FBI already has the tools it needs. “There’s an entire federal code in place that allows you to successfully go after this violence before you need to sort of say, ‘Oh, wait, you know, there’s this existing gap and we need more power,’” she added.

Jeff Bezos steps down (CJR) Jeff Bezos said yesterday that he will soon step down as CEO of Amazon. Andy Jassy, who runs the company’s cloud computing division, will replace him; Bezos will become executive chair, a role he says will give him more time to focus on outside commitments, including his ownership of the Washington Post. (As CNN’s Brian Fung noted, not many people can say “I’m quitting to spend more time with my newspaper and space rockets.”)

Dozen state police charged in the massacre of 19 in Mexico (AP) A dozen state police officers have been arrested for allegedly killing 19 people, including Guatemalan migrants, whose bodies were found shot and burned near the U.S. border late in January, Mexican authorities announced Tuesday. Tamaulipas state Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica said all 12 officers were in custody and face charges of homicide, abuse of authority and making false statements. The killings revived memories of the gruesome 2010 massacre of 72 migrants near the town of San Fernando in the same gang-ridden state. But those killings were done by a drug cartel, while it is likely many people will find it more shocking that the Jan. 22 slayings allegedly were carried out by law enforcement. The attorney general did not say what motive the officers might have had, though corrupt local and state police in Mexico are often in the pay of drug cartels. Cartels in Mexico often charge migrant smugglers for crossing their territory, and kidnap or kill migrants whose smugglers have not paid or paid a rival gang.

Common pots prepared by neighbors feeding thousands in Peru (AP) At dawn, Genoveva Satalaya and her neighbors walk through Lima’s food markets hoping to find a kind merchant who will donate food to help fill the “common pot” that is feeding their neighborhood. The survival strategy that first appeared in Peru’s capital during the country’s civil conflict four decades ago has been vital since the coronavirus pandemic arrived in this South American nation. With the country again under a lockdown, Satalaya’s pot is feeding 120 people, including seniors, children and pregnant women. Satalaya and her neighbors prepare lunch Monday through Friday. There’s not enough food for weekday breakfasts or dinners or weekend meals. The common pots, also seen in other Latin American countries, have emerged as a symbol of the struggles of the region. Thousands of them are in use throughout Peru at levels not seen since the 1980s and 1990s during the armed conflict between the state and the Shining Path terrorist group. There are almost a thousand common pots in Lima that are recognized by officials in the municipality, but many, including the one run by Satalaya, are not registered and do not receive any kind of help. The government announced last week that it would send aid to many common pots, but since there are so many, the help may not reach every neighborhood.

Tycoon Ordered to Demolish His $70M Home (The Daily Beast) A French property tycoon has been ordered to tear down his $70m faux-Italianate palazzo in the hills of Provence after losing a 15-year legal battle over the 32,000 square foot structure, which was built without planning permission. Patrick Diter has been given 18 months to scrub every last trace of “Chateau Diter,” including its 18 bedrooms, two helipads, swimming pool, bell tower, Roman colonnade and orangery, from the landscape above Monaco. Subscription newsletter AirMail reports that France’s highest judicial court upheld a previous ruling in the appellate courts that the illegal château near the Provençal village of Grasse must be removed and the countryside restored to its original state. If the court orders are not complied with by June 2022, Diter will pay a fine of $600 per day. The court also slapped Diter with fines totaling $550,000.

Hundreds Arrested as Navalny Sentenced (Foreign Policy) A Moscow court handed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny a prison sentence of two years and eight months on Tuesday, as authorities hope to put an end to a saga that has seen thousands of Russians take to the streets in protest over the last two weeks. The court found that Navalny had broken the terms of his probation for a previous conviction for stealing $500,000 from two companies. Navalny denies the charges, and the European Court of Human Rights at the time called the case “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable.” The reasoning behind his probation breach is murky, as Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have approved Navalny’s transfer to a German hospital for treatment after he was poisoned in August. Navalny’s relatively short prison term could soon be extended, as investigators prepare a fraud case that could carry another ten-year sentence. But Tuesday’s sentence may be just enough if it means Navalny will not be a threat in September’s parliamentary elections. The Kremlin has dismissed international condemnation of the verdict. “You should not interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. And we recommend that everyone deal with their own problems,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

India farming protests resonate with US agriculture (AP) Images of thousands of farmers streaming into India’s capital on tractors and carrying banners to decry potentially devastating changes in agricultural policy can seem a world away, but the protests in New Delhi raise issues that resonate in the United States. Indian farmers have left their homes to march through New Delhi in a desperate effort to force the repeal of laws they believe would end guaranteed pricing and force them to sell to powerful corporations rather than government-run markets. Despite decades of economic growth, up to half of India’s population relies on growing crops on small parcels of land, typically less than 3 acres, and farmers worry that without guaranteed prices they will be forced to sell their land and lose their livelihoods. The images of farmers marching through New Delhi recall similar scenes in Washington, D.C., during the farming crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when hundreds of trucks and tractors flooded the National Mall. Thousands of farmers lost their land, in part because of government policies that caused soaring interest rates as demand for their products plunged, leading to falling land values. In Iowa—one of the hardest hit states—there were about 500 farm auctions a month in 1983 when families had no choice but to sell. Decades later, those memories remain fresh for Rick Juchems, whose parents had to sell their 640-acre farm in Iowa. Just as feared by those protesting in India, the American farmers lost their livelihoods and sense of identity. “We were just trying to stay alive,” said Juchems, who later was able to continue farming thanks to his in-laws. “That’s what you work all your life for and then it’s gone.”

Myanmar’s Army Is Back in Charge. It Never Truly Left. (NYT) The men in army green never truly retreated. As Myanmar presented a facade of democracy to the world, the generals who had ruled the country for nearly half a century still dominated the economy and the halls of power. They even got away with what international prosecutors say was genocide in their murderous offensives against Rohingya Muslims. With its pre-dawn coup on Monday—unseating an elected government and putting its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, back under house arrest—the military, led by Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, was once again flaunting its ultimate authority. Yet in the process of reasserting their command, the generals have ripped apart a prized project: a carefully constructed political system decades in the making that allowed them to camouflage their fists behind a veneer of democracy. Though they allowed elections, army officers also reserved a quarter of the Parliament’s seats and crucial cabinet positions for themselves. The public, which felt like it could express its political aspirations by delivering landslide victories to Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, is furious. And the international community, which chose to focus more on the civilian part of the country’s civilian-military system, is now aware that one side of the scale clearly outweighs the other.

Iran reaches agreement with South Korea (Foreign Policy) Iran has agreed to release the crew of a South Korean oil tanker in what its foreign ministry called a “humanitarian” move after the vessel was impounded in early January. The vessel’s seizure was believed to be a bargaining chip to convince South Korea to free up $7 billion in Iranian funds currently frozen in South Korean banks as a result of U.S. sanctions. South Korea’s foreign ministry welcomed Iran’s decision to release the sailors, saying it was a necessary next step to “restore trust” before resolving the issue of the frozen funds. Regarding the funds, the ministry stated it “will do what it can in a speedy manner while discussing consultations with the United States on the issue.”

Tigray crisis: Ethiopia region at risk of huge ‘humanitarian disaster’ (BBC) Opposition parties in Ethiopia’s Tigray region have warned of a huge “humanitarian disaster” if aid is not delivered urgently. The parties said people were already dying from hunger and urged the international community to intervene. Ethiopia’s government says aid is being delivered and nearly 1.5 million people have been reached. The parties also said 52,000 people had been killed since the conflict started in November. They did not explain how they arrived at the estimate but said it included women, children and religious leaders. About two million people have been internally displaced in the conflict in Tigray. The government has heavily restricted access to the region for the media and aid agencies. On Monday, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said he had “rarely seen an aid response so impeded” in the 40 years he had worked in the humanitarian field. In a joint statement, three opposition parties—the Tigray Independence Party (TIP), Salsay Weyane Tigray, and National Congress of Great Tigray—said if food and medicine did not arrive quickly the “looming humanitarian disaster of biblical proportion” would become a “gruesome reality in Tigray”.

#headlines #news

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zukofenty · 4 years

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just my luck

➜ Summary: The one where Katara whisks away her picture-perfect life the night she kisses a stranger with the worst luck in the world.

“I lost all my good luck!” Katara screams. “Everything I touch turns to shit!”

“I mean, have you considered fucking a leprechaun?”

➜ Genre: Modern!AU, Journalist!Katara, Girl group manager!Zuko, Music Producer!Zuko

AO3, @zutaraweek

“I am too pretty to be punched!” Katara yelps, ducking and clenching the holding cell’s bars until her knuckles turn white.

“And I thought I was too pretty to commit tax fraud, but here we are.” Ty Lee rolls her eyes. “That’s just how the pussy crumbles.”

“First, you need a gynecologist. Second, I think the saying goes ‘that’s how the cookie—’” Nothing in life could have prepared Katara for the tiny girl to deliver a resounding punch that has her head rattling against the jail cell.

“I lost all my good luck!” Katara screams. “Everything I touch turns to shit!”

“I mean, have you considered fucking a leprechaun?”

Katara sighs, still recovering from the intense nosebleed Ty Lee bestowed on her. “Where the fuck would I even find a leprechaun?” She promptly shoves wads of tissues up her nostrils. Of course, the next one she reaches for actually had a spider in it, and she thinks killing herself just might be easier on her soul at this point.

“Just say you like Megan Thee Stallion and all of a sudden all the men under 5’7” start giving you a 5’11” attitude. Easy peasy.”

She’d managed to limp her way back to Suki and Toph’s apartment from prison, after getting a call that her apartment had flooded, destroying everything in it. Only her apartment. She was barely holding on to her broken YSL pump in one hand and her pride in the other. Emphasis on limp , because while calling taxis to instantly stop for her was always her thing , now she was nothing but an ant (in head-to-toe Prada) on their radar. If they do stop, the taxi either gets snatched up by someone else, or the drivers tell her, not so kindly, to eat a dick.

Nevertheless, she’s still determined to have a positive day, walking and humming a Rihanna song to try and calm her nerves. But, because this day was sent by Satan himself (Jeff Bezos), she was drenched, face to booty to toes, in drain water by the seemingly hundreds of Uber Eats whizzing by, trying to get someone’s Buffalo Wild Wings order to them quickly.

“I can’t believe you guys actually think all that stuff’s real!” Suki scoffs, diligently painting her toenails a pretty pastel purple and not giving any mind to the conversation.

“Tell me, how would you explain this bitch’s life?” Toph points an accusatory finger in Katara’s way. “Katara has been living life as the main character. For fuck’s sake, you won prom queen five years in a row at Ba Sing Se High!”

“A lot of people win prom queen—”

“We went to Omashu High!” Toph adds with frustration. “You even won the year after you graduated!”

Toph and Suki could never quite wrap their heads around Katara’s life.

For as long as they knew her, she was always the luckiest girl in the world.

At seemingly every turn, the girl had all the luck in the world on her side. I mean, just the other day she was accidentally delivered Rihanna’s dry cleaning, because of course she lives in the same fucking building as Rihanna, the goddess herself. See, Katara was the type of person with the luck to manage to find an upscale apartment on their shitty salary in the city for nearly half of what Suki and Toph were paying to sleep next to inbred cockroaches.

“Bitch, you do not have the range for that.” Toph snatches the dress away before Suki or Katara could make a face and whimper a soft ‘gimmie gimmie’ that surprisingly always worked.

“I might not, but at least we could clone Rihanna now.”

Toph pauses. “Say what?”

“I’m getting the girls and gays that album, no matter what.”

Katara went to return the dress after getting in a helicopter with her date of the night, People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, Haru (before the mustache). On top of all that madness, she said Rihanna, in the shimmery, Fenty Beauty Body Lava coated flesh, even complimented her makeup. Suki almost shit herself when Katara was added to the Fenty Savage PR list.

Katara would walk outside and the clouds seemed to part as if on her command. She could wear all-white in the city without a bird unloading one on her shoulder, or one of those guys on the street flicking feces in a pudding cup her way. Jammed streets or congested traffic never ceased her from being ten minutes early to every meeting, event, or even accidental movie set she walked on and got cast as an extra instantly. The lead actor, Academy Award winning Bolin, is still sending her detailed DMs about the various ways he would harvest her toenails because it reminded him of her.

And you know those Airpods or laptop scams that go around on social media you have to train your grandparents not to click on? Or those princes that email you promising to marry you after you send them your banking information? Guess which bitch manages to actually win over a prince’s heart and his inheritance?

Katara had the universe wrapped around her finger, and it didn’t seem to mind bending to her will.

Fresh out of college, after much clawing and fighting and miraculously switching coats with an editor at a restaurant, Katara managed to snag a job at Nyla magazine and secured spots for her best friends, too. They’d been reading the entertainment magazine before they could even process solid food. While they were all saddled with a mailroom job, Katara’s quote unquote irresistible charm had landed her as a scribe to record meetings when their original conveniently broke a nail.

Of fucking course, the day their entire team is stuck in a broken elevator is the day the CEO of White Lotus Records was coming into the office to discuss Nyla ’s next cover star.

Their next big thing, teen singer, Song was still hesitant to work with a magazine aimed at young adults with unhealthy coping mechanisms, compared to the J14s and Tiger Beats with the foldable poster at the back you could steal if you were quick enough at Walgreens.

“ Young lady.” Ugh, why do old men always sound so fucking condescending? You know how easy it is to push an old person? “You know how much dough I make so I can regularly spend it on drugs? Every minute of my time is worth $964.” While Piandao gets up for his assistants to put on his fur coat, Katara slams her hand on the table.

“I promise you this cover story will be worth every minute of your time. I’ll even pay you $965 at the end of my presentation if you hate it.”

And who could say no to that sweet (and scary) face?

When editor-in-chief June waddles back, glazed with sweat after someone farted their entire Del Taco Thursday three chicken soft tacos for $2.49 deal in her face , their cover story was booked. The carnival themed, masquerade party to celebrate Song’s new cover was already scheduled in Google Calendar. Soon enough, Katara was handed her own office, Tesla, and platinum corporate card to start planning the entire event.

Everything was going fine . There were acrobats doing flying yoga in the sky, a fortune teller she hired at the last minute that everyone loved. Music was playing, people were dancing without a care in the world, and everyone was having a good fucking time. She even snagged her bitchy boss a date with her hot neighbor, and her Painted Lady costume was designed by Vera Wang herself. By the end of the night, her brain was scrambled from the paperwork and yelling and pen marks all on her hand. Yet, with her luck, she still managed to kiss the cute guy who asked her to dance.

Well, at least she knew he felt and smelled like a cute guy, considering half his face was covered by a mask.

He was a bumbling thing, managing to stomp on her feet a few times even when she reassures him at the end of the day. Despite being all broad shoulders and muscles, he seemed to shrink in on himself at that moment. “I’m really, really bad at dancing.” She gave him a weird look and Zuko had to remember that he had stolen a backup dancer named Lee’s gig for the night to sneak into the event.

Katara rolls her eyes. Dancing, much like nearly everything else, always came easy to her. “So what if you gave a girl a black eye and another guy a concussion?” Her laugh is so pretty and her waist between his warm fingers just felt right.

He lets himself laugh, too. Wrapped up in the girl’s spell. Forgetting any thought of trying to win over the White Lotus CEO.

She leaned in first, and he was more than happy to reciprocate. Zuko didn’t have time for impulsive decisions, not when the universe was actively always trying to kill him. For some reason, he couldn’t help but be drawn in. Her soft lips against his felt like a plush dream, and all he didn’t want to wake up to reality. Not when in that moment, there were sparks and blood rushing to his head and soft skin peeking out of her expensive dress he wanted to discover more of.

One minute, Katara was throwing back a margarita in case she had dumb bitch breath that caused her mystery man ran off. The next, she was choking to death, only spitting out the olive on Suki’s face after Toph delivers a quick punch to her sternum, right between the titties.

“Eenie meenie miney mo, catch a stupid whore by her throat!”

“Stop choking me, June!”

“No!” June screeches. How was Katara supposed to know she accidentally set her boss up with the ‘ King Kuei ’? The FBI’s most wanted illegal animal trader by day, male prostitute by night? And who knew that would land her a night in jail?

“The universe is a stupid fucking whore!” Katara sniffs, still trying to detangle the chunk of hair embedded deep into Suki’s blow dryer. Katara managed to not only break a mirror with the blow dryer in her mere ten minutes in Suki and Toph’s place, but also rip out a section of her hair after throwing said blow dryer in their bathtub which promptly caught on fire. The icing on the dog shit cake of the day was when she managed to cause the building’s power to short circuit, shutting off everyone’s lights.

The universe, for the first time in his life, was finally on Zuko’s side.

For as long as Zuko could remember, rain clouds suddenly appeared when he walked outside, even despite what Alexa told him earlier that morning.

“Alexa, what’s the weather like today?”

“Completely sunny with a chance of naive bitch,” the smart speaker might as well have said.

Zuko was sure of four things in life.

Adderall and 7 up were never a good combination

Alexa was always watching for an opportunity to strike fear in his heart

He could never catch a fucking break

Having a waterpark poncho always on hand never hurt

He heard from his Uncle Iroh his family was perpetually cursed. Something about a fame-hungry witch with the last name Kardashian in the past life, and one of his relatives eating said witch’s ass that inflicted the present day curse on his family.

Everyone he knew was impossibly clumsy. Random flooding accidents, cars always running into you, bugs trying to get their fuck on in your ear. It was like the universe said yeet! On their good fortune.

What does he wish for every year on his birthday? For it to be easy just to be him . To be easily liked, like Adele, or Dippin Dots. He wished life could be easy enough for him to take a shit without the toilet bowl accidentally caving in, or a lightbulb somehow always falling on his good eye.

Zuko had always been relatively clumsy, worse than what Iroh’s seen before. After so many years of being shit-out-of-luck, and having literal shit on you at all times, he was used to being alone.

It stopped stinging a few years ago. Besides, he had his half-sister Kiyi to keep him company these days.

Nobody wanted to be around the guy who constantly smells like dog shit because he always manages to find a shit covered dollar bill flowing down the street. No one wanted to be associated with the guy who, without fail, splits his pants open every time he bends down. Saddling him with yet another public indecency charge.

Like clockwork, at least two times a week, he was getting his face shoved into the concrete and handcuffs slapped on him. He started investing in a mouth guard about five years ago.

It was like a safety hazard, just being him. There were so many times you could get struck by lightning before you were banned by the nation from buying umbrellas.

Predictably, he has been rejected from every job he applied to. His laptop has been hacked by so many Hentai porn bots he doesn’t even bother upgrading his Dell from 2013. He even started a conversation with the guy monitoring his keystrokes. Landlords chucked his application out the window before he could even give them his soul and a deposit, and while the doctors didn’t think he’d do it, he found out that yes you can survive being hit after someone throws a piano out their window while you leave the leasing office.

Sure, he came to the city with dreams of making it big, loving music since his mom taught him the difference between a treble and bass clef. But when he’s always accidentally setting his tsungi horn on fire? Breaking his nose open trying to put resin on his violin’s bow? Somehow getting a reed stuck in his throat and his sphincter (on the same day)? No chance in hell was anyone willing to risk their lives to let him play anything on stage.

So he stuck to writing and producing, watching YouTube tutorial after tutorial to learn mixing, because he thinks it’s safer for everyone involved.

“Zuko, someone tried shoving Nutella up their ass and shat it back over the bathroom.” He looks up from his laptop to see a plunger too close for comfort near his face.

“Why?”

“Some weird sex thing! I don’t fucking know.” Jet points to the elderly couple nearby. “You ask them why!”

Zuko takes a deep breath in. “No, I’m asking ‘why?’ because my shift doesn’t start for another two hours.”

He was a janitor at the bowling alley across the street (it was the only place that would hire him, but he thinks they felt bad for him after he ugly cried and ate out their supply of shitty, frozen curly fries).

“You know I love you, Zuko! But these!” Jet cups Zuko’s chest with two, oddly gentle, hands. “Make our alley’s world go round.” He even gives them a squeeze for emphasis.

“Let go of my man titties,” Zuko glares at Jet. “ Now .”

“You’re the breast.”

Zuko’s eye twitches.

It wasn’t all bad. After all, the alley does let him make music in his free time, and the girl group he was “managing” can perform their sets on Fridays.

“We’re firing you!” Mai pokes at his chest and has him readjusting his glasses from the force.

It was a Monday and his week was starting off better than most. He was scraping green colored poop from the walls and was already being threatened at 9 a.m. without any weapons in sight.

“You don’t pay me!” He points out, which only seems to get everyone in the room angrier. His sister and her friends formed Shooters 4 Rihanna when they were pre-teens. They wanted to be a group trying to make it big in the pop scene, and quickly signed to a record label together. The girls were promised all their years of childhood training would pay off when they would debut as young adults. That was, until their CEO was broadcast on TLC’s My Strange Addiction for his habit of collecting Mark Ruffalo’s nose hairs, and confessed to killing someone for it.

Investors weren’t too happy.

While all the girls could see was repressed childhood trauma, Zuko saw that and potential star power.

Every single member already had years of dancing and singing lessons under their belt. They could play their own instruments, write their own songs, and had the stage presence. A few Twitter DMs later (from his multiple accounts, because they thought his profile picture made him look like a fucking creep and blocked him years ago) they were dumb enough to trust him with their future. He’d been trying to get them signed for months to no avail. Somehow fucking up, or electrocuting himself in the process of showing an executive their new single.

“This was a mistake!” Jin shoveled the curly fries in her face.

While Yue was always one to stay positive, her sad ‘ I miss pickled fish ,’ had the rest of the girls wanting to leave, too. Going back home, just give up seemed sensible. Why waste your prime years on a pipe dream?

He stopped them, plunger in hand. Against all logic, and partially because they could smell the desperation, the girls gave him one week .

One masquerade party later, he managed to throw Piandao out of harm’s way, taking the brunt of the taxi running into him.

“ Are you fucking stupid !” The CEO screams. The boy had blood flowing from his scalp, but looked as alive as ever handing over Shooters 4 Rihanna’s demo CD.

“A little.” Zuko admits. He could feel his bones still intact, and judging by the blood it wasn’t anything serious. Piandao gives him a call the next day after listening to the tape.

By some miracle, or Kardashian curse lifting, the girl group and him were shuffled into the city’s upscale penthouses, and their debut single was slated to be released on the radio the next day.

While he headed for lunch at a nearby cafe (one he couldn’t afford to eat at just last week) he can’t help but notice her .

“Ma’am, I have already told you our restaurant’s motto! No eat, no shit!” The waiter glares down at her. “Either pay up or get out, broke bitch.”

Katara was caked head to toe in mud, tissues shoved yet again up her nose. Haru had invited her out to his dad’s art show the night before. After insulting the literal piece of shit art, she tripped over the clump of clay on display and landed face-first in his million dollar creation.

Of course, it would land her in prison, and of course Ty Lee would be there, too. “Move bitch, I’m gay! ” When Katara was too exhausted to budge, the girl, yet again, socked the shit out of her.

Katara just wanted a plate of steaming breakfast foods, but of course all her cards declined. And of course, she has a meltdown because she was fucking tired, hungry, and was about to throw hands.

She grabbed the salt shaker. “Look, I’m just going to try one thing before I go!”

“It’s the bath salts,” she hears one woman whisper. “Those fashion bitches are always on bath salts.”

“Just smile politely. We’re witnessing mental illness.”

She didn’t expect that throwing salt over her shoulder would land in the waiter’s eye, or cause him to collapse on the table of Mormons nearby. Or something to catch on fire, or someone to get stabbed with a fork with a pancake on it.

She certainly didn’t expect a (cute) stranger to be so gentle with her, helping her escape the madness and handing over his turkey on rye. Or him following her as she tried to save face and sit on a random bench away from any nearby birds’ tiny assholes.

“You look sad.” He’s not mocking in the slightest.

“What does that even mean?” She went from sad to affronted in just a second.

“What’s wrong?” Fuck this guy and those eyes that were so damn enchanting .

“I don’t look sad.” She says with the roll of her eyes. “I am fucking sad.” She was blackballed from every newspaper in the Four Nations, the prince she was talking to did indeed end up stealing her savings, and on top of all of that, her undereye concealer was creasing.

“You!” Katara points her finger in the fortuneteller’s face.

“Me?” Aunt Wu looks beyond irritated. “Look, I can’t predict when you’ll get a fat ass, just buy a resistance band and leave me—”

“You’re the one who told me whatever Wheel of Fortune would spin back on me! And Alex Tribek would take away my good luck or something!” Katara was crazed and running on two hours of sleep, but she had a bone to pick. “My perfect life is gone.”

“Wow, that was a lot to unpack.” Aunt Wu locks her shop’s door. “Look, can you think of anything strange that happened that night?”

“Besides someone telling me to make them toilet wine in prison, no I don’t think so!” Katara grunts out petulantly.

Aunt Wu smacks her with a stack of tarot cards. “No! Jesus! What else happened?”

“Can’t you just tell me? Childhood trauma has really fucked with my memory.”

“You kissed someone, didn’t you?” The fortuneteller scurries to her Kia Soul before Katara could retaliate. “Maybe he needed that luck more than you do!”

She tried kissing every single dancer that was working that stupid party, and came up with nothing but mono and the feeling of defeat.

“Did you know, I even fucking sharted myself today!” She smacks her forehead repeatedly. “At twenty-fucking-three! How fucking embarrassing . All I could do is run to the H&M with my cheeks out to buy a pair of sweatpants.”

“I know a job looking for someone,” he says and even when he’s staring at her with nothing but understanding, she’s still apprehensive.

“Don’t care, didn’t ask, plus you’re a colonizer.” If she had any energy she would’ve put more force into the shove. “Why are you even helping me?”

She looked like shit on a dick and he was just smiling at her. “Let’s say, I just know what it’s like to be SOL.”

“What’s the catch?” She stares at him down and pouts. He’s wearing an Armani shirt with an Off-White belt, which was already offending her senses, but on top of that he dared pair the atrocity with a pair of knock-off Converse. He couldn’t have sprung for a real pair, he just had to get the off-brand from Costco that made everyone’s ankles look like cankles.

New money . “I am not letting anyone suck my toes for money, again. Try a different girl.”

Zuko grows positively red, but at least it brings the ghost of a smile to her face. “No toe sucking. Only on Wednesdays.”

She delivers a well-aimed kick to his crotch. While she’d expect him heaving and puffing, he’s unphased. He’d put on his MMA fighter grade, groin protector out of habit, even though he’s getting kicked a lot less in the ball bags lately.

“So, you’re trying to convert me to Scientology?” Katara scoffs. “I’ll pass, Asian Tom Cruise.”

“Not that either.” He sees the defeated look in her eyes, the same one he’s seen in himself. There’s a spark there, though. A willingness to just keep going. Something he lost years ago. “Trust me.”

“No.”

“All good.” He shrugs. “Can I at least help you up?” Before she could bite back, she turned to the spot on the bench where he was pointing.

Wet paint.

He’s taking her mustard covered hands (the sandwich exploded in the foil) in his soft ones without question, and peeling her off the bench.

“Of fucking course,” she huffs.

She thinks he knows. He knows the fact that she wants him sticking around. Even with her adamant protests against it, he’s persistent.

Stopping by after long days at the studio to her shit job, handful of first aid supplies at the ready.

He’s just always there .

He’s there when she’s scraping gum from under the alley’s tables and almost swallows one that had “Live, Laugh, Love” carved into it. He quickly stops her from choking, practically an expert at the heimlich with how many times he’s almost died from drinking boba.

There when she electrocutes herself changing the alley’s light bulbs to catch her as she falls straight off the ladder. He’s not even phased, pushing a fried piece of hair sticking up the heavens and staring at her as though she squirted cupcake frosting from her nipples.

He’s there with his first-aid messenger bag, all duct taped and falling apart and it makes her want to say sorry to Alexander Wang for daring to wear it with his Spring 2019 boots after Zuko forces her to carry it around. But then he’s pulling out a tube of toothpaste from the bag while she’s cooling her burnt fingertips on a 10 year old Yerba Mate can, and she’s reminded why he’s so firm about it.

“Earth Nation trick to heal burnt skin.” He’s too concentrated on rubbing the paste into her flaming skin to notice her staring. She remembers that he included her favorite Fenty gloss in the bag after handing it off to her, and blushes.

“I don’t need your help, you know.” Katara was always the one fighting for her own dreams. She didn’t want to stick back living the life other people imagined for her. Even all the luck in the world couldn’t help her escape a sleepy town or an unsupportive family.

When they came to the city, she knew her friends let her take care of them on purpose. It was second nature, what she grew up on. She’d always been the one looking out for everyone, even if they didn’t ask, and they let her do it because they all needed a coping mechanism. Toph’s is cake cutting videos, Suki’s is practicing her crying face because she always wanted to be a pretty crier, and Katara’s is being overbearing.

She was confused. As many times as she tried drilling through his thick head that her grandma was a nurse, that she could easily wrap up every cut, bruise, and swollen toe, he never budged. For the first time in a while, someone was there, stubbornly making sure she was okay.

“I know?” He says it as though it was obvious. “I’ll make you a deal, though. Just let me help you out, just this one time?” He gently taps her fingers wrapped in Minion bandaids he got her just because he knew she hated them in public, loved them in private. “I won’t do it again.”

He’s teasing and it’s obvious he knows she’s putty in his hands. Though, his newfound look (she helped with) balancing boy-next-door with heartthrob is not working on her heart. Her pussy, sure. Not her heart, though. She swears.

“That’s what you said last time,” Katara protests, without any energy behind it.

He sends her a lopsided smile. “I know.”

Zuko wasn’t about to let any hair on her pretty head get hurt.

While Kiyi already had enough of a bad case of bad luck, considering all the Power Ranger figurines she had super glued to her face by fourth grade boys, Katara’s was just something else.

It reminded him of him . Whatever stroke of good luck he had, he knew the universe takes in ten-fold what it might give. So he’s taking advantage of every bit of luck he has for a girl without any.

While he’s been stabbed many a time walking back home at night, somehow he’s in the clear when he escorts Katara back to her apartment. Or the times he buys her Water Tribe take out because she’s still figuring out how that prince managed to spend $10,000 on Swampbender diet pills. Or when he sneaks in before her shift to do some of her tasks for the day (he still has the keys), so he doesn’t have to worry about her bruising her pubic bone with the vacuum, or breaking the ceiling with a slippery bowling ball.

He wasn’t all used to his new life. The designer shoes, the fancy parties, the attention . Girls in the past would look at him as though he wasn’t more than shit at the bottom of their Jimmy Choo, but his good luck brought this newfound female attention that was exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. Especially when, all he wanted was to catch her eye.

She was his good luck charm and didn’t even know it.

Since he’s met her, everything just was going right . She brought Toph over with her guitar to string together a few verses the day they were in desperate need of new lyrics to go with the beat he’s spent the last few nights cranking out. The day after they released it on Apple Music, the song went #1 on Billboard. Piandao had even booked them to play the Hard Boulder Cafe for their first performance, and tickets were sold out.

Even when things just seemed to get better and better for him, the universe doubled down in its punishment for her.

He’s there when she’s walking back from work, drenched to the bone because she missed all trains for the day, a taxi said her face looked stupid, and she was just tired of it all and wanted to go home and eat processed frozen food and die.

Zuko’s there, though. Without fail.

He’s there with his fucking Tesla and personal driver and Chanel top and she couldn’t be any more embarassed.

“Get in!” He hesitates before approaching. “Also, maybe let’s put down the umbrella?” It was inverted anyways, and looked three seconds from whisking her away into the storm.

“No, I’m good!” Katara insists. She was afraid that falling for Zuko, going to bed and waking up thinking of him was messing with her brain and she didn’t know if she wanted it to stop.

“You could get hit by lightning.”

“That can’t—” She ponders it for a second. “You know what, fuck you.”

He throws his expensive jacket over her to quell the shivers, and when she protests, seeing as it was a Valentino Lacquered Nylon Jacket, he bundles her even deeper in the thing, buttoning it up until she’s complaining from the warmth.

“You’re laughing at me.” She pouts.

He’s covered completely in bubbles. Not her fault he decided to strip off his shirt to throw in the cycle with her wet clothes, and she got distracted by the abs and dumped the whole bottle of laundry detergent in the washing machine.

Zuko shoves her face into a pile of the suds. “I am, yeah.” She looks upset and he stops the mirth growing on his face. Reaching out to her, instead. “Katara, I’m sorry did I—”

She might’ve leaned out to accept his embrace, but then she’s flipping them over, pinning him down to the floor. Her warm, still soaking wet body, pressed against him and her arms coming out to pin his hands to the ground.

He gulps.

“This would be more fun if you let me peg you afterwards.”

Her laugh vibrates her whole body and he couldn’t help joining in, too.

He let her have her pick of his dress shirts, and she looked so much at home. Little strands of her bangs framing her face and growing curly with the addition of water. Her brow furrows when she mentions her leave-in conditioner washing away with the suds, and he takes advantage of the momentary distraction. Flipping her and placing two hands at the sides of her head.

She knows he’s covered in the bubbles, just so she wouldn’t feel anymore of a stupid bitch than she already does. He never seems to mind it, even when Katara was frustrated and just couldn’t figure out why all this was happening to her and dragging him into every single accident.

“What would you say to the universe, right now?” She’s curled up on his couch and he’s massaging the balls of her feet she presses in his lap.

“Welcome to your tape.”

“Katara, no.”

“That bridge off of Fourth Street? Looking really easy to jump off of right about now, universe.”

He lets her take his bed that night after he cooked up his famous komodo chicken and both Kiyi and her complain about having a food-baby.

“Hey, Katara.” He whispers while her eyes could barely open. He tucked her in those blankets all ethnic people have, the super fluffy ones with a tiger on them that are always wrapped in a plastic bag. “You’re cute.”

“Yeah?” She breathes out, crinkling her nose and blinking those long lashes and making his heart skip beats. “Hey, Zuko.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I like you.”

He pinches her cheek. “I think I like you, too.”

He was right. As soon as life blessed him with everything he’s wanted and more, it whisked it away just as fast.

He’d mustered up the courage to invite her to a studio session after everyone in Shooters 4 Rihanna insisted on meeting her. Their songs were getting a little too emotional and they wanted to meet his muse. It was going well, too well. He even catches all the lamps she knocks down. When she rights herself, she manages to knock down the table with their food. Double bagging existed for a reason, just like he warned her! But, of course, the bags holding the takeout she was supposed to surprise him with broke from the bottom. He’d go hungry, that day. But, anything for her, though.

She looked so into the session, asking him if she could play with the buttons, leaning into his chest when he hesitantly surrounds her space. His two lean arms coming out to steady her waist when she trips on herself and sends him a sheepish smile that has him hypnotized.

Katara normally felt lightheaded around him, but she felt absolutely faint as soon as Piandao walked in to finalize the details of the performance, and Zuko started talking about some lucky masquerade ball.

She couldn’t hear much else, body getting up before she even registered it.

Before he could fully get into his chair at the mixing console because just one little note in their new song “Rihanna Impregnate Me” just sounded off, she’s tugging him up.

“Can I kiss you?”

“W—what?” She’s holding him up by the collar of his shirt.

Katara smirks. “I really want to kiss you.”

“I mean, uh, yes! Definitely a ye—”

It’s everything he’s imagined, hoped, prayed for the last few months and more. She’s sweet and soft and tasted like lip gloss and the toothpaste he had stowed away in her bag. When he’s leaning in for more, ready to do things like give her his heart or do her taxes for her because he couldn’t think straight and his heart was guiding him through the motions, she’s gone.

Katara’s gone when Ty Lee somehow gets into, yet another, tax fraud case and can’t make their performance.

She’s gone when he needs her by his side because even though he’s not performing he still manages to feel fucking sick. He wants her holding his unnaturally sweaty palms and telling him it’s going to be okay, just like what she does during his late night writing sessions where she stays up and refuses to sleep until he does.

She’s gone when the band has to answer to an angry crowd, an angry CEO who already sees the articles lambasting the girl group’s unprofessionalism and was ten seconds away from pulling the plug on his dreams.

“Zuko!”

He hates his heart rushes, even when it was about to break because of her, too.

She's gotten her perfect life. She’d gotten the job back, her apartment back, Rihanna even sent her a secret song for fuck’s sake.

She must really love this fucker, because she was giving up a chance to stalk Rihanna so he could be happy.

“Maybe he needed that luck more than you do!” Was running through her head the entire week she avoided him.

“I don’t know what to do, Suki!”

“Why don’t you both fuck leprechauns?” She says between bites of string cheese.

Katara sighs. “Why are yours and Toph’s minds built like that?”

“I heard my mom tried punching her stomach every day, hoping that I wasn’t going to be a result of St. Patrick’s Day sex. That’s why my head’s lopsided.”

He felt nauseous. Not only did 3 of the girls just spew their lunch into whatever container they could get their hands on, of course Azula has gone missing. “Katara not now I—”

She comes to him flushed, extensions stuck to her hand after running too fast and accidentally grabbing someone’s hair. Her feet hurt, her heart hurt, but in this moment she knew. She knew he needed this more than her. He was soft and kind and took people in and cherished the moments with his half-sister because he missed all the ones with Azula. He worked so hard now because he was afraid she hated him, and even when he was on the verge of giving up, he still pushed through. He gave people chances, even when the universe was never as kind to him.

After she presses her lips to his, suddenly Azula presses a button from the underground room she was trapped in, appearing on stage in front of their very eyes. They have the best show the Hard Boulder Cafe’s seen in decades . Their contract is extended, and he opens a bottle of champagne to celebrate without taking his eye out.

He was the luckiest man in the world.

Though, when he turns, he realizes.

His girl’s missing.

“Katara!” She tried shuffling away, but accidentally slips on a few drug needles someone threw carelessly on the ground.

She’s still nursing the sore spot on her forehead, where the champagne cork hit. “Zuko, please just...go.” She waves him off with a bandaged hand.

“I know you’re going to be stuck here for the next three hours. Because trains never come on time for you no matter what.”

Even in the middle of the nearly dead station, he was right. Every stop flashed to delayed .

“Then you’ll be robbed by someone on the train, and then you might even get spit on by the guy with the imaginary dog who’s afraid of whoever gets too close to it, and then you’ll get an eye infection.”

Katara wipes the snot at her nose. “So?”

“So?” He laughs, tucking his hands in his pockets. “I’ve lived a whole lifetime of bad luck, and I can’t let you do that for me.”

She lets him turn her to face him, lets him gather her up in his arms and hold her like she’s delicate and irreplaceable, and not just a girl with mascara running down her face and her heart stolen by someone she couldn’t love.

“Even in a lifetime of being shit out of luck, I still got the chance to meet you.”

“Zuko, stop.” Katara wipes at her tears. “Our luck will just get switched, and I always figure things out, I always do. But, I just want you to keep this. You put it to better use than I would’ve.”

Zuko shakes his head. “I don’t want it anymore.”

“I said that to my bladder infection, and that didn’t work. What makes you think that will work now?”

“I can live without it.” He smiles. “A few bumps and bruises are the price I’m willing to pay for you in my life.”

She’s blushing, hands coming up to bring his head closer to hers, to see every little detail of him.

“You’re so fucking stupid.” She whispers, millimeters away from his lips.

The grin splits on his face without his permission. “I am, yeah.”

#Zutara #Zuko #Katara #Zutara Week 2020 #Celestial #Day 4 #atla #avatar the last airbender #Zutara Week #Zutara fanfiction

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leaagueofrevolutionarie · 4 years

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The Amazon-ification of America

By Steven Miller 8-14-2020

Last week, tech leaders spoke to Congress on Capitol Hill. Google’s Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos all spoke from prepared remarks. As the US economy shrank by 32.9%, Amazon’s share price rose by half, and Facebook’s growth rate approached 60%.

Congresspeople were supposedly “grilling” these uber-capitalists, but they were politely slobbering at their wealth. Since COVID began, American billionaires have made $637 billion, while 50 million people have lost their jobs. Timidly asking these billionaires questions about monopoly practices, the politicians refuse to address how this mega-wealth could be used to help people out in the greatest collapse in the history of capitalism.

Tech capitalism is fomenting the Amazon-ification and the Google-ization of America, right now in real time. This will culminate in a major re-organization and the State. This is class warfare on the rights of humans to control their own basic needs to live and thrive. Private property is on the march to seize every resource of the public and to re-organize society in its own image.

Microsoft has controlled the Pentagon’s cloud computing efforts since October, 2019. Big tech is constantly making inroads into the military, including $11 billion in contracts in the last 3 years.:

“’As we continue to execute the DOD Cloud Strategy, additional contracts are planned for both cloud services and complementary migration and integration solutions necessary to achieve effective cloud adoption,’ the Pentagon said”. (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pentagon-jedi-idUSKBN1X42IU)

Then just look at what we are already seeing! Capitalism’s massive collapse as a result of COVID means that an estimated 40% of African-American business will not open. One-third of restaurants will never open again.

What happens when the restaurants close? People increasingly order online. Big Tech becomes ever more dominant. Then Big Box stores enter the scene and become the only places that provide the distribution of the necessities of life. Private equity corporations and hedge funds actively finance this extermination. Amazonification aims far higher than replacing mom and pop stores. It also rises to counter the demand for the domination and extension of public property to benefit everyone..

Then Rent Apocalypse is about to hit, with multi-billion dollar corporations waiting to evict up to 28 million people by Thanksgiving. This tidal wave is lead by Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity management corporation. Blackstone works closely with Blackrock, the world’s largest asset-manager, and shadow bank to the world, which was founded in partnership with Blackstone in 1988. While Blackstone proclaims that the rentership society is here, Blackrock manages the government multi-trillion bailout for financial speculators and the financial industry. By driving millions out of their homes, these criminals will keep the homes empty, and turning them into rentals, in an attempt to extract more wealth from our communities..

“Today the fast-growing ETF (“exchange-traded funds) sector controls nearly half of all investments in US stocks, and it is highly concentrated. The sector is dominated by just three giant American asset managers – BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, the “Big Three” – with BlackRock the clear global leader. By 2017, the Big Three together had become the largest shareholder in almost 90% of S&P 500 firms, including Apple, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, General Electric and Coca-Cola….

“Giant pension and other investment funds largely control the stock market, and the asset managers control the funds. That effectively puts BlackRock, the largest and most influential asset manager, in the driver’s seat in controlling the economy.”

(https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/24/meet-blackrock-the-new-great-vampire-squid/)

These corporations are hell-bent on impose extractive capitalism on our communities and families. This model that vacuums wealth and information out of communities and sends it to the top. Oh yes, and what about the morality of evicting people to live on the street in the middle of a pandemic? Oh well, it’s just collateral damage.

That, of course, is what the Amazon-ification of America is all about. No longer even pretending to offer jobs, the capitalist class, lead by Big Tech, is re-organizing the economy and the government to extract wealth and give it to themselves.

Before COVID hit, the government had already authorized “Opportunity Zones” in 2017 to re-invest in impoverished American communities. Such predatory gentrification and dispossession is beloved by both Jared Kushner and Gavin Newsome. The giant capitalist equity companies and hedge funds are now in charge.

From “Displacement Zones: How Opportunity Zones Turn Communities into Tax Shelters for the Rich”:

“Boosters promised Opportunity Zones would help bring capital to the neighborhoods that most need it, but in reality allow wealthy investors to benefit from huge tax breaks while they speculate at the expense of the most vulnerable communities. The structure of the Opportunity Zones program was designed with the interests of speculators, not communities, in mind. Communities living inside many Opportunity Zones across the country are already experiencing rapid changes. Unregulated speculative investment will throw even more fuel on the fire. The Opportunity Zones program will exacerbate an already unbearable

“Opportunity Zones were created by the rich, for the rich.

“Opportunity Zones are an invention of the Silicon Valley millionaire-backed Economic Innovation Group, and contain some of the most generous tax breaks currently available. The program gives capital gains tax exemptions that scale up based on the length of time an investment is held, eventually culminating in a 15% reduction in the taxable basis of the principal, and complete tax exemption of any profits made on the investment after 10 years. Because the distribution of capital gains income is highly unequal, the overwhelming majority of these tax benefits will flow directly to the richest investors in the country. Indeed, 90% of all capital gains income in the United States is owned by the wealthiest 10% of people, and 70% of all capital gains is owned by the wealthiest 1%.” (www.saje.net/.../2019/11/SAJE_DisplacementZones.pdf)

This was before COVID. The virus is now aggravating and amplifying every tendency that existed before its advent. It should be no surprise, therefore, that New York Andrew Cuomo recently invited Google and Microsoft into the state to “re-imagine” the new world where Big Tech companies seize control of telehealth, public education and the entire society.

In other words, Cuomo is abrogating the responsibilities of government to guarantee a safe and healthy environment for everyone and turning this charge over to corporations. They, of course, will place private profit above the public good.

“This is a future in which, for the privileged, almost everything is home delivered, either virtually via streaming and cloud technology, or physically via driverless vehicle or drone, then screen “shared” on a mediated platform. It’s a future that employs far fewer teachers, doctors, and drivers. It accepts no cash or credit cards (under guise of virus control) and has skeletal mass transit and far less live art. It’s a future that claims to be run on “artificial intelligence” but is actually held together by tens of millions of anonymous workers tucked away in warehouses, data centers, content moderation mills, electronic sweatshops, lithium mines, industrial farms, meat-processing plants, and prisons, where they are left unprotected from disease and hyperexploition. It’s a future in which our every move, our every word, our every relationship is trackable, traceable, and data-mineable by unprecedented collaborations between government and tech giants.

“If all of this sounds familiar it’s because, pre-Covid, this precise app-driven, gig-fueled future was being sold to us in the name of convenience, frictionlessness, and personalization.” (https://naomiklein.org/the-screen-new-deal/)

The Social Response

Yes, the US capitalist class could have responded to the virus by taking steps, similar to Europe, to make things easier, but it didn’t. Now that the capitalist class is doubling down to make ever greater political and private profit from the crisis, we have already seen a decisive social force take the political stage. Two new generations have now mounted the stage of history. The great mass of protestors, though not all, in the massive George Floyd rebellion came from these new generations.

Millennials are roughly those who were born after 1980 and came to political awareness in 2000 or after, and who came into political maturity around 2000. This year they would be 40 years old. Rising behind them is he generation that came to political maturity with the Parkland Massacres in 2018, often called Gen Z by the corporate media. There are 74 million people in the US in this group who were born between 1995 and 2015.

These generations intend to assert their agency. They understand that their future will be there long after the Boomers have passed on. They intend to take control of the situation. For these generations, the American Dream is a hollow antiquated notion. They understood already that their future was imperiled with Climate Crisis. They already were the primary casualties of the digitally-driven laborless-production that is sweeping through every branch of the economy. Somehow, they must survive the Gig Economy that is consuming them. They are a substantial part of a new proletarian class, one that is being replaced by digitally-driven production.

The new social force already clearly holds government for guaranteeing the safety of the public. This issue began with the murder of Trayvon in 2012, and escalated with the response to Michael Brown’s and Eric Garners murders, to name a few. It expresses itself as righteous rage at white supremacy and police murder. And it correctly holds the government and the State accountable. This rising demand for the public good threatens to overflow the narrow limits that the Democratic Party tries to impose. Voices from myriad directions have been asserting that if government cannot do the job, we know very well how to govern ourselves and society.

This new proletarian class has much to learn, but objectively it cannot back down. We are witnessing the concretization for our times of Lenin’s famous statement that revolutions begin when the working class cannot live in the old way and the ruling class cannot rule in the old way.

As society is drawn further into political crisis with re-opening schools, massive voter suppression and an election that may well be suborned, the social response, sooner or later, will build its political consciousness. As Engels observed long ago, the people today are transforming themselves into the people of tomorrow:

“You will have to go through 15, 20, 50 years of civil wars and national struggles not only to bring about a change in society but also to change yourselves, and prepare yourselves for the exercise of political power.” [Revelations concerning the Communist Trial at Cologne]

Steven Miller

[email protected]

August 9, 2020

Steven Miller is a retired public school science teacher in Oakland, California

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progressivemillennial · 5 years

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The Bernie Sanders Fox News Town Hall: A Review

Fox News hosted a town hall with Bernie Sanders on Monday, and I decided to watch it. Here are my impressions and takeaways:

Audience Reception on the Issues

The town hall took place in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, described by Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum as an industrial town with a closed steel plant that voted for Obama and then voted for Trump. These are swing voters who Bernie Sanders should appeal to on issues like trade and workers’ rights. And, to be certain, when NAFTA, CAFTA, and TPP were brought up, the audience sided strongly with Sanders.

But on other issues, even though this town hall aired on Fox News, the audience was often very supportive. This might have best been illustrated by one of the most interesting moments of the town hall: Bret Baier asks the crowd how many of them have private work-provided health insurance, by a show of hands. Many hands raise. When asking the crowd whether they would want Medicare for All, more hands shoot up, some people stand, and some vocalize their support, as well. This is, I’m sure, not what Baier was expecting, because one of the arguments used against universal healthcare, often framed disingenuously, is that people want to keep their private insurance. The audience responded very positively to the idea of having stable, ongoing coverage.

Later, I was surprised by how loudly the crowd applauded the following comment:

“The American people, I think, are ready to deal with justice in America. That is what we’re fighting for. And that’s economic justice, social justice, environmental justice, racial justice.”

Even though this was a Fox News town hall with attendees who appeared to be mostly white, the audience got really excited and loud when Sanders brought up racial justice. From that point through the end of the town hall, it was fairly clear that the majority of those in attendance supported most if not all of what he had to say. Viewers could hear Bernie chants here and there, particularly in the second half of the telecast. Towards the end of the town hall, one of the hosts was booed for asking if Bernie supported prisoners having voting rights for his own political benefit. When he was given an opportunity to provide a closing remark, he and the audience engaged in some call and response, and he was sent off with repeated chants of Bernie.

The message

The case Bernie Sanders made was for a politics and a movement for the working class. He’s advocating for a positive agenda that benefits all workers. In many ways, he appealed to liberal Democrats: he proactively discussed climate change, he discussed suppressing black people’s voting rights, advocated for universal healthcare, challenged the demonization of immigrants, and he didn’t criticize other Democrats when given a chance while criticizing Fox News. But he also advocated for policies further to the left of Democratic Party dogma: he criticized the military industrial complex and the Pentagon for refusing to do an audit and for wasting incalculable amounts of money, he called on us to “rid the world of nuclear weapons,” he said it’s not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel, and he brought up poverty over a handful of times, even mentioning childhood poverty. And that’s where the strength of Bernie’s campaign lies: appealing to the shrinking middle class on standard Democratic issues while also appealing to the poor and working classes of all ethnicities, and he was particularly effective in advocating for inclusive class-based politics and policy, even on Fox News.

What the town hall achieved

First, he looks like the front-runner and a leader. He was criticized by the center and the Democratic Party for appearing on Fox News, and he was criticized by some of my compatriots on the left for platforming Fox News. I see the merit in the latter argument, but Fox News is mainstream and has been for a long time. I’d be concerned if he went on Tucker Carlson, but that’s not what this was. That said, being a leader means making choices you think will be beneficial even when the decision is unpopular. Effective leadership also means walking the walk: Bernie Sanders is about working class politics; refusing to go on Fox News does, to some extent, leave out a platform where some of the working class goes for news--even if the outlet itself is a horrible news source. Trump won the votes of some Americans who voted for Obama; failing to try to bring those voters back into the fold would be political malpractice.

Finally, Sanders effectively demonstrated that he can take on Trump. At multiple times during the broadcast, he spoke directly to Trump: when he brought up his support for staying out of Syria and Yemen and ending endless warfare, he called on Trump to sign the measure he introduced to end America’s support for Yemen. He also went after Trump’s hypocrisy of refusing to cut Medicare on the campaign trail but then proposing budgets that support Medicare and other social insurance programs. At multiple times during the town hall, he positively contrasted himself with Trump. Democrats and many independents--and some Republicans--want to envision a candidate who can emerge victorious against Trump. Bernie’s performance could help some of those voters envision that.

Was his appearance effective?

Press coverage suggests it was. Here’s a sampling of headlines:

“Bernie Sanders may have just set the model for 2020 Democrats with his Fox News town hall” -The News-Times

“Sanders takes on Fox” - and emerges triumphant -Politico

“Bernie Sanders Beat Fox News on Its Own Turf” -Spin

“How wide is Bernie Sanders appeal? This cheering Fox News audience is a clue” -The Guardian

“Bernie Sanders Shines on Fox News” -The National Review

“Bernie’s victorious Fox News town hall” -Vice

“Bernie Sanders on Fox News is Most-Watched Town Hall of 2019″ -The Wrap

What could he have done better?

The first ten minutes of this town hall were particularly combative, and I think that largely stems from the initial focus on Bernie’s tax returns, which revealed him to be a millionaire, and possibly his desire to ensure that he articulated clearly that he is not on board with Fox News as a media organization. While the line of questioning about why Sanders wouldn’t just send his tax cut from Trump back--even though he voted against the bill--is completely asinine, I would like to see him come up with a better answer to what he’s doing with his newfound wealth. Ultimately, though, I think this is a debate of minimal consequence. You can certainly support policies that benefit the 99% without actually being in the 99%. Sanders, as he pointed out, also supports taxing himself at a higher level. And I think most people can draw a distinction between the Clintons, Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, and others and how they generated their wealth versus how Bernie made his. And, not to forget, the very real degree of separation in their wealth.

And while I think that Bernie has improved on his messaging around foreign policy and developed a better vision of what that would look like, he didn’t proactively bring up foreign policy in the first half of the event. Mostly, I’d like to see him connect what’s happening at the border with our foreign policy. He said that people are desperate and "fleeing violence and misery in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala.” This is true. He said we need more immigration judges. That’s also true. But he needs to then say that we need to stop intervening in the affairs of these countries and using diplomacy to support stability and economic growth throughout the Americas by supporting workers’ movements at home and abroad.

Final Thoughts

If you know me or were aware of my blog during the 2016 election, you know that I was a strong Sanders supporter and that I volunteered for his campaign. Over the past few years, my political views have shifted more to the left, and I’ve developed more criticisms of Sanders. In spite of that, I did come away from this town hall reminded of the appeal of the Sanders campaign: one that could represent a shift towards an inclusive working class policy focus and movement building, and away from a divisive Red State/Blue State paradigm.

I haven’t made any kind of endorsements for 2020 because, again, it’s too early, and there are many candidates running who will be out of the race a year from now. However, it was difficult not to come away from viewing the town hall with some combination of familiarity and inspiration. One could say I was feeling the Bern...

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fumpkins · 3 years

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Florida teen Graham Clark pleads guilty to hacking Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, celebrities

A Florida teenager who hacked into several celebrities’ Twitter accounts will serve three years in a juvenile prison after pleading guilty to fraud charges.

Key points:

The verified Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, Barack Obama and others were hacked by Graham Clark

The teen was able to steal about $150,000 in Bitcoin through the scam

Authorities said Twitter suffered from “cybersecurity shortfalls” that allowed the hacking to occur

Graham Clark, 18, last year hacked into into 40 different verified accounts, through which he solicited more than $US118,000 ($150,000) in Bitcoin.

The accounts he hacked included those belonging to US President Joe Biden — who was then a presidential candidate — former US president Barack Obama, tech moguls Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk, rapper Kanye West and TV star Kim Kardashian.

Clark, who was 17 at the time.

Using Mr Obama’s Twitter handle, Clark wrote a post urging people to send bitcoins to a bank account.

What happened with the Twitter bitcoin scam?

Bitcoin scams on social media aren’t new. Here’s why breaches of major celebrities is so important.

The post said the former president would send back double the amount of Bitcoin people handed over.

Clark wrote similar posts on other accounts he hacked into.

A report released in October by New York’s Department of Financial Services said Twitter suffered from cybersecurity shortfalls that enabled the “simple” hack allowing the Florida teenager to take over the accounts of some of the world’s most famous people.

Reuters

New post published on: https://livescience.tech/2021/08/27/florida-teen-graham-clark-pleads-guilty-to-hacking-twitter-accounts-of-joe-biden-celebrities/

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akoaganier · 6 years

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Jeff Bezos the founder and CEO of Amazon, owner of Blue Horizon and The Washington Post has become the Richest man in the world and modern history as of October 27 2017.

He now surpasses Bill Gates by 10 billion dollars.There is a lot I would want to ask a person of this affluence. How did you accumulate this wealth? Did anyone help you? What do you do with all this money? A lot of us are struggling, are you helping America? What kind of effect are you having on our country? How much richer are you than than the rest of us?

Jeff Bezos makes $231,000 a minute, his warehouse workers make $12 an hour.

It’s safe to say that the wealth of Jeff Bezos comes from the hard labor of others and unjustly so. Excusing the likes of Jeff Bezos and his type of psychotic anti-social business practices is perpetuating the exploitation of the American people and widens the gap of income inequality. Jeff Bezos just bought a 23 million dollar home, an old textile museum he plans to covert into two mansions. I do not think I would be alone in this to say; he should probably properly accommodate his employees before making the grandeur purchase of a 27,000 square foot property. TIME magazine says that from January 1st to May 1st of 2015 Jeff Bezos saw his wealth increase by 275 million every single day. His average employee makes $28,446 a year, he makes that every 8.93 seconds. His warehouse workers from Lehigh Valley, whom are documented to have worked in an 114 degree environment and pass out from heat exhaustion, make $12 an hour while he makes $190,920 every minute in 2015 (as of 2018 he makes $231,000 a minute). Jeff Bezos paid ambulances and paramedics to be stationed outside of the warehouses rather than install air conditioning. In the list of priorities, running your business ethically would be at the top, a customer receiving their package with two day shipping is not worth the cost of a warehouse workers health. Furthermore your fortune should not be made on the savings that come from underpaying your staff.

Elmer Goris, a resident of Allentown, worked in warehouses for over 10 years, he worked for Amazon at their Lehigh Valley warehouse for one year before quitting in July 2011, because he was “frustrated with the heat and demands that he work mandatory overtime”. "I never felt like passing out in a warehouse and I never felt treated like a piece of crap in any other warehouse but this one" Elmer Goris says "They can do that because there aren't any jobs in the area”. Amazon is notorious for their abuse of temporary workers. Amazon hires workers through third party contractors to save money and to avoid being responsible for injuries - it allows them to avoid the American standard regulations that would otherwise give workers unemployment insurance and make Amazon liable for worker compensation. Abused workers cannot even unionize, because the work force is constantly changing and most of them are not legally tied to Amazon. It is a loophole and it leaves Americans in the dust after they are overworked by this mega-monopoly.

Amazon runs on a dystopian set of moral values. Temporary workers interviewed at the Lehigh Valley warehouse say “few people in their working groups actually made it to a permanent Amazon position. Instead, they were pushed harder and harder to work faster and faster until they were terminated, they quit, or they got injured”. Rosemarie Fritchman a 67 year old warehouse worker was driven away by an ambulance after medical staff examined her for heat exhaustion. Rosemarie Fritchman says “Following company policy, she provided a doctor's note upon returning to work, and she was still terminated without explanation”. She was in a conference room pleading for unemployment benefits of about $160 a week and was denied. The human resources agent that sat across from her denied her plea, this agent of course does not work for Amazon instead she works for Integrity Staffing Solutions, a company paid by Amazon to recruit warehouse workers and “one of the fastest-growing agencies of its kind in the country”. Jeff Bezos uses them to save money by fighting off workers like Rosemarie Fritchman who were injured on the job and are pleading for unemployment benefits. In June of 2011 an emergency room doctor called federal regulators to report the Amazon warehouse as an “unsafe environment”.

“Tell Mr. Bezos and the rest of management to come out of their offices and get on the shop floor. At the end of the day, they never feel what we go through in a day for $12 an hour. They get to sit down in their offices and get paid more than we will see in a year,” - a single mother of two, 2017.

In 2018 Amazon still avoids compensating Amazon workers for injuries acquired on the job

This is not a resolved issue, since then Shannon Allen 49 years old of Azle, Texas was injured twice after beginning work on May 2017. When being injured on the job her experience was this; “Nobody was taking me seriously about my injury. My injury was being minimized. It was not being acknowledged”. On October 24, 2017, at 10:30 at night she told her manager “My back is killing me” she felt a sharp pain in her back “It felt like someone stabbed me in the back and dragged it all the way down my spine”. There were no doctors or nurses, just EMTs. The EMT told her to lie down on a heating pad for 30 minutes, then she was discharged without pay which Amazon labeled “voluntary time off”, a bizarre label for an injury on the job. Rather than send her to a doctor, Amazon set up a questionable “treatment plan” that consisted of sitting on a heating pad for 15-20 minutes a night. She went back to work the next night but the pain was so severe she could not get passed the first four hours of her shift, and when she could not complete her shift, Amazon sent her home without payment for the work she did complete. “Amazon paid Shannon $25 a week for her short-term disability”. She says “They tried to push narcotics on me. I said I don’t want your narcotics. I want to get better”.

She “returned to work on January 27, a day before her birthday”. Amazon called her time off an “excessive amount of time to complete therapy” and cancelled her workers’ compensation. The day she returned to work Shannon was injured a second time. This time Shannon looked for other doctors other than the therapist chosen by Amazon’s insurance company. This doctor said “he did not understand why she was being released to go back to work. He said that she was seriously injured, ordered her to take off work for a month, and indicated that she may need surgery”. Amazon’s “peer review group” overturned this doctor’s diagnosis. After both injuries in the Amazon warehouse, on April of 2018 Amazon’s workers’ compensation manager told Shannon that the company’s “safety senior ops” manager “had determined that she did not need any accommodations for her job”. “They really don’t care about anything but profit” says Shannon.

Shannon Allen even had to take a co-worker to the emergency room herself because her blood pressure skyrocketed, “The doctor said if she had not come in, she would not have made it”. “Every time we would go on break, ambulances would be waiting outside to pick people up. But not one manager, nobody from HR, nobody from security is out there escorting people to the ambulances. They just don’t care. You are on your own”. Shannon Allen says “On my shift we were picking people up from heat exhaustion”. As per usual Shannon Allen described the Amazon warehouse as “sweltering” the working environment reached levels of 80, 85, and 90 degrees Fahrenheit “In the summertime, it gets over 100 degrees in there”.

Bill Gates uses “billions of dollars a year on global health, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is putting $1 billion a year into his Blue Origin space venture” - GeekWire. “The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel” says Jeff Bezos during the Axel Springer award ceremony in Berlin. Jeff Bezos just referred to the profit that he makes off the underpaid sacrificial labor of his workers…as Amazon winnings, this is not a lottery it is the deliberate exploitation of the American people. Jeff Bezos has the personal financial resources to pay his workers especially if he can say something like this; “Blue Origin is expensive enough to be able to use that fortune. I am liquidating about $1 billion a year of Amazon stock to fund Blue Origin. And I plan to continue to do that for a long time” liquidating as in cashing-in his stock, thats tangible money. All the while many Amazon workers are relying on food stamps and being pushed to work until they burn out. “They brag about the number of people that they fire” - Shannon Allen.

Allen says “There are people living in the parking lot at (Amazon warehouse) DFW-7. I have seen that myself. They go in to wash up in the bathroom”. She says “I hate this place. I feel like I’m working in a prison camp”.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders posted a video on May 22 2018 outing Jeff Bezos for his greed highlighting the fact that "Bezos makes more in 10 seconds than the median Amazon employee makes in a year: $28,466”. In response Amazon News posted “Please compare our median pay & benefits to other retailers. We’d be happy for you to come see (an Amazon warehouse) for yourself”. Accepting their invitation Bernie Sanders posts "I remain deeply concerned about Amazon, an enormously profitable corporation, paying workers wages that are so low that they are forced to depend on federal programs like Medicaid, food stamps and public housing for survival. At a time of exploding profits, I would hope that Amazon would pay everyone who works in your (warehouses) a living wage”.

Amazon threatens housing for homeless

Amazon was founded on July 5, 1994 in Seattle, Washington, its about time this morally questionable monopoly and Jeff Bezos pay their fair share to the American People. Just last month on May 1st of 2018, Amazon “halted construction of a new 17-story office building in downtown Seattle, Washington to protest a proposed city council tax that would fund housing for the homeless”. Amazon also “threatened to sublease office space it is presently using in another downtown building”. Another massive corporate move to manipulate our government and policies, halting progressive reforms.

“The city council proposal would tax large businesses in Seattle by a total of $0.26 per worker hour for those employed in Seattle (i.e. if an Amazon employee in Seattle makes $50/hour, Amazon will pay $50.26/hr, with $0.26 going to the city). This would generate $75 million a year to fund the construction of 1,780 affordable housing units within five years, as well as a modest expansion of social programs for the homeless. If enacted at a city council meeting on May 15, the tax would cost Amazon $20 million per year—roughly one sixth of what Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos makes each day”. - wsws.org

Seattle has the third largest homeless population in America. In 2017 the Seattle Times reported that “Nearly 22,000 homeless people” were counted, a 3.5 percent increase over the course of a year. 169 of which died outdoors in 2017.

Amazon has routinely exploited the American people for the last 23 years and has built a $129 billion fortune for it’s founder Jeff Bezos, at a 2018 rate of $231,000 per minute. To make matters worse Amazon does not pay it’s taxes. Steve Kovach a Business Insider senior correspondent says that Amazon's profits in 2017 were about $3 billion and it paid almost no federal taxes. Bob Bryan a Business Insider Policy Reporter says “Amazon avoids paying federal taxes using a variety of tax credits and tax exemptions that are legal and built into the U.S. federal tax code. Some of these can include the research and development tax credit which allows them to deduct some of the costs of new investments” this includes Amazon’s research into drone delivery, but that simply means they get tax breaks for investing in themselves and becoming an even bigger conglomerate.

“Amazon does a really good job at avoiding federal taxes, and for most of its existence, it avoided charging you state sales tax. That's because of a Supreme Court case from 1992 that prevented states from collecting sales tax from e-commerce companies. It allowed Amazon and other retailers to sell tons of stuff to you effectively tax-free. By 2017, that all changed, Amazon started charging sales tax in all the states that have it, but it's not that simple, a lot of third-party sellers sell stuff through Amazon as well, and many of them don't charge sales tax” says Kovach. Bryan adds “there are tens of millions of dollars every year in state sales tax that go uncollected from third-party sellers”. According to Kovach, in addition to the saving Amazon has collected from avoiding federal taxes and sales taxes “(Amazon) has gotten over $600 million in tax breaks to build warehouses in certain states. It got another $147 million in tax breaks for building data centers around the country. Keep in mind Amazon is valued at over $700 billion, it's not like the company is struggling to save money”.

Every time you order using amazon to save a few dollars, those are tax dollars that will not go to schools, benefits for federal retirees and veterans, science and medical research, elderly and disabled citizens, and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) which provides health care to 60 million low-income American children and parents.

There are alternatives to shopping at Amazon, buy products locally or visit sites like: www.ethicalconsumer.org/boycotts/boycottamazon/amazonshoppingalternatives.aspx to find ethical shopping sources.

https://www.gofundme.com/5impots — Here is a gofundme link for Shannon Allen an Amazon warehouse worker that was injured on the job.

a few random notes to keep in mind

Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post for $250 million and installed a policy to not write anything that criticizes its’ investors witch include the CIA

Jeff Bezos also bought WholeFoods for $13.7 billion

https://www.gofundme.com/5impots — Here is a gofundme link for Shannon Allen an Amazon warehouse employee that was injured on the job

http://time.com/money/5192998/jeff-bezos-net-worth-2018-worlds-richest-man/ - Jeff Bezos makes $230,000 a minute

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/12/09/amaz-d09.html - warehouse employee quotes

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/amazon/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917-story.html - amazon forces warehouse workers to heat exhaustion

http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-amazon-temporary-workers-unemployment-20121215-story.html -workers pushed to heat exhaustion than fired for missing work and denied unemployment insurance

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/05/04/amaz-m04.html - amazon protests tax increase to fund the construction of homeless shelters and affordable housing units

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-not-paying-taxes-trump-bezos-2018-4 - how amazon avoids paying taxes

#jeffbezos #corruption #amazon #politics #income inequality #wage theft

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nicepicsworld · 4 years

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More than 1 million COVID-19 cases worldwide

1:04 AM

Bus driver who railed against coughing passenger dies from COVID-19

A Detroit bus driver who had expressed anger on Facebook about a coughing passenger has died from COVID-19, officials said Thursday. Jason Hargrove felt ill about four days after posting a passionate video on social media on March 21. He died Wednesday, said Glenn Tolbert, the head of the drivers union. Hargrove posted a profanity-laced video complaining about a woman he said repeatedly coughed while on his bus. The coronavirus can spread through coughs. The woman wasn't in the video. Hargrove said drivers are "public workers doing our job, trying to make a honest living, take care of our families." "For you to get on the bus ... and cough several times without covering up your mouth and you know (we're) in the middle of a pandemic - that lets me know that some folks don't care," Hargrove said. "At some point in time, we've got to draw the line and say enough is enough. I feel violated." On March 17, the city eliminated fares, promised more cleaning and told bus riders to enter and exit from the rear door only. The changes occurred after drivers refused to work that day to protest conditions. Mayor Mike Duggan said "everybody in America" should watch Hargrove's video. -- The Associated Press 12:06 AM

Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine ordered released from prison four months early due to coronavirus concerns

Daniel Hernandez, also known as the rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, was ordered released from prison four months early amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. In the decision, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer cited Hernandez's asthma and the greater risk he would face behind bars. "In light of the heightened medical risk presented to Mr. Hernandez by the COVID-19 pandemic, there are extraordinary and compelling reasons to reduce Mr. Hernandez's sentence in the manner requested — to wit, releasing Mr. Hernandez from custody and requiring him to serve his first four months of supervised release in home confinement, on specified conditions," Engelmayer wrote. Hernandez was originally sentenced to two years in prison for his ties with the street gang Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods. He could have been sentenced for decades for his crimes, but he reduced his sentence by becoming a star witness for the prosecution. "We are very happy that the Court allowed my client, Daniel Hernandez, to serve the remainder of his sentence at home," Hernandez's lawyer Lance Lazzaro said in a statement. "Considering today's challenging circumstances as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, inmates are especially vulnerable to contracting the virus. The Court showed great compassion today and my client is very grateful." 9:05 PM

Trump says states need to "work out" competing bids for medical equipment for themselves

President Trump on Thursday said states need to work out competing bids for medical equipment among themselves, and continued to blame states for failing to stockpile medical equipment like ventilators. Governors are sounding the alarm that they are bidding against themselves, as well as the federal government, for much-needed medical equipment and supplies. "Well they have that, and they have to work that out," Mr. Trump said, when asked about what should be done when states are fighting over orders of medical equipment. Mr. Trump said states "should have been building their stockpiles," adding that the federal government is a "backup." "We're a backup, we're not an ordering clerk, we're a backup, and we've done an unbelievable job," Mr. Trump said. Read more here. 8:37 PM

2 cruise ships with sick passengers dock in Florida

Two cruise ships carrying passengers stricken with coronavirus have docked in Florida on Thursday. It ends a nightmarish odyssey for some of the passengers, but for others aboard the journey is far from over. After nearly a month at sea, the Zaandam's grueling voyage ended in Port Everglades. Passenger Val Myntti couldn't wait for it to be over. "We are on pins and needles and we are so excited about it," Myntii told CBS News. The Rotterdam, which took passengers with no symptoms from the Zaandam, arrived, too. There were a combined 2,300 people on both ships. At one point, the Zaandam reported 200 sick passengers, nine who tested positive for the virus and four deaths. Read more here. Cruise ships carrying passengers with coronavirus dock in Florida 8:16 PM

Child donates vital medical gear to Virginia hospital

Zohaib Begg comes from a long line of doctors and nurses now working to save coronavirus patients. When his aunt told him her hospital was low on headgear, the 7-year-old got an idea. He went to hotels by his Virginia home to ask for their shower caps. He left with caps, gloves and face masks. Watch more of the story below: Child donates vital medical gear to hospital in Virginia 7:59 PM / April 2, 2020

National parks open during outbreak cause fears

Even as the public is shut out of local parks across the country, many national parks remain open with crowded trails and little social distancing. Some former park employees and outside groups are demanding a shut down of the entire National Park System. Dustin Stone, who worked at Klondike Gold Rush Park in Alaska, said he quit his job in protest. "I wound up walking out of my job," Stone said. "I had been in contact with peers at parks in the lower 48 that were telling me horror stories about their parks being overloaded with visitors." Watch more of the story below: National parks open during outbreak causes fears 7:52 PM / April 2, 2020

Trump says he's "looking to see" if he can stop states from releasing prisoners

President Trump said Thursday that he disapproves of states freeing "serious criminals" to reduce congestion in prisons during the coronavirus pandemic, and that he's "looking to see" if he has the right to stop them. "Some people are getting out that are very serious criminals, in some states, and I don't like that. I don't like it." Mr. Trump said at the daily Coronavirus Task Force briefing. "But it's a city or state thing in certain cases, as you know." "We don't like it, the people don't like it, and we're looking to see if I have the right to stop it in some cases," Mr. Trump added. 7:43 PM / April 2, 2020

18% of uniformed NYPD workforce out sick

The New York City Police Department announced that 6,498 members, or 18% of its uniformed workforce, called in sick on Thursday. The department added that 1,354 uniformed members and 169 civilian employees have tested positive for the virus. The department also announced the death of school safety agent Roniece Watson, who died from complications due to the virus on Monday. 7:22 PM / April 2, 2020

Wisconsin won't move next week's primary

A federal judge ruled against postponing Wisconsin's April 7 election but is providing voters an additional six days to turn in absentee ballots. In his ruling, Judge William Conley again criticized Wisconsin leaders for not stepping up to delay the election but said it wasn't within his purview to do so. "The only role of a federal district court is to take steps that help avoid the impingement on citizens' rights to exercise their voting franchise as protected by the United States Constitution and federal statutes," Conley wrote. "That is what the court attempts to do in this opinion and the order below, understanding that a consequence of these measures may be to further the public health crisis in this State. Unfortunately, that is beyond the power of this court to control." Thursday was supposed to be the final day to request absentee ballots, but Conley is giving Wisconsin voters until Friday at 6 p.m. ET to place those requests. The deadline to turn in the ballots has been extended to 5:00 p.m. ET on April 13. As of Thursday morning, more than 1.1 million absentee ballots have been requested, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC). Read more here. 7:10 PM / April 2, 2020

Jeff Bezos donates $100 million to U.S. food banks

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is donating $100 million to food banks across the U.S. so they can feed needy Americans as the novel coronavirus cripples the economy. "Even in ordinary times, food insecurity in American households is an important problem, and unfortunately COVID-19 is amplifying that stress significantly," Bezos said on Instagram Thursday. "Millions of Americans are turning to food banks during this time." The donation will go to Feeding America, a Chicago-based network of more than 200 food banks that feed 46 million people. Forbes ranked Feeding America the second-largest U.S. charity by revenue. The nonprofit generated $2.9 billion in revenue in 2019, most of which went toward sending food to pantries, according to a 2019 financial report. Read more here. 7:10 PM / April 2, 2020

Bodies pile up on streets in Ecuador as coronavirus spreads

The novel coronavirus has ravaged the coastal Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil, which has struggled to cope with the number of corpses as hospitals, morgues and funeral parlors have been overwhelmed. Some social media videos show unattended bodies lying on the street with nowhere else to go. The outbreak in Ecuador has sickened at least 3,100 people, according to John Hopkins' latest data map. The epicenter in the country is in Guayaquil, where residents have criticized the government's response. Because of the strict quarantine measures taken to restrict the spread of COVID-19, people have been limited in what they can do for loved ones or neighbors who die at home. Some, such as Guayaquil resident Stalin Briones, have been sharing disturbing photos or videos to get attention about what's going on. Read more here. 6:17 PM / April 2, 2020

Navy removes captain who raised alarm about virus on aircraft carrier

The captain of an aircraft carrier hit by the coronavirus was relieved of his command by the Navy on Thursday for going outside the chain of command and circulating a memo pleading for help from Washington, one which quickly became public. Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly said he relieved Captain Brett Crozier of command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after losing confidence in his ability to lead under the stress of dealing with the viral outbreak. "Command is a sacred trust that must be continually earned," Modly said at a news conference at the Pentagon. "As I learned more about the events of the past week onboard the Teddy Roosevelt ... I could reach no other conclusion than Captain Crozier had allowed the complexity of his challenge with the COVID breakout on the ship to overwhelm his ability to act professionally when acting professionally was what was needed most at the time." Read more here. Captain Brett Crozier conducts a remembrance ceremony for the 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami victims on March 11, 2016. U.S. Navy / MC3 Cody Hendrix 5:52 PM / April 2, 2020

Americans with direct deposit on file with the IRS will get checks within 2 weeks, Mnuchin says

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that Americans with direct deposit on file with the IRS will get their economic relief payments within the next 14 days. "Within two weeks, the first payments will be direct deposit into taxpayers' accounts," Mnuchin said. Mnuchin added that the government will be putting up a "web portal" to collect information from Americans who don't currently have their direct deposit information on file. "It is a very large priority, the president has made clear, we want to get this money quickly into your hands." 5:46 PM / April 2, 2020

NYC mayor Bill de Blasio urges residents to wear facemasks

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday urged residents to wear facemasks but cautioned that wearing one isn't a substitution for other prevention measures. "We're advising New Yorkers to wear a face covering when you go outside and near other people," de Blasio said at a news conference. "It can be a scarf. It can be something you create at home. It can be a bandana." NYC mayor urges sick New Yorkers to stay off subways during coronavirus outbreak 5:36 PM / April 2, 2020

231 inmates and 223 staffers test positive in NYC jails

As of Thursday morning, 231 inmates and 223 staff members have tested positive for coronavirus in New York City jails, according to the city's Department of Corrections. Those inmates and staffers have been asked to self-quarantine. "The health and well-being of our personnel and people in custody is our top priority," the department said in a statement. 5:29 PM / April 2, 2020

President Trump tests negative for coronavirus

President Trump has again tested negative for coronavirus, according to a memorandum released by his physician on Thursday. Dr. Sean Conley wrote that Mr. Trump was tested with one of the new rapid point-of-care tests and that his negative result came back in 15 minutes. "He is healthy and without symptoms," Dr. Conley wrote. 5:15 PM / April 2, 2020

Another BOP inmate dies of coronavirus

The Bureau of Prisons announced Thursday that another inmate has died from the coronavirus, bringing the total number of inmates who have died of the virus in federal prison to four. All of the deaths have occurred in Louisiana's FCI Oakdale. But in a Thursday statement, the bureau announced the death of a patient from Ohio's FCI Elkton who may have had the virus, too. The bureau identified the latest Oakdale patient as David Townsend, a 66-year-old who was incarcerated on a meth and marijuana conviction. Townsend, who had preexisting conditions, went into respiratory failure on Saturday before he was taken to the hospital, the bureau said. The Elkton patient was identified as Woodrow Taylor, a 53-year-old who was incarcerated on a cocaine conviction. Taylor, who also suffered from preexisting conditions, was brought to the hospital earlier in the week and died before his coronavirus test results came back, the bureau said. 4:34 PM / April 2, 2020

Ohio extends stay-at-home order

On Thursday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that his state's stay-at-home order has been extended until May 1, 2020. "We understand that this is tough — it is very difficult. But, I would not be making these decisions if it wasn't a matter of life and death," DeWine said in a statement. "We have to keep this monster down. It's not dead — it's very much alive." A health professional walks out of a drive-through coronavirus testing site at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, on March 17, 2020. Getty 3:50 PM / April 2, 2020

Oprah Winfrey donates $10 million to relief efforts

Oprah Winfrey has joined the growing list of celebrities who are making personal contributions to aid in the fight against the coronavirus. "I am donating $10 million overall to help Americans during this pandemic in cities across the country and in areas where I grew up," Winfrey announced Thursday. Her generous commitment includes a $1 million donation to America's Food Fund, who are working with Feeding America and celebrity chef José Andrés' World Central Kitchen. I believe that America’s Food Fund will be a powerful way to make a difference for our neighbors in need and am committing $1 million to this fund to support those facing food insecurity. — Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) April 2, 2020 Read more here. 3:30 PM / April 2, 2020

Amazon says all warehouse workers will have face masks by next week

Amazon says it will provide face masks to all its warehouse workers globally by early next week and broaden its use of temperature checks as it tries to slow the spread of coronavirus amid its vast logistics workforce. The announcement comes 10 days after CEO Jeff Bezos acknowledged the company was having trouble filling orders for masks amid a widespread shortage of protective equipment. After workers in several warehouses across the U.S. complained of not having sufficient protective equipment and shared reports of colleagues coming to work sick, the bottleneck appears to have cleared. "The millions of masks we ordered weeks ago are now arriving, and we're distributing them to our teams as quickly as possible. Masks will be available as soon as today in some locations and in all locations by early next week," Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president of worldwide operations, said on a company blog on Thursday. Read more here. 2:52 PM / April 2, 2020

French president says he will loosen lockdown restrictions on people with autism

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday, World Autism Awareness Day, that he will loosen lockdown restrictions on people with autism and on families with autistic children. "I can imagine your worry at this time, the emotions you must be feeling," he said in a televised address. Macron noted the nationwide lockdown marked a sudden end to the routines that many autistic people rely on by restricting movement and access to family members, friends and schools. Under the lockdown, people are only allowed to leave home for essentials such as grocery shopping and medical visits, and for one exercise period of just one hour a day, within a radius of one kilometer from their home. "For some of you, staying home is hard, and can cause you anguish," Macron said, as he announced that people with autism will be allowed to go out for longer periods and more often, and will be able to travel farther than 1 kilometer in order to go to places they find comforting. The president of Sésame Autisme, an association of parents of people with autism, welcomed the move. It is expected the new guidelines will go into effect in the coming days. 2:34 PM / April 2, 2020

Pelosi announces new House committee to oversee coronavirus response

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her intention to create a bipartisan House committee to oversee the federal response to the coronavirus crisis, led by Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the majority whip. Pelosi told reporters during her weekly press conference Thursday that the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis would oversee the dispersal of funds from the $2.2 trillion relief bill signed by President Trump last week, and "ensure the taxpayers dollars are being wisely and efficiently spent." "The panel will root out waste, fraud and abuse. It will protect against price-gouging, profiteering and political favoritism," Pelosi told reporters, adding that the panel will wield subpoena power. "We need transparency and accountability." Read more here. 2:30 PM / April 2, 2020

6-week-old baby's death linked to coronavirus, believed to be one of the youngest fatalities

A 6-week-old baby who tested positive for the coronavirus died last week in Connecticut. Governor Ned Lamont confirmed the death on Wednesday, and said that it is likely one of the youngest deaths from the disease "anywhere." "It is with heartbreaking sadness today that we can confirm the first pediatric fatality in Connecticut linked to ," Lamont wrote on Twitter. "A 6-week-old newborn from the Hartford area was brought unresponsive to a hospital late last week and could not be revived. Testing confirmed last night that the newborn was COVID-19 positive. This is absolutely heartbreaking. We believe this is one of the youngest lives lost anywhere due to complications relating to COVID-19." Read more here. 1:55 PM / April 2, 2020

New Jersey cases top 25,000

More than 25,000 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in New Jersey, officials announced Thursday. "We've lost another 182 New Jerseyans to #COVID19, bringing our total to 537 deaths," Governor Phil Murphy tweeted. "537 reasons to stay home and do your part to #FlattenTheCurve." As of 1:00 PM, #COVID19 statewide stats: • Positive Tests: 25,590 • Deaths: 537 For updates: https://t.co/JW1q8awGh7 pic.twitter.com/CrbCLMtWo9 — Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) April 2, 2020 1:42 PM / April 2, 2020

More than 1,000 people in the U.S. died of coronavirus in a single day

More than 1,000 people in the U.S. died from coronavirus in a 24-hour period, making Wednesday the deadliest day of the pandemic in America so far. Wednesday marked the first time the U.S. reported more than 1,000 deaths from the virus in a single day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University — a dramatic increase in the daily death toll. Read more here. 1:20 PM / April 2, 2020

Louisiana reports spike in confirmed cases

Louisiana's health department has reported an additional 2,726 COVID-19 cases, which raises the total number of confirmed cases in the state to 9,150. "While extremely upsetting, this increase in COVID-19 cases appears to be less a sign of new exponential growth and more a sign of a logjam from commercial labs," Governor John Bel Edwards said in a statement Thursday. He said officials believe the disease is spreading "in every parish in Louisiana." "The situation remains concerning, but every Louisianan has the power to change the path we are on," he said. "Think of your neighbors, and please stay at home." 1:12 PM / April 2, 2020

Democratic National Convention postponed until August

The Democratic National Convention has been postponed to August, the party announced Thursday. The move comes after nearly four dozen party officials told CBS News that Democratic leaders should either scale back, postpone or rethink the convention. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, also said Tuesday it was "hard to envision" the event moving forward as planned. The convention was slated to kick off July 13 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and end July 16, but is now expected to begin the week of August 17. The event, which brings together thousands of Democrats from around the country, will still take place in Milwaukee. Read more here. 12:43 PM / April 2, 2020

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on his battle with coronavirus: "It's gonna be a long slog"

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who has tested positive for the coronavirus, said Thursday that he's "doing pretty well, all things considered." "This is very tough. I get it now," he said, joining his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, via video during a press conference. He said he had a fever as he spoke to the governor from his basement, where he is self-isolating while battling the virus, and that he has had hallucinations, including seeing his late father. "It's gonna be a long slog," he said. "Now that I know the fight that I'm in for, I'm more comfortable." He also said he can't imagine having to fight it alone. "We're in a real fight and we really do have to remember our connections to each other because otherwise there would be no way through," he said. Governor Andrew Cuomo and brother Chris talk coronavirus 12:33 PM / April 2, 2020

New York has enough ventilators in stockpile for about 6 days, governor says

New York state has 2,200 ventilators in its stockpile, enough for about six days at the "current burn rate," Governor Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. He said the state is still looking to acquire more ventilators. "The burn rate of ventilators is troubling, and six days of ventilators in the stockpile is troubling," he said, but added, "we have all these extra measures that I believe if push comes to shove will put us in fairly good shape." He said the measures include transporting ventilators from hospitals that don't need them at the moment to others that do, using anesthesia machines as ventilators, and splitting one ventilator between two patients. "I don't want to say yet I'm confident, and it depends on how many we need, but I can say with confidence we have researched every possibility, every idea. Every measure you can possibly take to find ventilators, this state has done. That I can promise you." Governor Cuomo: Ventilator stockpile may last 6 more days 11:47 AM / April 2, 2020

Death toll in New York rises to 2,373

The death toll in New York state from the coronavirus is now 2,373, up from 1,941 a day earlier, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. More than 92,000 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the state – more than half of them in New York City. 11:41 AM / April 2, 2020

Speaker of Iran's parliament becomes highest-ranking official with confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis

Iran's parliament says speaker Ali Larijani has tested positive for the new coronavirus and is in quarantine. Larijani is the highest-ranking official within Iran's government to test positive for the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes. Parliament announced Larijani's illness on Thursday on its website, saying he was receiving treatment in quarantine. In this file photo, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani, speaks with media, during a press conference, in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, September 19, 2011. AP Iran has one of the world's worst outbreaks of the virus with more than 50,000 cases confirmed by the government and more than 3,100 deaths. Many inside and outside of Iran believe those officially confirmed figures are considerably lower than the true toll, however. — CBS/AP 11:34 AM / April 2, 2020

Pentagon confirms it's working to provide 100,000 body bags to FEMA

The Defense Department is working to provide 100,000 body bags to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a Pentagon spokesman confirmed Thursday. FEMA requested the body bags from the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews, a Defense Department spokesman, said the department and the DLA "have a longstanding arrangement with FEMA to procure key commodities from DLA's industrial partners during crisis response operations." "DLA is currently responding to FEMA's prudent planning efforts for 100,000 pouches to address mortuary contingencies on behalf of state health agencies," he said in a statement. Read more here. 11:11 AM / April 2, 2020

Putin extends Russia's business shutdown until April 30 as coronavirus cases mount

President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday that the Russian government was extending the nationwide shutdown of non-essential businesses until April 30 to try to slow the spread of the new coronavirus in the country. The move came as Russian officials reported a surge in COVID-19 cases, with 771 more people testing positive over the last day, bringing the country's total up to 3,548. "We have not passed the peak of the epidemic in the world and in our country yet," Putin said in a televised address, urging the vast majority of Russians to stay home. He said that the measures had already bought more time in the fight against the virus. Dozens of the country's regions, including capital Moscow and the surrounding area, have also imposed lockdowns this week, ordering residents to remain in their homes for all but essential outings. A woman rides in a largely empty metro train in Moscow, Russia, after the city authorities announced a partial lockdown ordering residents to stay at home to prevent the spread of coronavirus on March 30, 2020. Reuters Moscow authorities have threatened to impose fines of between about $51 and $6,300 on residents and businesses found to be violating the stay-at-home orders. -Alexandra Odynova 10:40 AM / April 2, 2020

Iranian students try to deliver coronavirus "aid" packages to "unprivileged American people"

A hard-line organization of Iranian college students says it has attempted to deliver "humanitarian aid" including coronavirus test kits, disinfectants, face masks and gloves to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, ostensibly to be delivered to the U.S. The group's leader said the aid was to help the "unprivileged American people" fight one of the world's deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks. The Student Basij is the youth division of the pro-regime Basij militia. Video on Iranian state media showed the student group trying to deliver what appeared to be two truckloads of the purported supplies to the Swiss Embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Iran. The embassy refused to receive the packages, but has not said why. Video broadcast by Iran's state-run IRIB news network shows a truck purportedly carrying "humanitarian health aid" supplies intended for the U.S. to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran. The embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Iran, refused to accept the April 2, 2020 delivery, but would not say why. Still from video on IRIBnews.ir Relations between Washington and Tehran have been strained for months, and Iranian leaders have blasted the Trump administration for harsh economic sanctions they claim are hindering their response to the country's own COVID-19 outbreak. American officials - and some Iranians - suspect Iran has hidden the extent of the outbreak in the Islamic Republic and exaggerated its capacity to fight it. Amid shortages of personal protective equipment like masks and gloves for American medics, the U.S. has sought supplies from abroad - including from another international rival, China. -Seyed Bathaei 10:01 AM / April 2, 2020

Human impact on the environment may make pandemics more likely, experts warn

About two-thirds of all infectious diseases in humans have their origins in animals. Scientists say the ability of a virus to mutate and adapt from animals to the human system is very rare, but the expansion of the human footprint is making that rare event much more likely. For most people, up until the novel coronavirus took over the headlines, the possibility of a new disease emerging out of nowhere and spreading around the world at a breakneck pace seemed like something out of a science fiction movie. But some members of the scientific community have been sounding the alarm for decades, warning that it was not a matter of if, but when another pandemic would threaten humanity. Read more here. 9:19 AM / April 2, 2020

Bill Gates calls for nationwide social isolation policy to slow coronavirus spread

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has been warning about the threat of a global pandemic since 2015. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $100 million to fighting the new coronavirus. On Thursday, Gates spoke to "CBS This Morning" co-host Anthony Mason in a wide-ranging conversation in which he called for a nationwide social isolation policy to slow the spread of the COVID-19 disease and for the federal government to "set the priorities" on testing. Click here to read a portion of the interview. 9:13 AM / April 2, 2020

After Zoom calls hacked with racial slurs and pornography, CEO admits "mistake"

Hackers target Zoom videoconference calls amid coronavirus pandemic The FBI is warning about reports of people intruding on Zoom calls with pornographic or hate images. The popular app said its number of users has ballooned from about 10 million to hundreds of millions with people isolated at home under coronavirus precautions. But, attackers have discovered Zoom, too, as one Long Island mother found out earlier this month. Michelle, who asked that her last name not be used because she fears more online attacks, said her 14-year-old daughter was online in an "Ask the Rabbi" class for her private girls' Modern Orthodox high school when some boys "Zoom-bombed" it. "First, the screens were completely black and they were saying all these anti-Semitic things, cursing them out, saying you f***ing Jews, et cetera," Michelle told CBS News Consumer Investigative Reporter Anna Werner. "And then one boy suddenly stripped and was naked." Click here to read the full story. 8:43 AM / April 2, 2020

Record 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment last week

April opened with millions of people out of work and stock markets slumping after the White House this week acknowledged that the coronavirus could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. It's a preview of the carnage to come. Some 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, the Department of Labor said Thursday, double the number of applications last week and 10 times the previous weekly record set in 1982. As many as 20 million people could be out of work this summer, according to separate estimates from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and Bank of America. "We haven't, in my lifetime, my parents' lifetime, seen this. This is truly unprecedented," said Bill Rodgers, a fellow at The Century Foundation, a think tank. Over 6 million people file for unemployment as coronavirus crisis deepens 8:27 AM / April 2, 2020

New England Patriots plane flying medical masks to Boston from China

The New England Patriots plane is flying much-needed coronavirus crisis medical supplies to Boston from China, CBS Boston reports. A Patriots spokesperson told the station the team's Boeing 767 went to Shenzhen, China Wednesday to pick up 1.2 million N95 masks. According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker struck an agreement two weeks ago to acquire the critically needed masks from a "collection of Chinese manufacturers," but he had no way to get them back to Massachusetts. So he turned to Patriots president Jonathan Kraft — a longtime friend of President Trump — for help. Owner Robert Kraft also got involved, as did the State Department. 8:02 AM / April 2, 2020

150 bodies removed from homes in Ecuador as COVID-19 crisis strains public resources

Ecuador said Wednesday the bodies of 150 people were retrieved from homes in the port city of Guayaquil after the coronavirus crisis put a strain on resources. A joint military and police task force created to deal with the emergency removed the bodies in the past three days, government spokesman Jorge Wated said. Authorities have not confirmed how many COVID-19 victims were among the 150 dead. As of Thursday morning there were still fewer than 100 confirmed coronavirus deaths in Ecuador, and about 2,750 cases. Authorities had registered 537 deaths and 20,081 cases across Latin America by Wednesday afternoon. — CBS/AFP 7:49 AM / April 2, 2020

Engineer intentionally derailed train near Navy hospital ship in LA for virus response, feds say

A train engineer intentionally drove a speeding locomotive off a track at the Port of Los Angeles because he was suspicious about the presence of a Navy hospital ship docked there to help during the coronavirus crisis, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The locomotive crashed through a series of barriers and fences before coming to rest about 250 yards from the U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Mercy on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a release. Nobody was hurt. Eduardo Moreno, 44, was charged with one count of train wrecking, prosecutors said. — CBS/AP Feds: Man intentionally derailed train near hospital ship 7:40 AM / April 2, 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci to receive additional security following threats

Federal officials are ramping up security for Dr. Anthony Fauci after threats were made against him, multiple officials from the Department of Justice confirmed to CBS News. The increase in security came at the request of the Health and Human Services Inspector General (HHS IG), the officials said. The Department of Health and Human Services requested that U.S. Marshals deputize a group of agents in the office of the HHS IG to handle the doctor's protection, and the request was approved by the Department of Justice, according to the officials. The officials did not expand on the nature of the threats, or provide detail on the extent of physical protection Dr. Fauci will receive. Dr. Anthony Fauci discusses the latest in the fight against coronavirus Dr. Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is one of the most prominent and respected voices in the nation's fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and appears regularly at the White House's daily Coronavirus Task Force briefings. Although he has occasionally stepped in to correct or dial back claims President Trump has made about the nation's effort to stop the virus, Dr. Fauci has emphasized that he and Trump are working together well. Asked Thursday on "CBS This Morning" about the threats and pressure he is under, Dr. Fauci told co-host Gayle King: "It's my job. This is the life I've chosen, and I'm doing it. I mean, obviously there's a lot of pressure. I would be foolish to deny that. But that's what I do. I've been through crises like this before. Dating back, you know, 37 years from the very beginning of the HIV epidemic. It's a job to do, and we've just got to do it." 7:24 AM / April 2, 2020

CBS News Poll: Half of Americans expect coronavirus outbreak to get worse over next month

Americans are bracing for a difficult April. Fifty-one percent say they expect the coronavirus outbreak to get worse in the next month; another 21% expect it to continue as it is now and 28% say they think things will get better in the coming weeks. A solid majority of Americans, 77%, say they don't believe doctors and nurses have the supplies they'll need. Marks for President Trump's handling of the outbreak remain mixed and have not dramatically changed from last week, with 51% saying he's doing a good job — down two points since last week — and 49% a bad one. Click here to read more from this CBS News Poll. 7:03 AM / April 2, 2020

LA mayor urges city's residents to wear masks when not home in bid to curb virus spread

The mayor of Los Angeles has urged 4 million residents to wear masks to combat the spread of the new coronavirus when they walk out in public, even as state health officials shy away from requiring the measure. Homemade cloth masks, or even a "tucked-in bandanna," will help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the nation's second-largest city and remind people to practice safe social distancing, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday as he donned a black cloth mask to make his point. "I know this looks surreal," Garcetti said. "We're going to have to get used to seeing each other like this. ... This will be the look." But he urged people not to use medical-grade masks, such as N95 or surgical masks, which are in short supply and needed for health care workers and first responders. Health officials clarify guidelines on wearing face masks — CBS/AP 6:59 AM / April 2, 2020

Spain sees record 950 coronavirus deaths in a single day

Spain saw a new record in virus-related fatalities Thursday, with 950 deaths in 24 hours. The total number of deaths in Spain was 10,003 on Thursday. New coronavirus infections rose by nearly 8% overnight to 110,238, placing Spain on par with Italy, the country that has seen Europe's worst outbreak to date. Health authorities have been saying the pace of new cases confirmed daily in Spain was dropping from an average of 20% up to March 25, to less than 12% after that date, more than 10 days after Spaniards were ordered to stay at home. The government has acknowledged that the real number of new infections could be much higher because Spain only has the capacity to process between 15,000 and 20,000 tests per day. — CBS/AP 6:53 AM / April 2, 2020

Social Security recipients will automatically get stimulus checks, Treasury says in reversal

The Treasury Department said late Wednesday that Americans on Social Security will not be required to file a "simple tax return" to receive a stimulus check from the U.S. government. The announcement reversed an earlier statement from the Internal Revenue Service that participants in the federal retirement program would need to file such a return to get the funds. The IRS directive would have impacted about 15 million people, including millions of seniors on Social Security, who aren't required to file tax returns, according to Chuck Marr, senior director of federal tax policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Seniors who rely on Social Security for their sole source of income don't have to file tax returns. 6:38 AM / April 2, 2020

China insists U.S. "lying" and shifting blame with accusations of COVID-19 cover-up

The Chinese government is hitting back at U.S. officials and lawmakers accusing it of suppressing and hiding information about the coronavirus outbreak. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Thursday that "the words and actions of individual American politicians are really despicable and immoral" and that they should focus their energies on what they can do to protect their citizens and save as many lives as they can. "We have said many times that to stigmatize, blame and shift responsibility to others cannot make up for the lost time," she said. "Continued lying will only waste more time and cause more loss of life." American lawmakers and officials have publicly accused China of a cover-up of the seriousness of the initial outbreak that allowed it to spread more widely, and U.S. officials have told CBS News the American intelligence community believes China has been under-reporting both the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country. Aircraft from China with medical supplies arrives in New York City Hua insisted that China has released the relevant information in a timely manner every day. "We understand the current plight of the U.S. and the pressure facing some American officials," she said. — CBS/AP 6:18 AM / April 2, 2020

Concern mounts in India as first COVID-19 death reported in Asia's biggest slum

A 56-year-old man living in Mumbai's Dharavi slum, the largest slum in Asia, has died of COVID-19. The victim had no travel history and owned a garment shop in the impoverished area, one of India's most densely populated with about 1 million people crammed into only about two square miles. The authorities have quarantined the man's family and sealed the building in which he lived, which consists of about 300 apartments in a redeveloped part of the slum, according to Indian news agencies. Authorities were working to trace and test everyone who had come into contact with the victim for COVID-19 on Thursday. Health workers prepare to shift a man suspected of coronavirus to a hospital at Shahu Nagar in Dharavi, one of Asia's largest slums, during a lockdown to slow the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Mumbai, India, April 2, 2020. Reuters The death has raised concern among Indian authorities as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the country continues to rise. There are more than 2,000 cases and 58 deaths from the disease in India so far. Maharashtra state, where the Mumbai slum is located, has been the hardest-hit with more than 300 cases. India is currently under a 21-day lockdown that began on March 25. All non-essential business and transport has been banned. -Arshad R. Zargar 5:53 AM / April 2, 2020

New York City hospitals now too swamped to try to resuscitate many cardiac arrest patients

Paramedics in New York City have been given temporary new guidelines instructing them not to bring any "adult non-traumatic or blunt traumatic cardiac arrest" patient to a city emergency room unless their heart can be restarted in the field, because hospitals are too overwhelmed with coronavirus cases. EMS workers should now only bring such cases — virtually any adult whose heart has stopped for any reason — to a hospital if there is "a direct order from a medical control physician," or the ambulance crew itself is facing "an imminent physical danger" at the scene. The dire directive was issued by the Regional Emergency Medical Services Council of New York City on Tuesday. Previously, ambulance crews would have delivered such patients to emergency rooms for further resuscitation efforts. CBS New York confirmed the story, first reported by the New York Post, and CBS News has obtained a copy of the advisory sent to EMS workers. Medical workers handle a patient at Mount Sinai Hospital amid the coronavirus epidemic in New York City, April 1, 2020. Spencer Platt/Getty New York City is the epicenter of the U.S. COVID-19 epidemic with at least 1,374 of the total 5,137 deaths in the country as of Thursday morning, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The Tuesday advisory took effect immediately, telling EMS crews that, "in the event a resuscitation is terminated, and the body is in public view, the body can be left in the custody of NYPD. 5:26 AM / April 2, 2020

North Korea insists it's coronavirus-free

North Korea remains totally free of the coronavirus, a senior health official in Pyongyang insisted Thursday, despite mounting skepticism overseas as confirmed global cases near one million. The already isolated, nuclear-armed North quickly shut its borders in January after COVID-19 was first detected in neighboring China, and imposed strict containment measures. Pak Myong Su, director of the anti-epidemic department of the North's Central Emergency Anti-epidemic Headquarters, insisted the efforts had been completely successful. "Not one single person has been infected with the novel coronavirus in our country so far," Pak told AFP. Nearly every other country has reported coronavirus cases. Experts have said the North is particularly vulnerable to the disease because of its weak medical system, and defectors have accused Pyongyang of covering up an outbreak. — AFP 5:25 AM / April 2, 2020

Ellis Marsalis Jr., famed jazz family's patriarch, dead at 85 of COVID-19 complications

One of the sons of New Orleans jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr. says the patriarch of the New Orleans clan that includes famed musician sons Wynton and Branford has died after battling pneumonia brought on by COVID-19. The jazz patriarch was 85. Ellis Marsalis III said Wednesday his father had been hospitalized while battling the new coronavirus. The elder Marsalis opted to stay in New Orleans most of his career, gaining attention when his sons became famous and brought him the spotlight. Four of his six sons are musicians: Wynton, the trumpeter, is America's most prominent jazz spokesman as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. — The Associated Press 5:24 AM / April 2, 2020

New York City paramedic documents "battlefield triage"

Health care workers are on the frontline of the pandemic. At Jackson South Medical Center, near Miami, staffers started their shift Wednesday with a group prayer, asking for guidance and protection. In New York City, more than a thousand paramedics and firefighters have tested positive for the coronavirus. FDNY paramedic Megan Pfeiffer shared a video diary of what she calls "battlefield triage" on the frontlines in Queens. "There's a lot of hospitals that are running low on oxygen tanks and only have the big ones. They are sharing ventilators. We have never seen anything like this before," Pfeiffer says. Watch more in the video below: New York City paramedic documents "battlefield triage" during coronavirus outbreak Read the full article

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