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Back in January the English-language version of the Global Times — a publication controlled by China’s ruling Communist Party — passed along some footage of the drone warnings after they were shared on China’s popular Weibo social network. In the viral video, residents of a village in Inner Mongolia are startled when they hear a disembodied voice from a hovering drone admonishing them for not wearing face masks outside. “Yes, Auntie, this is the drone speaking to you — you shouldn’t walk about without wearing a mask,” the voice announces to an elderly woman. In another segment, the drone warns...

The Health and Human Services Department's watchdog will investigate the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus outbreak. A spokesperson for the HHS inspector general told the Washington Examiner that investigators will carry out at least five reviews “related to HHS’s planning and response of the COVID-19 outbreak.” The inquiries will scrutinize issues such as nationwide hospital responses, quarantine procedures, the training and protective gear provided to front-line health workers, nursing home standards amid a disease with an exponentially more deadly effect on the elderly and the already ill, and the ability to care for illegal border crossers and refugees during...

The number of cops calling out sick jumped again Wednesday with more than 3,000 officers out ill as the coronavirus spreads in the NYPD. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said on MSNBC Wednesday morning the number of cops taking sick time was three times the normal rate — and currently sitting at about 3,200 officers ill. “The backup plans are already underway. We are certainly making adjustments,” Shea said, without outlining the plan. “We are a very well-resourced department. But make no mistake we are going to get through this and the New York City police department is going to lead...

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Former “throuple” Rep. Katie Hill says she has been “exposed” to the coronavirus — and is showing all the symptoms of being sick from the potentially deadly disease. “I was exposed to COVID-19. Here’s what happened,” wrote the former California congresswoman, who resigned in October under the intense spotlight on her three-way relationship with her husband and a female staffer. “My dad found out Saturday afternoon that he’d spent a lot of time with a person who tested positive for COVID-19,” she wrote in a three-tweet thread online. “I was exposed to my dad, but I could have been way...

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), along with other pro-choice groups, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and several other state officials over a temporary ban on elective abortion during the coronavirus pandemic. The ban was issued as part of an executive order by Abbott aimed at conserving medical equipment and the capacity of the health care system after warnings from health care professionals that patients sick with the coronavirus might overwhelm hospital capacity and deplete supplies, such as personal protective equipment for doctors and nurses. Pro-choice activists say the ban was issued...

The requirement for Americans to obtain a Real ID for travel will be delayed one year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday. Americans will now have until Oct. 1, 2021 to get Real ID Act compliant identification needed to board commercial flights, enter federal buildings or gain access to American nuclear plants. President Trump recommended the delay earlier this week to ease crowding at Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) offices. SNIP

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday claimed that Democrats “won the day” in obtaining what they wanted from the Senate’s $2.2 trillion coronavirus response stimulus package, while hinting at other items she would like to see included in a forthcoming bill. Pelosi described the negotiations as a “jiu-jitsu” moment in securing legislation that she described as worker-first instead of corporate-focused, but still said Democrats walked away with “not getting everything we want” out of the bill. “As I’ve said, there are so many things we didn’t get in any of these bills yet in a way that we need to,”...

Congress must begin drafting a fourth relief package to deal with the impact of the coronavirus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.

Guidance and information about high consequence infectious diseases and their management in England. Last updated 21 March 2020 — see all updates From: Public Health England Status of COVID-19 Status of COVID-19 As of 19 March 2020, COVID-19 is no longer considered to be a high consequence infectious diseases (HCID) in the UK. The 4 nations public health HCID group made an interim recommendation in January 2020 to classify COVID-19 as an HCID. This was based on consideration of the UK HCID criteria about the virus and the disease with information available during the early stages of the outbreak. Now...

Robert Levinson, a former FBI special agent who disappeared while traveling on Iran’s Kush Island in 2007, has “died while in Iranian custody,” his family announced Wednesday. ---SNIP--- “Those who are responsible for what happened to Bob Levinson, including those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind, will ultimately receive justice for what they have done,” the announcement said. That’s a reference to President Barack Obama’s administration, which did not secure Levinson’s release despite years of negotiating with Tehran in the lead-up to the implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

WEST TEXAS (KOSA) -- A 5.0 magnitude earthquake has been reported in West Texas on Thursday morning. According to the U.S Geological Survey, the earthquake happened west of Mentone around 10:16 a.m. That's one of the strongest quakes in the last 30 years. Viewers in Alpine, McCamey, Midland and Odessa all reached out to CBS7 to say they felt an earthquake around this time. Earlier Thursday morning at 3:52 a.m. a 3.8 magnitude earthquake was reported in the same area. The third quake, according to the USGS, happened near where the first one was centered, but it wasn't as deep.

The German government said it was barring entry to seasonal workers from abroad from Wednesday to stem the coronavirus outbreak, potentially leaving farmers with a dire shortage of manpower to harvest crops. “Seasonal and harvest workers will no longer be allowed to enter Germany within the framework of our border controls,” a spokesman for the interior ministry told a Berlin press conference. The ban will apply from 5pm and will be in place “until further notice”, he said, and includes people from EU countries. Around 300,000 seasonal workers come to Germany each year, mainly from Poland and Romania, to help...

Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts stores are mobilizing customers to pitch in with coronavirus relief by distributing free kits to sew face masks and gowns for hospitals and healthcare facilities. Personal protective equipment is in alarmingly short supply for medical professionals across the country during the global outbreak of COVID-19.

Hours after announcing the first person under 18 to die from complications of coronavirus, California health officials are backtracking, saying the 17-year-old from Los Angeles County could have died from something else. On Wednesday, county health officials said they would no longer include the boy’s death in the tally of coronavirus deaths until they know more information, according to the Associated Press.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Thursday said the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package passed by the Senate late Wednesday did not meet the needs of the Empire State, calling the bill "irresponsible" and "reckless." The $5 billion included in the bill for the state hardest hit by coronavirus is “earmarked only for COVID virus expenses, which means it does absolutely nothing for us in terms of lost revenue for this state,” Cuomo said during his daily coronavirus press briefing. He said he lost revenues are “the bigger problem.” “The congressional action in my opinion simply failed to address...

Mexican protesters have shut a US southern border crossing amid fears that untested American travellers will spread coronavirus. Residents in Sonora, south of the US state of Arizona, have promised to block traffic into Mexico for a second day after closing a checkpoint for hours on Wednesday. They wore face masks and held signs telling Americans to "stay at home". Mexico has fewer than 500 confirmed Covid-19 cases and the US over 65,000. The border is supposed to be closed to all except "essential" business, but protesters said there has been little enforcement and no testing by authorities. The blockade...

Some local governments have published where coronavirus cases appear, down to the neighborhood level. New York City has made public only county-by-county data, making it difficult to see which communities are being hardest hit. Residents of Los Angeles can go to a county website to look up how many confirmed coronavirus cases there are in Beverlywood, or Koreatown, or Echo Park. Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, have released figures at the ZIP code level. The South Korean government is sending geotargeted texts to alert citizens to positive cases near them. In New York, now at the center of the outbreak,...

VIDEO Most of the mainstream media is now acting/pretending that Joe Biden is perfectly capable of taking up the Democrat banner against President Donald Trump in the general election. However, much of that same media not too long ago was MOCKING Biden for his lack of coherency. A notable honest exception is Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti of The Hill's Rising who mocked Biden earlier and are continuing to mock him.

#Ohio: Trump 47% (+4) Biden 43% #Pennsylvania: Trump 47% (+2) Biden 45% #Wisconsin: Trump 45% Biden 45%