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Live Stream from the press briefing scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. EDT

The Mariana Trench is the deepest spot in the world's oceans and only a handful of people have been there. But for the first time, travellers are being offered the opportunity to explore it - if they have a spare $100,000 to $200,000 (£83,000 to £166,000). Isle of Man-based Eyos Expeditions is offering three members of the public the chance to tag along on a dive it's organising to a spot in the Western Pacific trench known as Challenger Deep - 35,853ft (10,928 metres/6.79 miles) beneath the surface. It is, the company says, the most exclusive destination on the planet.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (Dem-Minn.) and new husband Tim Mynett—who is also her campaign consultant—are downplaying the campaign cash the freshman lawmaker funneled to his consulting firm. But campaign records show that Omar's campaign has been by far the firm's biggest client, funneling more than half-a-million dollars to the group in the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, almost half of all the money the company took in from federal candidates. Omar and Mynett announced their marriage last Wednesday after vigorously denying they were engaged in a romantic relationship. Now Omar's campaign and Mynett's firm, the E Street Group, a campaign consultancy...

U.S. equity markets plunged in the opening minutes of trading, gutting a rebound on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,268 points, or 5.9 percent, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were lower by 5.4 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. Trading is halted if the S&P 500 falls by 7 percent. The early selling comes as the Trump administration and Congress hammer out the details of a $1 trillion stimulus package designed to prop up the most harshly pummeled sectors of the U.S. economy and give cash to those out of work.

Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway announced additional measures Tuesday limiting city services in the hopes of curbing community spread of the novel coronavirus. Rhodes-Conway also announced paid emergency leave for employees who need time off work for reasons related to COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus. “In these extraordinary times, our city employees are working incredibly hard to maintain essential city services,” Rhodes-Conway said in a statement. “We are taking these measures to protect our employees and the public while delivering as many services as possible.” Also Tuesday, Public Health Madison & Dane County announced several new...

Tom Hanks says he feels the “blahs” but has no fever as he and wife Rita Wilson remain in isolation in an Australian residence, after being discharged from a hospital following their coronavirus diagnosis. A representative for the Oscar winner confirmed on Tuesday that the pair were no longer hospitalised. Hanks himself said he was doing chores and getting beaten at cards by his wife as they remain self-quarantined. “Hey folks. Good news: One week after testing positive, in self-isolation, the symptoms are much the same. No fever but the blahs. Folding the laundry and doing the dishes leads to...

On Election Day — Illinois recorded its first death from the coronavirus pandemic — Gov. J.B. Pritzker was in full outrage mode, defending his decision to put Illinois voters and election judges at risk of contracting the virus by not postponing Tuesday’s primary elections. Pritzker was angry that the Chicago Board of Elections would dare state the obvious, that Pritzker should have delayed the election. That’s exactly what Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine did. But Pritzker was driven to please his fellow Democrats, like state House Speaker Michael Madigan, and took refuge in his lawyers’ reading of state law. Illinois politicians...

* Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney joined Stephanie Grisham and Ivanka Trump in working from home amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak * Several of Trump's inner circle were at last weekend's dinner at Mar-a-Lago * Also at that dinner was Fabio Wajngarten, an aide to president of Brazil who tested positive for coronavirus * Jared Kushner is working at White House on Tuesday; he was at dinner * Kellyanne Conway is also working at the White House, she told DailyMail.com * It's unclear how many senior White House staff are working from home as White House refuses to...

razilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on his Facebook page that the result of his second coronavirus test was negative. “I inform that my second test for COVID-19 came back negative. Good night to all,” he wrote on a post accompanied by a photo of him against a Brazilian flag. Bolsonaro’s press secretary Fabio Wajngarten, who accompanied him to a dinner with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on March 7, tested positive for the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease. At least 15 other members of the Brazilian delegation who traveled with Bolsonaro to South Florida between March 7 and March...

Dog teams coming into Unalakleet for a break are hungry after long stretches on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Kelly Maixner’s team gets a steak snack several times a day to keep them fat and happy. “New York strips it looks like. I’ve gotten cases of New York strips and rib-eyes from Three Bears," he said. "Ray Redington taught me that trick." Iditarod veterinarians estimate the canine competitors burn up to 12,000 calories a day. Jeff Deeter of Fairbanks said mushers have a strategy on how to get those calories back into the dogs during the race. “I like...

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has instructed the department to begin delaying arrests for a slew of low-level criminal offenses — including all narcotics activity. The unprecedented move comes as the city takes emergency measures to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus through the region. An internal memo obtained by Billy Penn and WHYY states that crimes including theft, burglary, prostitution, stolen automobiles, vandalism, and certain economic crimes will no longer automatically result in detention. Police will also temporarily stop enforcing bench warrants to individuals who fail to show up for court.

The coronavirus crisis presents challenges to us as a nation and as individuals. There are principles we should keep in mind. Let's remember how our nation works. We have a Constitution that assigns limited, defined powers to the federal government and leaves the rest to the states and individuals. Some governors, like J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, don't seem to understand this. At a time when political leaders should be inspiring confidence, Pritzker is attacking President Donald Trump, accusing the federal government of being "completely unprepared." He wants to lay blame for crowds and delays at O'Hare Airport on the president....

Fortune magazine’s toilet paper numbers are full of crap. If we do math with the actual weight of a roll of toilet paper, we find a yearly total of far less than an environmentalist group claims.Fortune Magazine’s 2.2 million Twitter followers woke up Friday morning to a news story that seems unbelievable. According to the magazine, “The average American uses 3 rolls of toilet paper each week—and it’s devastating forests.” Not everyone has the same bathroom needs and habits, but most people’s reactions to the tweet were similar: that seems like a lot.That sort of reaction by ordinary people ought...

There was a noticeably different vibe at the finish line of the 2020 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as spectators waited for winner Thomas Waerner. “It’s very quiet. You don’t feel the energy as much just because everyone is not crowding around and able to cheer them in,” said Samantha Robler, who’s lived in Nome for three years. Because of concerns about the novel coronavirus, the City of Nome canceled Iditarod-related activities and urged people not to come into town. Still, a few hundred people ended up lining Front Street as the Norwegian musher crossed under the burled arch. Robler...

I’ve wondered for a long time how the millennial generation would cope with a real crisis. Not one of the myriad crises many of them claim to have every second of every day, triggering the biggest explosion of ‘anxiety’ and ‘triggering’ the planet has ever seen. No, a real one. One that impacts every one of us, one that causes genuine hardship and strife, one that causes huge numbers of deaths and rips the global economy to pieces and, one that is a proper valid reason to feel anxious because it’s indisputably frightening and none of us, not even the...

Mounting evidence suggests that if you don’t smoke or aren’t 70 or older or have underlying health conditions, you’ll be fine—although you can spread it to other, more vulnerable people. The latest information on Coronavirus COVID-19, also known as the Wuhan Flu, from Johns Hopkins University shows widely varying numbers of confirmed cases and apparent mortality rates by nation.The People’s Republic of China, the virus’ epicenter, was reporting 81,058 cases as of March 17 with 3,230 deaths, with 4.0 percent of those diagnosed subsequently dying. Italy is similarly hard hit, with 31,506 cases and 2,503 deaths for a mortality...

It is another very, very bad day in the market. As I write, the Dow is flirting with another 1000 point drop, an inevitable result of a good market day yesterday or, what some would call a dead cat bounce. Like most Americans, I have seen a carefully saved and self-managed retirement account (about 65% is managed by myself in self-directed brokerages like Schwab; 35% in professionally managed accounts affiliated with a bank, insurance company or employer) drop more than $70,000 in value over the last month. But, for the record, what I have self-managed has lost about 35% less...

Title only per USA Today rules on FR.

How can the left say they love their own countries when they work so hard to demonise and erase them? (Click link for video)

Can wearing masks stop the spread of the coronavirus? There’s solid scientific data demonstrating that masks do an incredible job at blocking particulate pollution, but what about the coronavirus particles? Viruses are tiny! Can masks get those? This means coronavirus particles are smaller than the oft-mentioned PM2.5 standard, but bigger than some dust particles and gases. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh tested different common mask...They tested a whole range of masks and materials. Here’s the percentage of particles the different materials blocked: 3M N95 masks captured over 95% of particles down to 0.007 microns. That’s over 10 times smaller...