Taiwan Releases December Email to WHO Showing Unheeded Warning About Coronavirus; Trump Calls for Halt to U.S. Funding for World Health Organization

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By Fox News. The World Health Organization is under fire after Taiwan released the contents of a December email inquiring about the person-to-person spread of COVID-19, which it says was ignored by the organization and further denied to provide adequate information about how to fight the virus.

Taiwan is accusing WHO of downplaying the severity and spread of the coronavirus in an attempt to pander to China, even after Taiwan sounded the alarm about at least seven cases of atypical pneumonia that they were aware of in Wuhan, where the virus originated.

When asked about the cases by the media, Taiwan said China’s health authorities said, “The cases were believed not SARS; however samples are still under examination, and cases have been isolated for treatment,” according to the contents of an email sent by Taiwan’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention to WHO on Dec. 31.

“I would greatly appreciate it if you have relevant information to share with us,” the email said.

(Read more from “Taiwan Releases December Email to WHO Showing Unheeded Warning About Coronavirus” HERE)

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Trump Calls for Halt to U.S. Funding for World Health Organization Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

By CNBC. The U.S. will suspend funding to the World Health Organization while it reviews the agency’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday, saying the international health agency made mistakes that “caused so much death” as the coronavirus spread across the globe.

“Today I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump said at a White House press conference.

Trump criticized the international agency’s response to the outbreak, saying “one of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations” that Trump imposed early on in the outbreak.

“Fortunately, I was not convinced and suspended travel from China saving untold numbers of lives,” he said. (Read more from “Trump Calls for Halt to U.S. Funding for World Health Organization Amid Coronavirus Outbreak” HERE)

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Bloomberg News Killed Investigation, Fired Reporter, Then Sought to Silence His Wife

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. . .Bloomberg LP, has used nondisclosure agreements broadly to conceal allegations and silence complaints from employees of sexual harassment or a hostile work environment, as published reports have documented.

The story of one Bloomberg reporter and his wife showcases the widespread use of such legal restraints at the company — and how far their reach can extend.

Six years ago, Bloomberg News killed an investigation into the wealth of Communist Party elites in China, fearful of repercussions by the Chinese government. The company successfully silenced the reporters involved. And it sought to keep the spouse of one of the reporters quiet, too.

“They assumed that because I was the wife of their employee, I was the wife,” the author and journalist Leta Hong Fincher tells NPR. “I was just an appendage of their employee. I was not a human being.” . . .

The Chinese ambassador warned Bloomberg executives against publishing the investigation. But Bloomberg News published the story anyway. Afterward, Forsythe received what he and Fincher considered death threats relayed through other journalists. He and Fincher moved their family to Hong Kong, believing it to be safer. (Read more from “Bloomberg News Killed Investigation, Fired Reporter, Then Sought to Silence His Wife” HERE)

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Dow Rallies More Than 500 Points on Improving Virus Outlook

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Stocks jumped on Tuesday, resuming the market’s sharp rebound from last month’s lows, as investors grew more optimistic about the coronavirus outlook.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 558.99 points, or 2.4%, to 23,949.76. The S&P 500 climbed 3.1% to 2,846.06 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced nearly 4% to 8,515.74. The tech-heavy Nasdaq notched its first four-day winning streak since early February.

The S&P 500 was led higher by 4% rallies in tech, consumer discretionary and consumer staples. Amazon rose to an all-time high to lead the Nasdaq higher.

“When you look at the facts, I think there’s reason to be more hopeful than we have been,” CNBC’s Jim Cramer said. “The worst-case scenario’s been taken off the table, and if Apple and Google can do contact tracing that we all embrace … while we continue to roll out more testing, the economy could reopen a lot sooner than we thought even, say, three weeks ago.” . . .

The corporate earnings season kicked off on Tuesday with JPMorgan Chase and Johnson & Johnson reporting their latest quarterly results, giving investors their first look at how devastating the hit to corporations has been from the pandemic. (Read more from “Dow Rallies More Than 500 Points on Improving Virus Outlook” HERE)

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Some States to Begin Reopening Economies This Week

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With some 95% of Americans under lockdown amid disaster declarations in all 50 states in response to the coronavirus pandemic, governors are making plans to reopen business and public life.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott wants to begin opening parts of his state next week, ahead of his previous May 1 target.

“We want to open. Texans love to work. Texans are dying to get back to work,” Abbott told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday night. “We want them to get back to work, but we have to do so in a very safe way so that we don’t regenerate the spread of the coronavirus in the state of Texas.” . . .

The White House, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Breitbart News, said about 20 states intend to begin the reopening process as early as later this week but definitely before the end of April. . .

Cuomo said Monday that his state, which has become the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, has contained the coronavirus and “the worst is over.”

(Read more from “Some States to Begin Reopening Economies This Week” HERE)

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REPORT: U.S. Military Investigations Suggest COVID-19 Probably Wasn’t Created in a Lab; China Sees Spike in New Cases

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By Newsweek. U.S. military investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic suggest the virus was probably not created in a lab, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley said on Tuesday.

Speculation that the deadly coronavirus, first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, escaped from a lab has been fueled by Beijing’s early attempts to coverup the outbreak and more recently by details from U.S. diplomatic cables. . .

“It should be no surprise to you that we’ve taken a keen interest in that, and we’ve had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at that,” he said. “And I would just say, at this point, it’s inconclusive. Although the weight of evidence seems to indicate ‘natural.’ But we don’t know for certain.” . . .

Milley’s careful choice of words is unlikely quell rumors on the internet, and questions in the media, that virus was created in a lab at Wuhan’s Institute of Virology. (Read more from “REPORT: U.S. Military Investigations Suggest COVID-19 Probably Wasn’t Created in a Lab” HERE)

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China Reports 169 New Coronavirus Cases — Highest in 5 Weeks

By NPR. China is reporting its highest number of new coronavirus cases in more than five weeks, saying most of them originated abroad.

Officials said Monday that mainland China had 169 new confirmed cases of infection, with 61 of them described as “asymptomatic” COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. The government said 98 of the cases were “imported” by people arriving from abroad. The total figure represents the highest number of new cases since March 6.

The increase has sparked concern about a second wave of infections in China, which was the original epicenter of the pandemic. The latest figures in China are just over 82,000, with 3,341 deaths, according to data released Monday by the National Health Commission. By comparison, the U.S. has the largest number of cases in the world — nearly 560,000 and more than 22,000 deaths — according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. (Read more from “China Reports 169 New Coronavirus Cases — Highest in 5 Weeks” HERE)

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How Obama’s Endorsements of Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton Compare; Trump Campaign Slams Endorsement

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By Newsweek. . .Obama’s endorsement of his former vice president emulated the one he gave former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her 2016 bid for the White House.

While Obama’s video speech about Biden was nearly four times the length—just shy of 12 minutes—of the one he gave for Clinton, both messages centered on each candidate’s achievements, a call for unity and praise for Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who failed to clinch the nomination in both primary contests.

Obama’s endorsement comes the day after Sanders announced his endorsement of Biden. In 2016, Obama’s endorsement of Clinton came in June two days after she secured enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee but more than a month before Sanders offered his. . .

Much like he did in 2016, Obama used his endorsement of Biden to acknowledge Sanders, a democratic-socialist who’s transformed the party by pushing for more progressive policies on economic inequality that nudged the party further to the left. Obama again credited Sanders with igniting enthusiasm within young voters, a crucial cohort for Democrats who “will be critical in moving America in a direction of progress and hope.”

(Read more from “How Obama’s Endorsements of Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton Compare” HERE)

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Trump Campaign Slams Obama’s Biden Endorsement: ‘Even Bernie Sanders Beat Him to It’

By Fox News. The Trump campaign argued Tuesday that former President Barack Obama was forced to endorse Joe Biden after sitting on the sidelines for the entirety of the 2020 Democratic primary cycle, noting even Bernie Sanders “beat him to it.”

Obama formally endorsed Biden on Tuesday after withholding support for any candidate for months.

But Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale blasted the move, saying the former president was left with “no other choice.”

“Barack Obama spent much of the last five years urging Joe Biden not to run for president out of fear that he would embarrass himself,” Parscale said Tuesday. “Now that Biden is the only candidate left in the Democrat field, Obama has no other choice but to support him.”

He added: “Even Bernie Sanders beat him to it. Obama was right in the first place: Biden is a bad candidate who will embarrass himself and his party. President Trump will destroy him.” (Read more from “Trump Campaign Slams Obama’s Biden Endorsement: ‘Even Bernie Sanders Beat Him to It’” HERE)

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Justice Department Declines to Support Blocking Hillary Clinton Deposition

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By National Review. The Justice Department has declined to join former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s effort to block depositions of both herself and a key aide in a case concerning her use of a private email-server system to conduct Obama administration business.

Though the DOJ’s decision will inevitably be reported as political retribution against President Trump’s 2016 election rival, there is actually nothing much here. The Trump State and Justice Departments have defended the former secretary throughout the suit in question. The government’s refusal to support Clinton’s latest gambit to avoid answering questions under oath is consistent with Justice Department policy and will have no bearing on the outcome of the case.

The depositions of Clinton and Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s State Department chief-of-staff and longtime confidant, were ordered by federal judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia. The case is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit brought by Judicial Watch, the private-watchdog group. It focuses on talking points the Obama administration generated to guide official public statements following the 2012 jihadist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in which U.S. ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed. (Read more from “Justice Department Declines to Support Blocking Hillary Clinton Deposition” HERE)

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U.S. Justice Dept. Opposes Hillary Clinton’s Challenge to Rare Deposition Order

By The National Law Journal. . .Clinton, represented by a team from Williams & Connolly, and former aide Cheryl Mills last month appealed a Washington trial judge’s order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Their case tests the high bar that plaintiffs must hurdle to secure a deposition involving a current or former cabinet secretary. Mills is represented by lawyers from the litigation boutique Wilkinson Walsh.

The U.S. State Department, represented by the Justice Department, said in a recent filing at the D.C. Circuit that the government “does not support the extraordinary relief of mandamus due to the unique circumstances of this case.” The Justice Department historically has resisted efforts by plaintiffs to depose high-ranking officials; the government’s legal team in the Clinton case argued that the dispute over Clinton’s email practices falls outside the realm in which the United States might otherwise have fought efforts to depose her.

“This is the rare situation in which discovery of a former cabinet secretary was not authorized for the impermissible purpose of probing internal government decisionmaking regarding official policy, but rather to focus on the impact on FOIA compliance of a former official’s unusual decision to use a private email server to systematically conduct large volumes of official business,” Mark Freeman, a Justice Department appellate lawyer, wrote in the April 3 filing. (Read more from “U.S. Justice Dept. Opposes Hillary Clinton’s Challenge to Rare Deposition Order” HERE)

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New York Times on Biden Sex Scandal: No Misconduct ‘Beyond Hugs, Kisses and Touching’

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The New York Times finally got around to a story (page 20-21) on sexual assault allegations made against Joe Biden by former staffer Tara Reade. The trappings were comprehensive, with many interviews about the alleged incident, but this particular #meToo tale got a cool reception, as reporters Lisa Lerer and Sydney Ember emphasized doubts, scrupulousness the paper manifestly failed to show regarding charges made against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

And there was one paragraph (encapsulated in an already notorious deleted tweet) so jaw-dropping that it was swiftly edited out. But Twitchy caught that gaffe by the Times:

Other than the unwanted “touching,” no problems?

The coolly written online headline deck gave the slant away: “Examining Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation Against Joe Biden — Ms. Reade, a former Senate aide, has accused Mr. Biden of assaulting her in 1993 and says she told others about it. A Biden spokeswoman said the allegation is false, and former Senate office staff members do not recall such an incident.” (Read more from “New York Times on Biden Sex Scandal: No Misconduct ‘Beyond Hugs, Kisses and Touching’” HERE)

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Chicago Hospital Phlebotomist: 30%-50% of Those Tested Have Coronavirus Antibody

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A phlebotomist working at Roseland Community Hospital said Thursday that 30% to 50% of patients tested for the coronavirus have antibodies while only around 10% to 20% of those tested have the active virus.

Sumaya Owaynat, a phlebotomy technician, said she tests between 400 and 600 patients on an average day in the parking lot at Roseland Community Hospital. Drive-thru testing is from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. each day. However, the hospital has a limited number of tests they can give per day.

Owaynat said the number of patients coming through the testing center who appear to have already had coronavirus and gotten over it is far greater than those who currently have the disease. . .

If accurate, this means the spread of the virus may have been underway in the Roseland community – and the state and country as a whole – prior to the issuance of stay at home orders and widespread business closures in mid-March which have crippled the national economy.

In addition, those who show signs of already having had the illness should be able to re-enter society — albeit with some modified social distancing measures in place — rather than sheltering at home as they are no longer in danger. Of those who contract the coronavirus, around 25 percent may be asymptomatic. (Read more from “Chicago Hospital Phlebotomist: 30%-50% of Those Tested Have Coronavirus Antibody” HERE)

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Bernie Endorses Joe Biden; Sanders Campaign Reps Revolt After Endorsement

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Bernie Sanders Endorses Joe Biden for President

By CNBC. Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president on Monday during a livestream with the two men, telling Biden “we need you in the White House.”

“I’m asking every Democrat, I’m asking every independent, I’m asking a lot of Republicans to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse,” Sanders said.

Sanders exited the Democratic primary on Wednesday, effectively making Biden the apparent nominee to take on President Donald Trump in November.

The endorsement was expected, though the timing was a surprise, and could give Biden a boost as he seeks to rally the party’s young liberals who backed Sanders in 2016 and again in 2020. (Read more from “Bernie Sanders Endorses Joe Biden for President” HERE)

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Sanders Campaign Reps Revolt After Sanders Endorses Biden, Openly Attack Former Vice President

By Fox News. Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden for president on Monday, but any illusions that the move would bring an end to long-simmering tensions between the Democratic Party’s liberal and moderate wings quickly evaporated in a matter of minutes.

Briahna Joy Gray, who served as Sanders’ national press secretary, and prominent Sanders surrogate Shaun King immediately took aim at Biden — and they made it clear just how much the former vice president’s platform differed from Sanders’ longstanding policy goals.

“With the utmost respect for Bernie Sanders, who is an incredible human being & a genuine inspiration, I don’t endorse Joe Biden,” Gray wrote. “I supported Bernie Sanders because he backed ideas like #MedicareForAll, cancelling ALL student debt, & a wealth tax. Biden supports none of those.” . . .

Gray had also hammered Biden on Sunday after The New York Times belatedly covered a sexual assault allegation against him on Sunday: “I’m not sure how that line from the NYT’s long-delayed coverage of Tara Reade’s accusation can sit alongside reporting that 7 other women have accused Biden of sexual misconduct,” Gray tweeted. (Biden’s campaign has denied the accusation.)

(Read more from “Sanders Campaign Reps Revolt After Sanders Endorses Biden, Openly Attack Former Vice President” HERE)

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