Rumors over Kim Jong Un's health make one thing clear: North Korea's cult of personality endures

Recent speculation about Kim Jong Un's health shows how the fate of North Korea is still seen as inextricably linked to that of one much-hyped individual.

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Confirmed coronavirus cases surge in reopened JBS Colorado beef plant; worker dies -union

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Trump says evidence ties virus to Wuhan lab, threatens tariffs

US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened new tariffs against Beijing after claiming there is evidence linking the coronavirus to a lab in China's ground-zero city of Wuhan. Asked if he had seen anything giving him a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of the outbreak, Trump replied, "Yes, I have." The Republican is increasingly making complaints over Beijing's handling of the pandemic outbreak a major issue for his November reelection campaign.

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30 Easy Side Dishes For Lasagna

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Far too many patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Georgia are black, new CDC data shows — a staggering 83%

The findings highlight stark racial disparities in the coronavirus outbreak, reinforcing national data showing that black communities are hardest hit.

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California closes Orange County beaches where crowds defied coronavirus guidelines

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered beaches in Orange County in the southern part of the state to close, after crowds defied public health guidelines to throng the popular shoreline last weekend. The move came after Newsom complained that beachgoers could hasten the spread of the coronavirus in California, delaying the state's ability to ease public health restrictions even as millions of people in the most-populous U.S. state obey the stay-at-home rules imposed in March. Newsom's decision to close the Orange County beaches, announced at his daily coronavirus briefing, stood in contrast to media reports, including by Reuters, that the Democratic governor planned to close all parks and beaches in the state.

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Pelosi Rejects McConnell’s Proposed Coronavirus-Liability Protections for Businesses

House speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday rejected a Republican proposal to provide businesses with protection from lawsuits should they choose to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic.“Especially now, we have every reason to protect our workers and our patients in all of this. So we would not be inclined to be supporting any immunity from liability,” Pelosi told reporters at a press briefing.Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell indicated this week that he would “insist” the next coronavirus-relief package include liability protections for companies and health-care workers as they reopen amid the pandemic. Such protections are a “red line,” McConnell has said, and must be included before he would consider Democratic demands that additional relief be provided to state and local governments.“The next pandemic coming will be the lawsuit pandemic in the wake of this one. So we need to prevent that now when we have the opportunity to do it,” the Kentucky Republican told Politico on Monday.Democrats do not have “any interest in having any less protection for our workers,” Pelosi responded.Senators will return to Congress on Monday to begin hashing out the next relief package.

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Trump says evidence ties China lab to virus, threatens tariffs

US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened China with fresh tariffs as he stepped up his attacks on Beijing over the coronavirus crisis, saying he had seen evidence linking a Wuhan lab to the contagion. The diatribe from the Republican incumbent came as data showed the United States shed more than 30 million jobs in six weeks, as lockdown measures began to bite across the nation. The virus is believed to have originated late last year in a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan that sold wild animals for human consumption, but speculation has swirled about a top-secret lab in the ground-zero city.

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No arrests after black man shot dead while jogging

Ahmaud Arbery's mother says she feels "very discouraged" by the investigation into her son's death.

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Newsom expected to close all California beaches

Throngs of people headed to beaches in Southern California during a weekend heat wave.

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One dead, five missing after Canadian helicopter goes missing during NATO exercise

Canadian prime Minister Jusin Trudeau has confirmed that one man has died and five others are missing after a Canadian military helicopter went missing during a NATO operation. Debris and the aircraft's black box have been found in the sea between Greece and Italy, a Greek military officer and public television said Thursday. Canada's armed forces said the helicopter had been involved in an accident after taking off from the Canadian frigate Fredericton on Wednesday. "Debris has been found in Italy's zone of control and intervention" in the Ionian Sea, the Greek military officer told AFP, specifying the wreckage belonged to the Canadian helicopter. Six crew were aboard the helicopter when it disappeared, the officer said on condition of anonymity. Greek public television reported that a body had been found amid the wreckage in international waters off the Greek island of Kefalonia. Greek public television ERT said Italian and NATO vessels were also taking part in the search while Turkey said one of its frigates was also involved. Canada said on Twitter that it contacted the family members of those who were on board the missing CH-148 Cyclone helicopter.

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Philippines rejects China's territorial label on island

The Philippines protested on Thursday China’s designation of a disputed South China Sea reef, which it has turned into a heavily fortified island base, as a Chinese “administrative center.” The Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement objecting to what it called China’s “illegal designation” of Fiery Cross Reef as a regional administrative center in the hotly contested Spratly archipelago. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China last week of taking advantage of widespread distraction over the pandemic to advance its territorial claims.

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Roger Stone bought more than 200 fake Facebook accounts, which he used to run ads defending Roger Stone

Stone, a longtime friend to Donald Trump, ran a sprawling network of fake Facebook accounts starting in 2016, according to newly unsealed FBI records.

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A New York City man stole $12,000 worth of coronavirus stimulus checks from mailboxes, cops say

Police arrested Feng Chen, 31, after finding him looking in mailboxes and a medical collection bin in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood,

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Citing no evidence, Trump says he’s seen information that coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab

Without citing any evidence, President Trump said he’s seen information that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China. When pressed by a reporter to back up his claim, Trump said he wasn’t at liberty to do so.

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This time, Pence wears mask as he tours Indiana plant

Vice President Mike Pence donned a face covering Thursday as he toured a General Motors/Ventec ventilator production facility in Indiana after coming under fire for failing to wear one earlier this week in violation of Mayo Clinic policy. General Motors requires workers to wear masks in the plant's production area, according to spokesman Jim Cain. Pence removed the mask, however, for a roundtable with top officials, including General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Ventec CEO Chris Kiple.

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Trump claims he has evidence the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab but that he's 'not allowed to tell' anyone what it is

Multiple intelligence officials have said there is no evidence so far to back up the theory that the coronavirus escaped from a Wuhan lab.

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JetBlue wants to suspend service at 16 major airports; Delta wants to halt service to 9 cities

On Tuesday, JetBlue asked the Department of Transportation to let it suspend service at 16 major airports. Delta sought its OK for nine smaller ones.

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Dozens of bodies were allegedly found in U-Haul trucks outside a Brooklyn funeral home

Somewhere between 30 to 60 bodies were allegedly found in the U-Haul trucks, and neighbors told PIX11 that bodies were stacked on top of each other.

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Satellite images reveal Kim Jong-un may be at luxury family villa

New satellite images showing the recent movements of luxury boats by Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, have provided further indications that he may be ensconced in his seaside villa in Wonsan, on the country’s east coast. The location of the reclusive leader has been a mystery since his unprecedented no-show at April 15 events to mark the birthday of his late grandfather and North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung. His absence, for the first time since he took power in 2011, unleashed a torrent of speculation about his health conditions, with unverified and conflicting reports claiming he was both recuperating from cardiovascular surgery and in “grave danger.” On Tuesday, commercial satellite imagery obtained by North Korea-monitoring website NK PRO showed boats often used by Kim had made movements in patterns that suggested he or his entourage may be in the Wonsan area. “Extensive analysis shows that similar leisure boat movements at an exclusive villa in Wonsan and a nearby island near the Kalma peninsula have aligned with Kim’s public appearances in the area in every one of a half-dozen instances since last summer, and many more dating back to 2013,” it said. The imagery adds to earlier satellite pictures studied by the Washington-based North Korea monitoring project 38 North, which appeared to show that a train similar to Kim’s was parked in the resort’s so-called “leadership station” reserved for the use of the Kim family a week ago.

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Most of U.S. House urges more diplomacy at U.N. to renew Iran arms embargo: sources

Nearly 90% of U.S. House of Representatives members have signed a letter urging the Trump administration to increase its diplomatic action at the United Nations to renew an arms embargo on Iran, congressional sources said on Thursday. In a rare show of bipartisanship, at least 382 of the 429 members of the Democratic-controlled House - Democrats and Republicans - have signed the letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to work with U.S. allies and partners to extend the embargo, as well as U.N. travel restrictions on Iranians involved with arms proliferation. "The U.N. arms embargo is set to expire in October, and we are concerned that the ban's expiration will lead to more states buying and selling weapons to and from Iran," said the letter, seen by Reuters and led by Representatives Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Mike McCaul, the committee's top Republican.

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The Next-Gen Air Force One Is Already Over Budget

The converted Boeing 747s, designed to carry the POTUS, will fly in 2024.

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Pelosi Suggests Biden Does Not Need to ‘Directly’ Address Reade Allegation: ‘I’m Satisfied with How He Has Responded’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) on Thursday dismissed the notion that vice president Joe Biden should “directly, publicly” respond to sexual-assault allegations made by his former Senate staffer, saying in an interview that she was "satisfied with how he has responded."Speaking to CNN, Pelosi defended Biden after she was asked if Biden should answer the allegation “head-on” and by “himself.”“I’m satisfied with how he has responded,” Pelosi said, adding she was “very proud to endorse him.”“It’s a matter that he has to deal with, but I am impressed with the people who worked for him at the time saying that they absolutely never heard one iota of information about this, nobody ever brought forth a claim or had anybody else tell them about such a claim,” she stated.> Nancy Pelosi was asked on @CNN about the Biden sexual assault allegation and she defended him.> > "He’s a person of great values, integrity, authenticity, imagination, and connection to the American people," Pelosi said, adding that she's "satisfied with how he has responded." pic.twitter.com/gaDt8Ki7oR> > -- Mike Brest (@MikeBrestDC) April 30, 2020While Biden’s campaign has strongly denied the allegations of Biden’s accuser, Tara Reade, the former vice president has not said anything publicly about the situation. The New York Times said Wednesday that talking points about the allegation that had been circulated by the campaign "inaccurately suggest" the paper concluded that Reade’s claims were false.Reade has said that she complained about the incident to Biden staffers at the time, who have denied that she ever approached them. But last week, a 1993 clip from CNN’s Larry King Live showed a woman calling in about “problems” her daughter had had with a U.S. senator. Reade, who had previously told The Intercept that such a tape existed, identified the woman as her mother. Earlier this week, one of Reade’s former neighbors came forward and said Reade told her about details of the allegation in the mid-1990s.Biden’s top female surrogates and prospective vice presidential candidates have also defended the former vice president. “I believe women deserve to be heard, and I believe that has happened here,” former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said on Tuesday, apparently referencing the campaign’s talking points about the Times article.Reade has said that she has been surprised by the dismissals of her claims in the “MeToo” era. News surfaced Wednesday that a letter asking Biden to address Reade's claims was drafted by national women’s advocacy groups, only for the letter to not be publicly released after the Biden campaign learned of it.“I was just hoping to get a fair and equal treatment,” Reade told National Review. “But because it’s Joe Biden I’ve been silenced or smeared.”

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Federal inmate who gave birth while on ventilator dies from coronavirus

Andrea Circle Bear, who was serving a 26-month sentence for a drug charge, appeared to be the first female inmate to die of COVID-19 in federal custody.

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Biden already working with team on transition planning

Former Vice President Joe Biden is already working with a team to plan for his transition in preparation for winning the White House in November, he told donors during a virtual fundraiser Monday night. Biden said he has been meeting with former Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman, his longtime top aide who was appointed to fill Biden’s Senate seat when he was elected vice president, to discuss his transition plans. Kaufman worked on Barack Obama's transition team in 2008, and helped author legislation formalizing the presidential transition process.

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US panel wants India on religious freedom blacklist

A US government panel on Tuesday called for India to be put on a religious freedom blacklist over a "drastic" downturn under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, triggering a sharp rebuttal from New Delhi. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom recommends but does not set policy, and there is virtually no chance the State Department will follow its lead on India, an increasingly close US ally. In an annual report, the bipartisan panel narrowly agreed that India should join the ranks of "countries of particular concern" that would be subject to sanctions if they do not improve their records.

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Mnuchin blasts Lakers for taking PPP loan, says every company receiving over $2 million will get a 'full audit'

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, but he's adamant he doesn't support the NBA's second most valuable franchise taking a $4.6 million loan as part of the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program, which is meant for small businesses.The Lakers gave the money back, which Mnuchin appreciated, but during a Tuesday appearance on CNBC, the secretary said it was "unfortunate" and "inappropriate" for large companies to take the money, especially because the fund ran out so quickly. The Lakers were not the only large business that initially received loans.> It was “outrageous” that the LA Lakers took a $4.6 million PPP loan, Treasury Sec. Mnuchin says. “I’m glad they’ve returned it.” https://t.co/snISVRyg5z pic.twitter.com/RImnCrGpXG> > — CNBC (@CNBC) April 28, 2020He said the fault lies with the recipients, not the banks who doled out the cash, but the government is going to change things going forward. "We're going to do a full audit of every loan over $2 million," Mnuchin said. "This was a program designed for small businesses. It was not a program that was designed for public companies that had liquidity." Read more at CNBC.More stories from theweek.com Scientists are perplexed by the low rate of coronavirus hospitalizations among smokers. Nicotine may hold the answer. How Tara Reade's allegations could bring down Joe Biden AMC says it will no longer show Universal Pictures films because of Trolls World Tour move

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British PM Johnson and fiancee thrilled by birth of son

Carrie Symonds, fiancee of British Prime Boris Johnson, gave birth to a healthy baby on Wednesday.

The delivery at a London hospital was slightly earlier than had been expected.

The 32-year-old had previously said her baby was due in early summer.

It was unclear if Johnson would take paternity leave - given the government is facing the worst health crisis since the 1918 influenza outbreak.

But on the streets of London the birth was welcomed as a rare piece of happy news.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) LONDON RESIDENT, JOAN WATERFIELD, SAYING:

"Congratulations to Boris and Carrie. I just heard it's a little boy and I hope everything's ok."

(SOUNDBITE) (English) LONDON RESIDENT MAX PERCY, SAYING:

"I think it's probably a tough time to be bringing a child into the world but I am really happy for him. He's got a lot on his hands at the minute."

(SOUNDBITE) (English) LONDON RESIDENT JAN HIRST, SAYING;

"I just can't imagine what it's like for him and one can only hope that he's getting a lot of support"

The new arrival tops a tumultuous month for Johnson.

He returned to work on Monday after recuperating from COVID-19, which had left him gravely ill in intensive care at the peak of the UK outbreak.

Symonds, a former PR executive, also had virus symptoms but recovered more swiftly.

A wide spectrum of politicians have sent congratulations to the couple - among them finance minister Rishi Sunak and opposition Labour party leader Keir Starmer.

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Freed from strict lockdown New Zealanders head to fast food outlets, beaches

New Zealanders queued for burgers, fries and coffee takeaway on Tuesday after they were freed from a month-long lockdown, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has credited with eliminating domestic transmission of the coronavirus. Around 400,000 people returned to work after Ardern shifted the country's alert level down a notch, loosening some of the tough movement restrictions that shut down businesses for weeks. "We got quarter pounders, Big Macs, drinks ... I've still got two cheeseburgers left but I can't finish them," Tai Perez, who arrived at a McDonald's outlet in Auckland at 4am, was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald.

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How Therapists Are Adapting EMDR Trauma Therapy During COVID-19

As mental health therapy moves online during the COVID-19 pandemic, therapists are problem-solving to bring the trauma therapy eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) online as well.

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Why Have Women’s Groups Gone Dead Silent on Biden Sex-Assault Accusation?

Women’s groups and prominent feminist figures have remained almost universally silent over a former staffer’s accusation of sexual misconduct against former Vice President Joe Biden—including those individuals and groups who came to express regret for how the Democratic Party handled similar accusations made against President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.The collective non-response from mostly Democrat-aligned groups comes as potential female running mates struggle themselves in responding to the Biden allegation, which has the potential to upend his campaign against President Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women in alleged incidents spanning decades. And it echoes the division among progressives when the MeToo movement revived scrutiny of Clinton’s own alleged sexual misconduct.The Daily Beast contacted 10 top national pro-women organizations for this story, including Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the National Organization for Women. Most organizations did not respond to a detailed request for comment about the allegation by Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office who has accused the former vice president of forcibly penetrating her with his fingers in the early 1990s. Others replied and did not provide a statement. One prominent women’s political group cited a scheduling conflict and asked to be kept “in mind for other opportunities!” When pressed if the following day would work better, an associate said it would not, citing another scheduling conflict. The near-total lack of acknowledgement from nearly a dozen leading pro-women organizations comes as new corroboration has emerged with respect to the allegation, which the Biden campaign has categorically denied. Neither the Biden campaign nor Reade responded to requests from The Daily Beast for comment Tuesday. It also is taking place as prominent elected women in the Democratic Party rally to Biden’s side. On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton became the latest to offer her endorsement of Biden’s candidacy—a symbolic passing of the torch from one presidential candidate to another, but a moment that also served as a reminder of moments in recent party history when accusers were almost uniformly dismissed.In 2017, attorney Patricia Ireland, who served as president of the National Organization for Women for the entirety of the Clinton administration, told The Washington Post that she wished she had “done more to be supportive” of Paula Jones, the former Arkansas state employee who alleges that Bill Clinton sexually harassed her during his time as governor.“For Paula Jones, there were nice distinctions that people made: She didn’t work for him, he didn’t have the power to hire or fire her,” Ireland said at the time. “But that ignores the reality that he was a very powerful man.”During the same period, feminist icon Gloria Steinem told The Guardian that she regretted some parts of her aggressive defense of Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, including a New York Times op-ed in which she dismissed accusations of sexual misconduct against the president. “Even if the allegations are true,” Steinem wrote in the 1998 op-ed, “the president is not guilty of sexual harassment. He is accused of having made a gross, dumb and reckless pass. President Clinton took ‘no’ for an answer.”Steinem told the Guardian that “I wouldn’t write the same thing now because there’s probably more known about other women now. I’m not sure… What you write in one decade you don’t necessarily write in the next.”But neither Ireland nor Steinem responded to a request for comment about Reade’s accusations against Biden. Bill Clinton has long denied Jones’ claims, settling a lawsuit she filed in 1998 for $850,000 with no apology or admission of wrongdoing.Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Reade accused Hillary Clinton of “enabling a sexual predator.”“Hillary Clinton has a history of enabling powerful men to cover up their sexual predatory behaviors and their inappropriate sexual misconduct,” Reade said in response to Clinton’s endorsement. “We don’t need that for this country. We don’t need that for our new generation coming up that wants institutional rape culture to change.”Reade first accused Biden of digitally penetrating her in a podcast interview with journalist Katie Halper in March. Two other people, including Reade’s brother and a friend who has remained anonymous, told various outlets that Reade had told them about certain aspects of the alleged assault and her subsequent dismissal from Biden’s office over the years.On Monday, Business Insider quoted a former neighbor of Reade’s recounting that the ex-staffer had disclosed details of the alleged assault when she lived next door to her in the mid-1990s. “This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it,” Lynda LaCasse, Reade’s former neighbor, told the outlet.On April 24, Reade told The Intercept that her mother called into Larry King’s cable-news program to discuss “problems” her daughter experienced with a prominent lawmaker in 1993. In the episode, a caller from San Luis Obispo, California—where property records indicate Reade’s mother lived at the time—asked the host “what a staffer might do besides go to the press in Washington.”“My daughter has just left there after working for a prominent senator and could not get through with her problems at all,” the caller said. “The only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.” Reade said on Twitter that it was her mother’s voice. “This is my mom. I miss her so much and her brave support of me.”Biden’s defenders have argued that Reade’s story has changed over time—she previously had said only that she felt Biden had inappropriately touched her and made her feel uncomfortable. But sexual-assault victims’ advocates have noted that its common for victims to hold back on details as they recount their traumatic experiences. Various aides to Biden have said they have no recollection of any assault incident happening. And Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement this month that “this absolutely did not happen,” and that “Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women.” Bedingfield added: “He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard—and heard respectfully. Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press. What is clear about this claim: It is untrue.”Over the past several days, the Biden campaign has signaled that it is paying additional attention to issues that disproportionately affect women. On Monday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), one of the contenders thought to be on Biden’s shortlist of potential running mates, was a guest on a virtual town hall with black leaders on coronavirus’ impact on women of color. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), another possible running mate and former Biden rival, was also featured in a virtual forum addressing similar women’s focused issues late last week. On Tuesday, in introducing Clinton during a virtual town hall, Biden declared she is “the woman who should be president of the United States right now.”“I want to add my voice to the many who have endorsed you,” Clinton said during the event to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on women. “This is a moment where we need a leader, a president, like Joe Biden.” Biden, she said, has been “preparing for this moment his entire life.” The former vice president reciprocated by saying it was a “wonderful personal endorsement.” On Monday, in offering her own backing, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi called him a “partner for progress in the White House.” Four years ago, women’s groups threw their weight behind Clinton’s historic campaign as the Democratic Party’s first female nominee. But they remained largely out of the primary in 2020, when an unprecedented number of women campaigned with that similar goal in mind. Still, some groups haven’t been shy about criticizing parts of Biden’s past record relating to women.In the early stages of Biden’s campaign, Planned Parenthood Action Fund took issue with a position he previously held around support for the Hyde Amendment, a provision that sought to restrict the use of federal money for abortion. In June 2019, the group’s executive director specifically called out Biden by name, reminding him that “the Democratic Party platform is crystal-clear” around repealing Hyde. Biden later denounced his support of the amendment. Now, as Biden faces a sexual-assault allegation as the presumptive nominee, his past record and prominent female defenders are facing a new round of scrutiny. In particular, the decision to select a female running mate delighted many party activists and women’s rights advocates when Biden announced it in March, but is taking on a new form as the Reade allegation receives additional corroboration. Already, potential nominees are having to answer questions about the allegation. The Daily Beast recently contacted the most prominent figures thought to be considered as possible contenders about Reade’s claim, including Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams.Among the seven Democratic women’s offices reached, only Abrams commented, telling The Daily Beast that “women have the right to be heard” and adding, in part, that “nothing in the Times review suggests anything other than what I already knew: That Joe Biden is a man of highest integrity who will make all women proud as our next president.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Women who dare dissent targeted for abuse by Yemen's rebels

A dozen officers from the Houthi rebels who control northern Yemen snatched her from her home in the capital, Sanaa, at dawn. Women who dare dissent, or even enter the public sphere, have become targets in an escalating crackdown by the Houthis. Activists and former detainees described to The Associated Press a network of secret detention facilities where they are tortured and sometimes raped.

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India coronavirus lockdown: Stranded migrants can return home

Millions of people stranded by a lockdown to curb coronavirus can return to their home states.

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Kim Jong-un: Who might lead N Korea without Kim?

The enigmatic sister and a spymaster are contenders, as rumours swirl over Kim Jong-un's health.

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Living in a war zone: What it teaches about surviving a pandemic

As the coronavirus disrupts daily life in America, Afghans’ adaptation to constant war holds lessons for persevering amid uncertainty.

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Stop pinning your hopes on coronavirus antibodies: 3 major issues mean they're no silver bullet

Politicians hope to use antibody tests to help reopen countries. But the tests can be inaccurate, and some patients may not develop antibodies at all.

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Coronavirus: What African countries are doing to help people to eat amid the lockdowns

What African countries are doing to help people to eat amid the lockdowns.

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New Navy carrier inquiry suggests tough scrutiny of admirals

The Navy is launching a wider investigation of the coronavirus crisis aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, suggesting closer and deeper scrutiny of actions and decisions by senior admirals in the Pacific that led to the controversial firing of the ship's commander nearly a month ago. The move announced Wednesday effectively delays a decision on whether to go ahead with a Navy recommendation that Capt. Brett E. Crozier be restored to command of the Roosevelt, which has been docked in Guam for weeks. Crozier was fired after pleading for urgent Navy action to protect his crew.

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Company says drug was effective against COVID-19 in U.S. study

A biotech company says its experimental drug has proven effective against the new coronavirus in a major U.S. government study that put it to a strict test.

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Miss the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds flyby? Check out the footage people captured of the jets roaring over New York City to honor essential workers.

The jets flew a 35-minute path across the Northeastern states as a part of "Operation America Strong" to honor essential workers.

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How Tara Reade's allegations could bring down Joe Biden

Earlier this month, I wrote a column asking what Democrats should do about sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden, the party's presumptive nominee for president. My answer? Not much. The accusation made by Tara Reade, a former Biden staffer from his days in the Senate during the early 1990s, didn't strike me as especially convincing, so Democrats, I suggested, could move forward without much concern. Though toward the end of the column I included two caveats: If Reade offered further corroboration of her claims or if evidence emerged of a larger pattern of abusive actions toward women on Biden's part, that could well change my views of the matter.Just two weeks later, both of my conditions have been met.Last week we learned that Reade's mother called into the Larry King Show in 1993 to talk about how her daughter had quit working for a "prominent senator" after unspecified "problems" as a staffer. Then earlier this week Business Insider reported that a former neighbor of Reade's (a self-described "strong Democrat") recalls a conversation with her in 1995 or 1996 in which Reade tearfully described being sexually assaulted by Biden. Together, those two stories help to corroborate Reade's specific claim about herself.Finally, on Tuesday, a 2008 essay by the late Alexander Cockburn surfaced in which the journalist reported that Biden had made "unwelcome and unwanted" sexual advances against a woman in 1972 or 1973. That establishes a possible longstanding pattern of Biden's behavior that further validates Reade's accusation (and potentially opens the door to others).In light of these revelations, the time has come for a two new questions: Can Biden survive the gathering storm around Tara Reade's allegations? And if so, will that fact be good or bad for the Democratic Party in November?The first question is the easier one to answer: Biden's presumptive nomination is quite likely to survive the corroboration of Reade's claims. That's because members of Biden's electoral base in the Democratic Party — older, culturally moderate white working-class voters in the Midwest and older, culturally moderate African Americans — are unlikely to be turned against him by one corroborated allegation of sexual assault from nearly three decades in the past. If anything, rank-and-file Democrats have expressed regret that some MeToo allegations have taken down popular members of the party (former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken is the example cited most frequently) — and they're also irritated that Democrats are expected to adhere to standards their opponents openly flout.The factions of the party most likely to turn on Biden because of a sexual-assault scandal are those who've been least wedded to his candidacy from the start — those firmly on the left, who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders; and white urban progressives, who tended to favor Sen. Elizabeth Warren's candidacy. Neither group possesses the numbers or influence in the party to get it to overrule the preferences of the other two electorally crucial factions — and obviously their opinions will also carry little weight with the candidate himself. This means that, so long as no additional corroborated accusations materialize, Biden will most likely get to hold onto the nomination if he wants to.That might turn out to be a very bad thing for the party come November.But how could this be? How could a sexual assault allegation place Biden at a disadvantage in the general election against President Trump, a man who has openly bragged on tape of sexual assault and has himself been accused of rape on multiple occasions?On substance, Trump will have zero moral ground to stand on. But he won't be taking a stand in the name of treating women with respect. Neither will he be accusing Biden of being a sexual predator. Instead, he and the entire Republican noise machine will constantly, relentlessly hammer Biden, leading Democrats, and the media for flagrant hypocrisy and double standards. The moral content of the issue won't matter one bit. What will matter is that Biden has set himself up as a moral arbiter on issues of sexual harassment and violence, insisting we must "believe all women," and that in the fall of 2018 he and many other members of his party sought to destroy the reputation of Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh for allegations of sexual assault that were less convincingly corroborated than those Reade has lodged against Biden.The Democratic nominee for president and his party are ruthless political operators who seek above all else to destroy their enemies and help themselves, all the while setting themselves up as impartial moral authorities. This will be the message, driven home over and over again: that claims of purity and impartiality are pretense, transparent fakes. Democrats might posture like they're better than Republicans, including the president, but they aren't. They're every bit as bad. They're just more dishonest about it.The Biden campaign's effort to portray itself as a moral reset from the debasement of the Trump years will run into this counter-message like a power sander. The Trump campaign will strip it away with a barrage of paid ads, prime-time cable news diatribes, and a hailstorm of tweets — all of it repeating the message (illustrated with clips from and about the Kavanaugh hearings) that Biden and his fellow Democrats are every bit the BS artists that Trump is, only they won't admit it. They'll lie about it, right to your face.To Democrats this prediction may sound implausible. There's no way that Trump, a man whose mendaciousness is well established and total, can possibly succeed in portraying Biden as more dishonest than he is. But he won't have to show that Biden is worse, just that he's no better.That's Trump's (perhaps only) winning move — to bring the playing field down to his level, to lower Biden's favorability rating, to make him seem less admirable, less likable, less morally upstanding, less … superior than Trump. He did the same thing against Hillary Clinton in 2016, using the FBI investigation of her email practices while secretary of state as a cudgel. Last summer, the strategy was to impugn Biden's son, making them both look like corrupt wheeler dealers in Ukraine. That didn't work out, but now Reade's allegations have made it possible for Trump and his party to do what they love most of all, which is to accuse Democrats and the media of smarmy double standards instead.Of course this won't work with most Democratic voters, but that won't be its aim. The aim will be to ensure maximal turnout and Trump loyalty among Republicans — and the destruction of Biden's reputation among independents in crucial swing states.Will it succeed? Trump will be facing re-election while presiding over a deadly pandemic and the early stages of an economic depression, so who knows. What I do know is that the behavior Tara Reade has plausibly alleged about the presumptive Democratic nominee is going to be a major liability for him as we head toward Election Day.Editor's note: A previous version of this article mischaracterized a quote by Alexander Cockburn. It has been corrected. We regret the error.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? 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