Mayors, Police Chiefs Send Letters to Congressional Leaders Urging Fiscal Assistance for Cities and First Responders
COVID-19 is taking a heavy financial toll on city budgets in general and with local law enforcement on the front lines fighting the pandemic, police department budgets in particular have been severely strained.The letters read in part:"Anecdotally, Madison, WI may have to eliminate 30 police department positions next year; Oklahoma City is looking at a 3.
2020 Qingdao Global Venture Capital Online Conference Kicks Off
Sponsored by the People's Government of Qingdao, the 2020 Qingdao·Global Venture Capital Online Conference themed "A New Platform for International Cooperation, A New Opportunity for Technological Innovation" kicked off at Qingdao International Convention Center on May 8. A host of Chinese and overseas experts and scholars from the investment community, industrial circle and academia and entrepreneurs from around the globe joined the "cloud dialogue" through a "face-to-face" plus "screen-to-screen" mode to seek cooperation and share their insights on future development.
N.Y. Cases at Seven-Week Low; FDA Head Quarantined: Virus Update
(Bloomberg) -- New York reported the fewest new coronavirus cases in seven weeks. The first antigen test won U.S. approval for emergency use. The federal government reversed course and will let states distribute remdesivir to hospitals.Italy had the fewest cases in four days. Germany and Spain are ready to lift some restrictions. Russia’s largest gold mine in Siberia has 89 sick workers as the nation registered more than 10,000 infections for a seventh day.The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is in a two-week quarantine after coming into contact with an infected person.Key Developments:Virus Tracker: cases pass 3.9 million; deaths exceed 276,000Half-empty bar feels like a win after Georgia reopensBrazil is new virus hotspot as infections triple in two weeksMass shootings in the U.S. have plungedLessons from Ebola prepared Africa for coronavirusAuto industry to raise $100 billion from banks for virus reliefSubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus. See this week’s top stories from QuickTake here.Musk: Tesla to Quit California (1 p.m. NY)Elon Musk said on Twitter he is moving Tesla’s headquarters and future programs to Texas and Nevada “immediately” after a California county blocked plans to open an assembly plant shut during the pandemic.He had earlier tweeted he was suing Alameda County for “acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!” The county on Friday said Tesla’s sole U.S. plant in Fremont, California, didn’t meet the criteria to reopen. Musk told staff he aimed to restart the factory Friday.Canada Gets China Medical Gear (12:50 p.m. NY)Canada is securing large amounts of personal protective equipment on daily flights of goods from China and elsewhere, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.So far, about 23 flights from China have brought millions of PPE items. In order to gradually restart the economy, Canada needs enough equipment to ensure people can work in safe environments, he said. Equipment arriving from other countries will be tested before being sent out to front-line workers.Africa Seeks Debt Relief, Stimulus (12:40 p.m. NY)African nations needs a two-year debt standstill to give governments the fiscal space to fight the pandemic, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said.A $100 billion injection of emergency economic stimulus is also required to combat the impact of the disease and almost half of that could come from waiving interest payments, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.African finance ministers are discussing debt-relief proposals, including a special-purpose vehicle to exchange their sovereign debt for new concessional paper to avoid having to use funds needed to battle the virus to pay private creditors.Italy Has Fewest Cases Since May 5 (12:20 p.m. NY)Italy registered 1,083 new cases on Saturday -- the fewest since May 5 -- compared with 1,327 a day earlier. Confirmed cases now total 218,268. Daily fatalities fell to 194 from 243 on Friday, with a total of 30,395.With the government cautious on easing measures after an initial relaxation on Monday, an Ipsos survey published in newspaper Corriere della Sera on Saturday showed 58% of Italians want all economic sectors to restart as soon as possible.N.Y. Has Fewest Cases in 7 Weeks (11:50 a.m. NY)New York reported 572 new infections on Saturday, the fewest since late March, which Governor Andrew Cuomo called “welcome news.” The state reported 2,938 infections on Friday.New deaths were 226, the same as five days ago and an increase from 216 reported on Friday. The rate of hospitalizations fell again.FDA Chief in Self-Quarantine (11:45 a.m. NY&)Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn has quarantined himself after coming into contact with someone who tested positive. Hahn, a member of the White House virus task force, notified staff of his decision in a note Friday, according to an emailed statement from the agency.“Per CDC guidelines, he is now in self-quarantine for the next two weeks,” the FDA said. “He immediately took a diagnostic test and tested negative.”The FDA didn’t identify the infected person, but Hahn’s Covid-19 exposure comes as several aides working in the White House have the virus. Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive Friday, a day after a positive test was reported for a member of the military who works as a valet to President Donald Trump.U.K. Urges Cycling, Walking (11:30 a.m. NY)The U.K., the European country hardest hit by the outbreak, plans to spend 2 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) to encourage people to cycle and walk to work and help relieve pressure on transport systems.Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that the U.K. has passed the peak of the outbreak, and limiting travel on public transit will help curb the risk of a second wave of infections, said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. The government will also spend more on electric-car charging points and extend trials of e-scooters and permit their rentals.Daily deaths rose by 346, Shapps said Saturday, down from 626 on Friday and the lowest since May 4. Total deaths reached 31,587, surpassed only by the U.S., with total infections at 215,260.U.S. Can’t Wait for End of Outbreak: Carson (11:25 a.m. NY)America’s economic infrastructure could be destroyed if the nation waits too long to reopen closed businesses, said White House coronavirus task force member Ben Carson, who also is secretary of Housing and Urban Development.The nation has to learn to live with the coronavirus before it can be eradicated, Carson said on Fox News. “If we wait until it’s all gone before we come out, our economy will be gone also.”Carson, who also heads the president’s revitalization council, stressed that it’s possible to resume activity, guided by “data and evidence” from regions that reopened first.Collapse of Travel Demand Scuttles Deal (10:50 a.m. NY)Carlyle Group Inc. and Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC Pte. Ltd. are backing out of a deal to buy a stake in American Express Global Business Travel, hit hard by the pandemic. The parties were in talks on terms of the deal, which was set to close this week, but couldn’t reach an agreement, people familiar with the matter said. The deal valued the American Express Co. unit at $5 billion with debt.U.S. Ships Gilead’s Drug to States (10:40 a.m. NY)The U.S. is sending Gilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir to Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan and New Jersey after doctors raised questions about the federal allocation of the drug to treat Covid-19 patients.State health agencies -- rather than the federal government -- will distribute doses to the hospitals, the Department of Health and Human Services said Saturday. Illinois and New Jersey each get more than 100 cases, with the other states receiving from 10 to 40 cases. Each case has 40 vials.After remdesivir won U.S. approval for emergency use, the federal government said it would decide which hospitals got the drug. Doctors then raised questions about the opaque process for getting the therapy to U.S. hospitals.FDA Clears Antigen Test (9:39 a.m. NY)The FDA issued the first emergency use authorization for a Covid-19 antigen test. The diagnostic tests quickly detect fragments of proteins found on or within the virus by testing samples collected from the nasal cavity using swabs, Quidel Corp. said in a statement that linked to a letter from the FDA. The authorization was issued late Friday for its Sofia 2 SARS Antigen FIA.Belarus Holds Military Parade, Russia Cancels (9:30 a.m. NY)Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian president of Belarus, defied warnings about the risks of letting the coronavirus spread by holding a military parade marking victory in World War II.Amid an average of about 800 new infections a day, Lukashenko summoned troops to the capital, Minsk, for the parade. Neighboring states including Russia changed their plans as gatherings of thousands of spectators will inevitably spread the disease.Portugal Cases Moderate (9:12 a.m. NY)Portugal reported the smallest increase in new confirmed cases in six days and the number of patients in intensive care units fell for a third day. There were 138 new cases in a day, taking the total to 27,406, the government said. The total number of deaths rose by 12 to 1,126.Information is “encouraging” after the country allowed some small stores to reopen on Monday, Health Minister Marta Temido said at a press conference on Saturday.Germany Plans Stimulus for Arts, Cities (7:30 a.m. NY)Germany will broaden its economic aid, the Tagesspiegel newspaper cited Finance Minister Olaf Scholz as saying in an interview.“The arts and culture need their own stimulus program, we want to massively help people here,” Scholz said. “We also have to do something for hotels and restaurants, which are severely weakened. Thirdly, the municipalities also need massive support.”Germany will also have to pursue an “incredible modernization push” in order to maintain and expand its wealth without using fossil fuels, the newspaper cited Scholz as saying.Saudi Arabia Relaxes Some Restrictions (7:12 a.m. NY)Saudi Arabia is relaxing restrictions on six neighborhoods in Medina, state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday, citing an official at the Ministry of Interior. Movement will be unrestricted from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.The Saudi government has reported 35,432 cases including 229 fatalities. It has imposed a 24-hour lockdown and said it will fine and jail those who violate the rules. The kingdom has eased restrictions on some areas in recent weeks.Russia’s Biggest Gold Mine Has 89 Cases (6:53 a.m. NY)Almost 90 workers at Russia’s largest gold mine, operated by Polyus PJSC, have contracted the coronavirus, the state-run Tass news service reported, citing the public health agency.The Olimpiada mine in the Siberian province of Krasnoyarsk recorded 82 new cases of the deadly virus in the past day, Tass cited the press service of the regional branch of Rospotrebnadzor as saying.Earlier, Russia said its number of new infections rose by 10,817 to 198,676, the seventh straight day cases have risen by more than 10,000.Spain Continues Unwinding (5:50 p.m. HK)Spain reported 179 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, according to health ministry data. The country reported 604 new daily cases as the total number rose to 223,578.As of Monday, 51% of the Spanish population will move to the so-called phase 1 as limitations are relaxed across wide swathes of the country. A major exception is the Madrid region, the epicenter of Spain’s coronavirus outbreak.Under phase 1, shops of a size of less than 400 square meters will be able to open with restrictions while bars and restaurants will be able to operate “terraces” but with only 50% of their previously authorized number of tables, according to a government order published in the official gazette. Hotels can open but their public areas will stay closed.Indonesia Reports Most Cases in a Day (5:44 p.m. HK)Indonesia reported an increase in new cases, with the death toll nearing 1,000 as the world’s fourth-most populous nation struggles to contain the spread of the virus.Tests confirmed 533 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 13,645, Achmad Yurianto, a spokesman for the government task force on Covid-19, said at an online briefing on Saturday. Sixteen patients succumbed to the virus, taking the overall number of fatalities to 959, the third highest in Asia after China and India, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.Faroe Islands Free of Virus (5:30 p.m. HK)The Faroe Islands is now free of the coronavirus after all its 187 confirmed cases were declared to be healthy, the North Atlantic archipelago said on Saturday.The country, which has 52,000 inhabitants and is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, hasn’t registered any deaths from the virus. Denmark’s toll stands at 522 fatalities from more than 10,400 cases.Belgian Daily Tests Exceed 25,000 (5:26 p.m. HK)Belgium reported 585 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, down from 591 the prior day. The country carried out 25,410 tests, the most for a single day since the start of the outbreak and in line with its stated daily capacity of 25,000.Additional fatalities of 76 compare with 107 the prior day. The seven-day average of reported deaths, the measurement favored by Belgian virologists, declined by 4% to 5% a day in the past week. The total death toll in the country of 11.4 million now stands at 8,581.Seoul Nightclubs Linked to Spike (4:19 p.m. HK)A potential second wave of infections could be possible in South Korea after confirmed cases suddenly increased following a lull, with a surge tied to nightclubs in Seoul.The total number of cases linked to nightclubs in the Itaewon neighborhood visited by a 29-year-old patient earlier this month increased to 40 as of noon Saturday, the city’s Mayor Park Won-soon said in a briefing. Park ordered the closing of all nightclubs, discos, hostess bars and other similar nightlife establishments in the capital.Virus Cases Decline Across Several Parts of Asia (3:30 p.m. HK)Virus cases declined in several Asian economies on Saturday, with Hong Kong and Taiwan reporting zero. Countries including China and Thailand reported fewer than 10 new infections, with Australia adding 16.Singapore, one of the last countries in the region to close schools and implement strict containment measures, confirmed 753 new cases on Saturday, down from 768 tallied by Johns Hopkins University Friday. The vast majority are migrant workers living in crowded dormitories.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Elon Musk threatens to pull Tesla operations out of California and into Texas or Nevada
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Saturday the company will file a lawsuit against Alameda County and threatened to move its headquarters and future programs to Texas or Nevada immediately, escalating a fight between the company and health officials over whether its factory in Fremont can reopen. Tesla had planned to bring back about 30% of its factory workers Friday as part of its reopening plan, defying Alameda County's stay-at-home order. TechCrunch has reached out to Elon Musk directly.
Mazda Motor seeks $2.8 billion in loans to ride out pandemic -source
Mazda Motor Corp has sought loans totalling about 300 billion yen ($2.8 billion) from Japan's three megabanks and other lenders to ride out the coronavirus epidemic, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Saturday. The megabanks - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group - along with the Development Bank of Japan, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings and others are set to agree, with some already having extended the loans, the person said, declining to be identified because the information is not public.
Flynn and the Anatomy of a Political Narrative
The FBI coordinated very closely with the Obama White House on the investigation of Michael Flynn, while the Obama Justice Department was asleep at the switch. That is among the most revealing takeaways from Thursday’s decision by Attorney General Bill Barr to pull the plug on the prosecution of Flynn, who fleetingly served as President Trump’s first National Security Advisor. Flynn had been seeking to withdraw his guilty plea to a false-statements charge brought in late 2017 by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.While working on the Trump transition team in December 2016, Flynn spoke with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in conversations that were intercepted by our government (because Russian-government operatives, such as Kislyak, are routinely monitored by the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies). Among the topics Flynn and Kislyak discussed was the imposition of sanctions against Russia, which President Obama had just announced.That these conversations took place has been known for over three years -- ever since a still-unidentified government official leaked that classified information to the Washington Post. For almost as long, it has been known that the FBI became aware of the Flynn–Kislyak discussions very shortly after they happened. What was not known until this week was that then–acting attorney general Yates was out of the loop. She found out about the discussions nearly a week afterwards -- from President Obama, of all people.This was at a White House pow-wow on January 5, 2017. That was the day when the chiefs of key intelligence agencies briefed top Obama White House officials on their assessment of Russia’s meddling in the campaign. After the main briefing, the president asked Yates and FBI director James Comey to stick around to meet with him, along with Vice President Biden and National Security Advisor Susan Rice. Yates was taken aback when Obama explained that he had “learned of the information about Flynn” and his conversation with Kislyak. She was startled because, she later told investigators, she “had no idea what the president was talking about.”Yates had to figure things out by listening to the exchanges between President Obama and FBI director Comey. The latter was not only fully up to speed, he was even prepared to suggest a potential crime -- a violation of the moribund Logan Act -- that might fit the facts.According to an FBI report, which was appended (as Exhibit 4) to the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the Flynn case, Yates later said she was “so surprised by the information she was hearing that she was having a hard time processing it and listening to the conversation at the same time.”I’ll bet.That Yates was in the dark was not the FBI’s fault. Two days earlier, the bureau’s then–deputy director, Andrew McCabe, had briefed Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord, the head of DOJ’s National Security Division, about the Flynn–Kislyak discussions. Evidently not appreciating what the FBI regarded as the urgency of the matter, McCord did not pass the information along to the acting AG before her White House meeting.Ms. Yates’s astonishment at how well-informed the bureau was keeping the president calls for revisiting something to which I’ve called attention before. It now seems even more significant.When General Flynn was forced to resign as national-security adviser after just three weeks on the job, the New York Times did its customary deep dive, in which seven of its best reporters pressed their well-placed sources for details. It was a remarkable report, which recounted -- as if it were totally matter-of-fact -- that Flynn’s communications with Kislyak had been investigated by the FBI in real-time consultation with President Obama’s aides. For example (my italics):> Obama advisers heard separately from the F.B.I. about Mr. Flynn’s conversation with Mr. Kislyak, whose calls were routinely monitored by American intelligence agencies that track Russian diplomats. The Obama advisers grew suspicious that perhaps there had been a secret deal between the incoming [Trump] team and Moscow, which could violate the rarely enforced, two-century-old Logan Act barring private citizens from negotiating with foreign powers in disputes with the United States.Interesting. The FBI tells Obama “advisers” about Flynn’s discussions with Kislyak. Between this and their surprise that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin did not retaliate when Obama imposed sanctions, the Obama “advisers” dream up a non-existent pact between Trump and the Kremlin -- collusion! And they’re already thinking about nailing Flynn on the Logan Act . . . an obsolete, unconstitutional vestige of the President John Adams administration that has never, ever been prosecuted in the history of the Justice Department (the last case appears to have been in 1852; DOJ was established 18 years later).Who came up with that? Well, Ms. McCord (whose interview is Exhibit 3 in DOJ’s Flynn dismissal motion) later told investigators that the Logan Act flyer originated in the office of Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper -- specifically proposed by ODNI’s general counsel, Bob Litt. Obviously, by January 5, Comey was already discussing it with Obama.Let’s look at some more of that Times report on Flynn’s downfall. For the legal analysis of Flynn’s exchanges with Kislyak, the president’s aides consulted the FBI, not DOJ:> The Obama officials asked the F.B.I. if a quid pro quo had been discussed on the call, and the answer came back no, according to one of the officials, who like others asked not to be named discussing delicate communications. The topic of sanctions came up, they were told, but there was no deal.So no misconduct. To the contrary, the incoming national-security adviser asked a Russian counterpart to discourage his government from escalating tensions, which is what we would want any American diplomat to do. “There was no deal.” Sanctions were merely mentioned, as one would expect since they’d just been imposed, but Flynn made no agreement to accommodate the Kremlin in any way.But see, those are the actual facts. Who cares what actually happened? What matters, it turns out, is what “Obama advisers” and their FBI co-creators could imagine it into: There must be Trump collusion with Russia because we’ve concluded Putin would otherwise have retaliated.This was nothing new for the FBI. Remember, at that point, they’re already in the FISA court (and at that time, were about to go back for a renewal warrant) telling the judges they suspect members of Donald Trump’s campaign are in a “conspiracy of cooperation” with the Putin regime. Their proof of that? The Steele dossier -- uncorroborated Democratic-party- and Clinton-campaign-sponsored propaganda that they already have immense reason to know is claptrap.Meanwhile, with Yates at the helm, the Justice Department had major reservations about the FISA warrants’ reliance on the Steele dossier, but swallowed hard and went along with it. The Justice Department had major reservations about the Logan Act as a predicate for investigating Flynn, but Yates was too startled to speak up at the White House meeting. The Justice Department wanted Comey to alert the Trump White House about the Flynn–Kislyak discussions, but the FBI refused . . . and Yates did nothing. By the time, after days of temporizing, she finally decided to put her foot down, Comey told her he had already dispatched agents to do an unauthorized ambush interview of Flynn. Yates was “dumbfounded,” McCord recalled.The Justice Department appears to have spent much of its time “flabbergasted,” to quote McCabe again. But in the end, it would always go with the collusion flow. Meanwhile, empowered and emboldened, the FBI ran rings around its nominal superiors.So what did President Obama make of all this theorizing from the FBI and his “advisers”? Well, intriguingly, as she was leaving her office for the last time, Obama’s top adviser, Susan Rice, decided that her last official act, moments after Trump was inaugurated, would be to craft -- 15 days after the fact -- an email memorializing Obama’s directive at the January 5 meeting:> President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming [Trump] team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.Hmm, you mean a reason like “Trump and his minions just might be colluding with the Kremlin”?You’d almost think the Obama White House and its intelligence apparatus was weaving a political narrative out of . . . nothing.
Russians mark May 9 in private family traditions
Like every May 9, Gennadiy Matveyev observed a tradition this Friday at his little dacha near Moscow: he and his wife Galina raised the Russian flag to remember the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. Matveyev's personal flag-raising tradition started two decades ago on his patch of land in the countryside, where the couple grows tulips and hyacinths. It continued year after year, the banner soaring six metres in the air only on May 9th, though he changed the red Soviet flag to the Russian tricolour fifteen years ago.
Trudeau warns premature reopening could send Canada 'back into confinement'
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned on Saturday that if provinces move too quickly to reopen their economies, a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic could send Canada "back into confinement this summer." Trudeau, who represents a Montreal, Quebec parliamentary riding, told reporters in a daily briefing that he is concerned about the virus' spread in that province, the country's epicenter. Although health officials have pointed to a flattening rate of daily cases in many provinces, Trudeau said Canada was "not in the recovery phase yet."
Web traffic to crypto exchanges fell in April compared to March, data indicates
Data from traffic tracking platform SimilarWeb indicates that the number of visits to major crypto exchanges fell in April compared to March.The post Web traffic to crypto exchanges fell in April compared to March, data indicates appeared first on The Block.