study, Jie Zhou and colleagues at the University of Hong Kong wanted to see how well the virus can flourish in the intestines. They grew intestinal organoids -- lab dish versions of the organs -- from both bats and people. They showed the virus not only lived in these organoids, but replicated. … Separately, a team at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany performed autopsies on 27 patients who died from Covid-19. They found the virus in a variety of organs. ‘SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in multiple organs, including the lungs, pharynx, heart, liver, brain, and kidneys,’ they wrote in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine.” A bamboo shortage is forcing the Calgary Zoo to repatriate two pandas. The Canadians are shipping the giant pandas back to China because disruptions in the global supply chain have made it increasingly difficult to obtain fresh bamboo to feed them. (Farzan) Russia’s health system is overwhelmed. At least 169 medical staff have died in the country, according to a memorial list created by local doctors in the absence of any official count. (Robyn Dixon) Mexico will start lifting its quarantine for hundreds of counties starting Monday and will gradually reopen the rest of the nation on June 1. The government had logged nearly 4,000 confirmed deaths. Authorities say the actual number is certainly higher. (Mary Beth Sheridan) Australia announced that nearly 600,000 jobs were shed in April, its biggest monthly jobs decline ever, as New Zealand announced a vast government spending plan to curb its own unemployment levels. (Teo Armus) An elderly American tourist who caught the virus was saved in part because of Bhutan’s king. “Bert Hewitt, a retiree from Maryland with a passion for hiking, would become the first confirmed coronavirus case in Bhutan,” Joanna Slater reports. “Hewitt’s prognosis was not good. He had high blood pressure, and he was a cancer survivor whose spleen had been removed, compromising his immune system. His condition deteriorated rapidly. … [But] his case received personal attention from Bhutan’s beloved king. He was evacuated back to the United States in a Gulfstream jet outfitted with a biocontainment unit. The 8,000-mile journey was so complex that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later singled it out for praise — especially because the patient was ‘frankly expected to die.’” A family in Afghanistan buried a mother and her unborn child. “Hajar Sarwari was in


Where hunger is the bigger threat

Indian women wait in queue to receive free food on May 7, 2020 in New Delhi. (Yawar Nazir/Getty Images) BEIRUT — For now at least, covid-19 seems to be largely a disease of the rich, developed world, with 74 percent of the 4.4 million cases reported worldwide occurring in North America and Europe, along with an overwhelming 85 percent of the deaths. But it is in developing countries, where the vast majority of the world’s population lives, that the most damaging long-term repercussions could be felt, economists and U.N. officials say. International agencies have released stark figures in recent weeks highlighting the risk that poverty and hunger could end up killing even more people worldwide than the 40 million victims that researchers had projected would die from the virus if no control measures were taken. Some 1.6 billion of the world’s 2 billion informal workers, or nearly half the global workforce, have already lost their jobs, according to the International Labor Organization. They include gig workers in Western economies, but the vast majority are in developing countries, where most employment is informal and families live hand-to-mouth, relying on a daily wage if they are to eat at the end of the day. The loss of income for people already living perilously close to the margins of survival will propel up to 50 million people into abject poverty this year, reversing three decades of gains in the war against deprivation, according to World Bank estimates. A study by the United Nations said 580 million could become impoverished, meaning they lack the basic means to survive. And as incomes are lost, a “hunger pandemic” could eclipse the coronavirus, the World Food Program has warned; 130 million people are expected to join the ranks of the 135 million who were expected to suffer from acute hunger this year, the agency says, bringing to 265 million the number of those at risk of starvation. The problem isn’t a shortage of food, of which there is plenty, food experts say. The initial lockdowns triggered some short-term supply problems, and localized shortages of specific products have pushed some prices higher, putting vital foodstuffs such as meat and fruit beyond the reach of people without work. The bigger problem is that people aren’t earning enough money to eat, or to eat properly. “This is a very dramatic situation for people who normally don’t need assistance. Very, very


Designate grocery workers as first responders

Mark P. Federici is president of UFCW Local 400. You shouldn’t have to risk your life to buy food to feed your family. And you shouldn’t have to risk your life when you do your job providing sustenance to your fellow Americans. Who could possibly argue with that? Yet customers and workers alike are risking their lives at grocery stores because our elected leaders are letting it happen. As a result, members of my union, UFCW Local 400, who stock shelves, clean the aisles, unload deliveries, fill prescriptions and check customers out at Giant, Kroger, Safeway, Shoppers and other chains are getting sick. Tragically, at least two have lost their lives to the novel coronavirus. This is unacceptable. And entirely preventable. Every governor and the D.C. mayor must designate grocery, pharmacy and food-processing workers as first responders and limit stores to no more than 10 customers per 10,000 square feet, with a maximum of 50 people in any store at the same time. The first-responder designation needs to include guaranteed free, universal testing and treatment for every worker. With universal testing, infected workers will know to stay home and avoid spreading the disease to co-workers and customers. Many retailers provide 14 days of paid sick leave only to employees diagnosed with covid-19. Without testing, there is no diagnosis. And most workers cannot afford to miss a single day’s pay, much less two weeks. The first-responder designation must also guarantee grocery workers masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment. While most jurisdictions now require grocery workers to wear face masks, employers do not have to provide them, and forcing front-line workers to find and pay for them is just wrong. Additionally, the first-responder designation needs to guarantee free child care, which enables grocery employees to show up for work when schools are closed. There is ample precedent for this move. The governors of Minnesota and Vermont recently designated grocery and food workers as first responders. Massachusetts, which designates grocery workers as essential, provides these employees access to priority coronavirus testing sites the state has set up. To be fair, many of our elected officials have taken positive steps. For example, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) issued an executive order limiting the number of customers in stores, providing masks and gloves to employees and establishing hourly disinfecting procedures for self-checkouts, carts and baskets, as well as requiring customers to wear masks.


Wanted: An Exchange Chief With Conflict Management Skills

pipes that Li established with Shanghai and Shenzhen is one route. HKEX scored a coup when New York-traded Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., China’s biggest company by market value, raised $13 billion in a Hong Kong secondary offering last November. Some of the sheen came off the celebrations when it emerged that Alibaba wouldn’t be included in the so-called Stock Connect programs, blocking mainland-based investors from trading the shares. Getting secondary listings on the Connect should be a priority — especially given Hong Kong is looking to woo other U.S.-listed Chinese companies such as JD.com Inc. There are further opportunities for expanding the cross-border trading links, including letting mainland investors buy overseas bonds. Currently, the three-year-old Bond Connect is a one-way system, allowing Hong Kong investors to buy mainland securities but not vice-versa. The next HKEX chief may also push for Hong Kong ETFs and IPO subscriptions to be admitted to the connect programs. At the same time, Hong Kong needs to keep its international flavor if it’s to appeal to Chinese punters who want access to global investments. HKEX slowed efforts to attract foreign listings in recent years, as volumes dimmed, having drawn some notable names including Italian luxury house Prada SpA. It should restart these. Hong Kong’s role as an international market depends critically on sustaining confidence among global investors that it is relatively clean and well governed. Under Li, the Hong Kong exchange bowed to the commercial imperative by opening the door to dual-class share structures and presided over a market where bad behavior among small-caps was endemic. His replacement will need to change Hong Kong’s reputation as a playground for short sellers such as Carson Block’s Muddy Waters and Gillem Tulloch’s GMT Research Ltd. Managing these push-pull conflicts — moving closer to China while becoming more international, building up business while improving governance — will take some dexterity. Li has said he may leave before the end of his term if a successor is found. An early exit is far from assured. --With assistance from Zhen Hao Toh. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Nisha Gopalan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and banking. She previously worked for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones as an editor and a reporter. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion ©2020 Bloomberg L.P.


More people are flying again. Here’s what to expect at airports and on planes.

to check in for a flight, make sure you check in and have your boarding pass for your flight on your phone. You’ll encounter new TSA procedures. TSA has been making adjustments throughout the pandemic to address health and safety concerns of fliers. One of the most obvious adjustments is that travelers can expect to practice social distancing while waiting in line at airport security checkpoints. On May 7, TSA announced its staff must wear face masks at screening checkpoints. Travelers are allowed to wear face masks throughout the screening process, however a TSA agent may ask the traveler to pull it down to confirm their identity. TSA is allowing passengers to carry on one liquid hand sanitizer, up to 12 ounces, until further notice. Passengers can also ask TSA officers to change gloves during their screening process. The agency recommends travelers be particularly vigilant about following rules for carry-on bags if they don’t want officers to have to touch their belongings more than necessary. “We are advising travelers to place personal items such as wallets, keys or phone in their carry-on bags to be screened through the X-ray system,” TSA said in a statement. “Anything that you’d hold up to your face that’s in your pockets — put those items in your carry-on bag, not in the bin.” You’ll have your temperature checked. As one of covid-19′s symptoms is fever, screening travelers’ temperatures with contactless infrared thermometers is becoming more common at airports around the world. Air Canada, Air France, Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Cathay Pacific and others have announced temperature checks for passengers. London’s Heathrow Airport is carrying out the screenings at some departure, the BBC reported. Hong Kong has been temperature screening arriving and departing passengers since April. As of now, the only U.S. airline planning to check the temperature of passengers is Frontier. Earlier this month, the carrier announced that starting June 1, anyone with a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher would not be permitted to fly. Other airlines, including JetBlue and Southwest, are pushing for TSA to take passengers’ temperatures at the security check point. The International Air Transport Association is also a proponent of the practice for both travelers and staff. You’ll board with fewer people. The choreography of boarding and deplaning may be different from what you are used to. Major airlines have announced changes in boarding procedures to encourage social distancing


For teens with hardships, home life became tougher

“But when given a choice on what to do projects on, most of the students gravitate to trauma and mental health.” Because it’s often what they know and what they live. There’s a recent college graduate who writes about the stifling effect of the mask she wears at her fast-food job. And a student in shutdown with her 90-year-old great-auntie. Or a beautifully disturbing painting of a world strangled by the coronavirus. Princy, who is about to graduate from Richard Wright Public Charter School for Journalism and Media Arts, has been interviewing people on their mental health status, how they’re doing without regular therapy sessions and how they’re coping during shutdown. “Mainly, it’s taken a toll on our mental health. That’s the main problem,” she said. “Our age group isn’t used to this. We do things, we go places, we socialize. Being in the house, being restricted so much isn’t who we are.” Even the tiny bit of financial freedom that Princy achieves with her part-time job at a pizza place vanished when the restaurant cut her hours. Their paths to normalcy are gone. Like that homicide. There were two that Easter weekend that affected kids in the program. It’s a horrific experience no teen should be near. But thanks to the shutdown, the ways kids cope with this explosive kind of trauma — funerals, gatherings, therapy, a big, healing repast — are all gone. There has been a small flutter of teen suicides across the nation prompted by the coronavirus. Zakiya Edens, who also works with the media project, sees her high school students online twice a week. “But we don’t know what’s happening behind the computer screen or the cellphone,” she said. She regularly does one-on-one FaceTime with all 60 students of the Mass Media Academy at Coolidge High School, where she is the academy director. She knows they may be going through a hell they don’t want to broadcast in a group call. She knows that it isn’t easy to be kept from the place that is usually their haven. “School is a safe place for many or our students,” Edens said. “They’re sad they can’t be in their safe place.” And just because online instruction ends in a matter of weeks, that doesn’t mean the weirdness of being a teen and being isolated ends. Edens plans to stay in touch with her students all summer. But


Virginia antibody covid-19 tests northam reopening

RICHMOND — Virginia officials said Thursday they will no longer include the results of unreliable antibody tests in their overall data about covid-19 in the state, a practice that had been criticized as undermining the state’s depiction of its efforts to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Virginia Department of Health said the change does not significantly alter the statistical trends that led Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to move toward easing restrictions for most of the state, beginning Friday. Antibody tests had amounted to less than 9 percent of the state’s overall screening for the coronavirus. Removing them from the total slightly increases the percentage of positive tests among the overall number of tests given, to 15 percent from 14 percent. The health department said that uptick does not alter the overall trend of a decline in the percentage of positive tests, which is one of the fundamental metrics Northam said he is using in beginning to roll back some restrictions on businesses. Phase One reopening is expected to begin Friday for most of the state, although hard-hit Northern Virginia will remain under full restrictions for at least two more weeks. [How Gov. Ralph Northam decided when Virginia might emerge from shutdown] Because they are less accurate than the genetic tests conducted by swabbing a patient’s nose, the antibody — or serologic — tests were not used to confirm positive cases reported by the state. But by inflating the overall number of tests given, they held down the apparent percentage of positive infections. Health experts have cautioned against relying on the results of antibody testing, which can show the presence of antibodies in the blood that suggest someone has been exposed to the disease. The results have been plagued with both false positives and false negatives. “We don’t have enough information about the performance of these tests to know ideally how to use them,” Angela M. Caliendo, secretary of the board of directors of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a vice chair in the Department of Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said earlier this month. Virginia has faced criticism for lagging most other states in its per capita testing, and earlier this month changed the way it counts tests to slightly improve its standing. That change involved counting tests administered instead of individuals tested; since people are often given a second test before


The Energy 202: Former operatives for Jay Inslee press Congress and Joe Biden to adopt pieces of his climate change plan

only health care in 2020 exit polling. “Activists have managed to get climate change on the agenda,” said Leah Stokes, an assistant professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara and an Evergreen adviser. “Evergreen is actually there with the plan.” During his presidential bid, Inslee won the praise of youth climate groups and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for his ambitious climate plan, which the freshman congresswoman called a “gold standard.” Inslee called for a decade-long, $9 trillion investment that requires electric utilities to get 100 percent of their power from renewable and zero-emission sources by 2035. He also urged creating both a new Justice Department office to prosecute polluters and a new voluntary corps akin to the Peace Corps. By contrast, Biden's climate plan, released last June, calls for spending about one-fifth that amount over 10 years. When dropping out of the race, Inslee encouraged other candidates to explicitly adopt his plan. Warren took him up on the offer before dropping out herself. Now pressure is on Biden to step up his climate ambitions. In March, shortly after Biden defeated Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Super Tuesday contests, the former Inslee staffers began discussions with Biden's campaign and shared with it a memo outlining Inslee's ideas for clean energy standards, among other policies. The next month, the ex-staffers began circulating in Washington a policy paper outlining a distilled version of Inslee's massive climate plan. Former vice president Joe Biden. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) With the nomination in the bag, Biden is trying to win over young, climate-minded voters who backed other candidates in the primaryIn accepting the endorsement last month of the League of Conservation Voters, the former vice president signaled he is willing to adopt activists' ideas and set “new, concrete goals” for combating climate change before the end of the decade. “In the months ahead, expanding this plan will be one of my key objectives,” Biden said in a statement, without offering specifics. And on Wednesday, Biden drafted Ocasio-Cortez, as well as former secretary of state John F. Kerry and Sunrise Movement co-founder Varshini Prakash, to serve on a climate policy panel that the former vice president created as part of a larger effort to win over Sanders's supporters. Evergreen has not officially endorsed Biden, but co-founder Ricketts had kind words about the candidate, noting the economic recovery bill Biden helped negotiate in 2009


The Daily 202: Steve King claims he’ll get committee positions back. Some House Republicans promise to fight him.

approaches. (Greg Schneider) Georgetown University announced budget cuts as it prepares to enter the next academic year with a $50 million shortfall, including suspending contributions to employee retirement plans, introducing a voluntary furlough plan and halting some construction. (Lauren Lumpkin) Doctors are finding glimmers of hope through trial and error. “To be clear, these are not therapies proved to kill or stop the virus. They range from protocols to diagnose and treat dangerous, but sometimes invisible, breathing problems that can be an early warning of covid-19 in some people, to efforts to reduce the illness’s severity or length. At this stage, they are still experimental approaches by doctors desperate to find ways to help gravely ill people and throwing everything they can think of at the problem,” Ariana Eunjung Cha reports. “The menu of treatment options, tried singly and increasingly in combination, includes the blood plasma of covid-19 survivors, a rich source of antibodies that may help neutralize the virus; drugs to suppress the body’s own immune response, which some believe goes into hyperdrive as it tries to fight an invader; anticoagulants, which decrease the risk of deadly clots, and finally, antivirals, such as remdesivir, the Gilead Sciences drug that recently won approval for emergency use from the Food and Drug Administration. Randomized clinical trials are necessary to confirm early anecdotal data, with the results probably months away. But doctors say they believe they are seeing some positive results from these and other things they have learned through trial and error these past 10 weeks.” Researchers are finding the virus in every part of the body. “Two separate reports suggest the virus goes far beyond the lungs and can attack various organs -- findings that can help explain the wide range of symptoms,” CNN reports. “For one study, Jie Zhou and colleagues at the University of Hong Kong wanted to see how well the virus can flourish in the intestines. They grew intestinal organoids -- lab dish versions of the organs -- from both bats and people. They showed the virus not only lived in these organoids, but replicated. … Separately, a team at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany performed autopsies on 27 patients who died from Covid-19. They found the virus in a variety of organs. ‘SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in multiple organs, including the lungs, pharynx, heart, liver, brain, and kidneys,’ they wrote in a letter published


The Technology 202: Buzzing bracelets could become a workplace accessory in the coronavirus era

Macdonald says he's also received inquiries from the military and government officials. “Each culture is going to be different based on what the dynamic was before this happened and how they implement the technology,” he said. Welcome to The Technology 202, our guide to the intersection of technology and politics. Our top tabs Smartphone data is informing decisions about reopening the economy. But it has limits. Venice Beach, California is seen on the first day Los Angeles County allowed beaches to reopen (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images) The data was effective in tracking the public's compliance with the national shutdown early in the pandemic. But epidemiologists aren't sure the data will be as useful in predicting the result of allowing nail salons, movie theaters and other public places to reopen, Craig Timberg reports. Maps derived from the data show where people travel and how long they stay, but they don't show how well they socially distance once they reach their destinations. Epidemiologists say that's key to understanding coronavirus transmission. “In general, more movement does increase the risk of transmission, but you also have to take that with a grain of salt,” Saskia Popescu, a George Mason University epidemiologist, told Craig. “It’s not a crystal ball. It’s a forecasting process.” The University of Washington recently entered location data — collected from millions of smartphones — into their equations to reflect the growing restlessness of Americans about two months into widespread stay-at-home orders. The models predicted alarming results, and the projected mortality from covid-19 nearly doubled. But that conclusion is beyond what the science can reliably forecast at this point, epidemiologists tell Craig. “Although more traveling almost certainly means more transmission, the amount depends on the subtleties of human interaction — How close did people stand? Did they sneeze? Were there physical barriers such as a closed car window? — that smartphone location data does not reveal,” Craig writes. Google dramatically scaled back its internal diversity and inclusion programs over the past two years. A person wears a Google sweatshirt at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News) The cuts appear to be driven by fear of conservative backlash, eight current and former employees tell April Glaser at NBC News. At least three diversity programs have been cut since 2018, and their team members have either left or been shuffled


The Health 202: Only North Dakota and Kentucky meet federal criteria to reopen, new coronavirus tracker finds

that have resulted in massive unemployment and deep revenue losses for states. The website pulls data on coronavirus testing, confirmed cases and deaths from the COVID Tracking Project and data on hospital capacity and influenza-like illness from the CDC. “It’s supposed to be the progress bar for the country,” Panchadsaram partnered with the groups United States of Care and Resolve to Save Lives, along with the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, on the project. The organizers, some of whom worked together on fixing HealthCare.gov during its flubbed rollout in 2013, spent the last few weeks pulling the data and organizing it into readable charts that allow states to be compared across a variety of metrics. The HealthCare.gov website. (Alex Brandon/AP) The data include several key metrics for reopening laid out by the CDC and the White House. The CDC says that a state should see a “sustained reduction” of confirmed infections within a 14-day period before “proceeding to a phased comeback.” Or, testing should be ramped up enough that states should reduction in positive tests as a percentage of total daily tests. The new website details how confirmed new cases are trending and how many tests out of total tests are showing up positive. But because the officially released federal guidance is still vague, the creators had to make a number of their own calls about when to award a state red, yellow or green in particular categories. For example, a state gets a green rating if its daily confirmed cases have decreased more than 5 percent during the previous 14-day period. The rating is yellow if there’s less than a 5 percent change in either direction. And it’s red if the cases increase more than 5 percent. To make those calculations, the creators used the seven-day average of confirmed cases — a practice that helps smooth out the data and shows trends better than relying on incremental changes every day. The need for such a website underscores several distressing realities in the United States. Many states are still struggling to tamp down the virus even after people spent weeks avoiding workplaces, schools, churches and places of business. And many different factors play into how well states can contain the virus and protect their health-care systems after ending lockdowns. These factors include each state's number of daily tests and how many hospital ICU beds are empty. It’s exceedingly difficult to


that the rapid Abbott test had a 15 percent false negative rate, an apparent reference to unpublished data from Cleveland Clinic,” Carolyn and Steven write. Genetics giant 23andMe announced it will recruit the sickest covid-19 patients as it researches how genetics plays a role in coronavirus cases. A patient suffering from covid-19 is treated in the intensive care unit at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista, Calif. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters) The company will seek help from hospitals to expand the study that was launched last month, Stat News’s Rebecca Robins reports. The study previously only included individuals who have opted in to participating in 23andMe’s research. Now it wants to recruit up to 10,000 new participants who have been hospitalized with the disease to understand why some cases require severe measures. “The new arm of the company’s Covid-19 study will be limited to people who are not already 23andMe customers,” Rebecca reports. “… New participants will be mailed a spit kit so they can send 23andMe a sample of their genetic material, which the company can then analyze. They’ll also be asked to fill out the same survey about their symptoms and family members that 23andMe’s customers who participated in the research were asked to complete.” Coronavirus latest In the states: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced the state will gradually reopen beginning this weekend. Barbershops and nail salons will be able to reopen, with some conditions, while non-essential stores and houses of worship will be allowed to open at 50 percent capacity, unless local governments find it unsafe, Fenit Nirappil, Erin Cox and Ovetta Wiggins report. Meanwhile, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) announced the extension of the district’s stay-at-home order and closure of nonessential businesses through June 8. The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s administration’s decision to extend stay-at-home orders, Colby Itkowitz reports. Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer backpedaled her remarks that the county’s stay-at-home order would continue for three months, Meryl Kornfield writes in The Washington Post’s live blog. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) announced face masks will be required in all indoor and outdoor public settings starting on Saturday, except for eating, drinking and exercising, Samantha Pell writes. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced some of the state’s northernmost counties had met the standards to begin gradually reopening, which will allow construction, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry and fishing


Coronavirus, falling oil prices cause worst financial crisis in decades in Saudi Arabia

promising that Saudi Arabia would do a better job than other countries of taking care of its citizens, a pledge that led to a “a greater sense of security,” she said. “Then the austerity decisions kicked in.” Safi Marroun, deputy general manager of his family business, sells skateboards in a store in Riyadh. (Tasneem Alsultan for The Washington Post) Safi Marroun, a 29-year old entrepreneur, is one of many Saudis trying to navigate the rapidly changing landscape. After returning to the kingdom following his studies in the United States, he worked in his family’s construction firm for a few years and then started a company, LocoSonix, selling skateboards, longboards and other sports equipment with the aim of providing diversions for the country’s bored youth, he said. The timing had seemed auspicious. Some social restrictions were being eased, including for women, allowing them to participate in outdoor activities more freely, he said, adding that most of his customers were women and girls. But the economic downturn has posed an unexpected challenge for Marroun and his family. Even before the pandemic, his family’s construction company had been forced to scale back its workforce. Now, he worries about the tripling of the value-added tax, which would affect the family business but also make it harder to entice people to buy the niche goods at his store — products new to the Saudi market that many customers already thought were overpriced. So far, he said, he had weathered the crisis, increasing sales online during the lockdown and attracting hundreds of new followers to his Instagram account as he tried to build his brand. But other businesses would have a harder time adapting. Together, they were all trying to figure out where the pandemic and the country were headed next. “Everyone is confused, on a big, big scale,” he said. A photo of King Salman and his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on a highway in Riyadh. (Tasneem Alsultan for The Washington Post) Tasneem Alsultan contributed from Riyadh. Read more Iraq’s economy is collapsing under the double blow of sinking oil prices and virus lockdown Unrest escalates in Lebanon as currency collapses and prospect of hunger grows Saudi Arabia executed them after questionable trials. Now it won’t give up the bodies for proper burial. Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news


Readers critique The Post: What the flyover coverage overlooked

with the flight team members and reaction from hospital and other front-line workers being saluted. Let us continue to pay tribute to those — in and out of uniform — who place themselves in harm’s way to save and protect the rest of us. John P. Jumper The writer, a retired general, is a former U.S. Air Force chief of staff. ● The May 7 Local Living Wellness article “How to tell if you’re too reliant on alcohol during this pandemic” contained good information on how to evaluate whether you’re drinking too much. However, while acknowledging that we don’t know how much people are actually drinking, the article included a figure from Nielsen market research — online alcohol sales increased 26.2 percent for a week in April compared with a year ago — to imply that people are drinking more than before the pandemic. Of course online sales are going to increase while people are staying at home. People ordering groceries online will also order the alcohol they want to drink. Because spirits aren’t sold at some grocery stores, online ordering is the only choice if you don’t want to walk into a liquor store. What I’d like to know and haven’t seen yet are any data on total alcohol consumption. Are some of the online and grocery store wine sales replacing bottles people would have had in restaurants? Would the spirits people order for delivery be equivalent to what they were drinking at after-work happy hours? We may learn more from sales tax data, but please don’t throw out a questionable number and allow people to believe there could be more of a problem than there actually might be. Tom Natan The writer is the owner of First Vine Wine Imports and Sales. ● My thanks go to Carlos Lozada for his May 3 Outlook review, “How our unbalanced economy produces ‘deaths of despair,’ ” of Anne Case and Angus Deaton’s book, “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism,” and for his measured and appropriate caveats about the authors’ lack of corrective proposals. Perhaps in the future, we will also get a detailed review of the abject complicity of the economics profession (not all economists but very many rent-seekers) in producing the outcomes we see today. David Thomas ● Although I enjoyed Hank Stuever’s May 4 Critic’s Notebook, “Connected, but not clicking,” on how beloved television programs and


Amid the pandemic, public transit is highlighting inequalities in cities

percentage of people who use public transportation to commute to work, followed by San Francisco, Boston and D.C. New York has become the center of one of America’s largest outbreaks, with many pointing to the city’s density. However, some experts have been quick to note density itself is not necessarily the problem. Meli Harvey, an urban planner based in New York City, said density is instead often a “proxy or stand-in” for other factors — like the number of people per household or types of occupations — that may contribute to community transmission in a pandemic. While people of all income levels use public transportation, a crucial population of people depend on it more than others. Doug Johnson, the transportation planning manager at the San Francisco Planning department, said these riders are often lower-income, minority groups who may not own cars and who rely on transit for access to opportunities like jobs and schools. These same people are also disproportionately affected by the current pandemic. A recent study found that counties where residents are predominantly black account for over half of coronavirus cases in the United States and almost 60 percent of deaths. The same study also pointed to socioeconomic factors like employment, access to health insurance and medical care as being predictive of infection and death from covid-19. Many of these people also hold essential jobs that require them to continue to commute to work and come into contact with others, adding to the likelihood of community transmission. “They still have to take the bus because they didn’t have another way to get to their service jobs or the hospital or to the grocery store,” said Sean Kennedy, transit planning manager at the SFMTA. “[They] don’t have other options as ways to get around.” Lower-income groups are also some of those most vulnerable to the effects of the coronavirus. A deadly combination of increased exposure and subsequent poor access to health care or sick leave can leave many front line workers in a dangerous position. “The people who are essential in this economy are people who we have decided are low-wage workers. We haven’t valued them,” Bierbaum said. Both high- and low-income workers use public transportation to get to work. However, the key difference is highly-paid workers, like lawyers and software developers, are also more likely to be able to work remotely. More than half of workers in professional


and business services reported that they could work from home in 2018. In contrast, less than 10 percent of leisure and hospitality workers (including food workers) had the same flexibility. More low-income workers may also have no choice but to use public transportation when required to commute. Workers in lower-paid, service- and transport-based occupations are less likely to have household vehicles than highly-paid workers in finance, technology or legal occupations. For example, among public transit commuters, only one third of home health aides have a household vehicle compared with more than 75 percent of lawyers. While reliance on public transit certainly is not the only reason these groups and occupations are most at risk during the pandemic, it is a lens into deeper issues that have plagued the same communities for decades. Marla Nelson, a professor of planning and urban studies at the University of New Orleans, said these problems are part of why New Orleans has been hit so hard. “[It’s] the inequities that we had for decades before the outbreak, and the fact that we have huge levels of inequality and poverty and folks that lack access to health care.” Experts were quick to note it is too soon to draw specific conclusions about the aftermath of the pandemic, but there are a few broad trends that could become likely. In the immediate aftermath, systems will continue to implement methods to help maintain social distancing and cleanliness. The D.C. metro, for example, will maintain reduced service and try to limit passengers on buses and rail cars. Metrobus riders will also continue to board through the rear doors and ride free, as collecting fares would expose bus operators to passengers. But the financial costs of reduced service remain a looming question for transit agencies. Losses, possibly into the billions, could reverberate for months or even years into the future. “You’re seeing the financial vulnerability of transit agencies really laid bare for all of us to see,” Johnson said. The impact of decreased ridership may be uneven across different public transportation systems. Railroads, for instance, are largely used by workers in professional, scientific and technical services who may be slow to return to commuting because they can work from home. In contrast, buses are more likely to be used by retail, health care and food service workers who must do their jobs in person. As we move further into the


California nursing homes are examples of how cruel the coronavirus pandemic can be

just appears to have deteriorated so quickly,” Lisa Cook said. “We know people are dying in this facility, and we just can’t get any information.” In a statement, Stoney Point administrator Timothy Mason pledged to “evaluate all protocols and procedures from this pandemic in the not-too-distant future to see how we can improve upon all aspects of our communications with family members, patients, and staff.” The cluster of roses in the wide vase on top of Hortensia and Luis Sosa’s grave are from Olivia Lopez’s garden. She changes them a few times a week. And on a bright Sunday, the grassy cemetery attracting only a few families, a brother and sister talked about what the carved stone on their parents’ grave might say. “It has to mention her laugh,” said Joseph Sosa, a mental health counselor for troubled youths, recalling that he could hear it blocks away walking home from school. “Everyone has some thoughts,” said Olivia Lopez, his big sister. “So we’ll have to get a lot of opinions.” Luis, who picked grapes in the San Joaquin Valley his whole working life, died in the Redwood Springs home in Visalia just before Christmas. He was 92 and in poor health, but Olivia Lopez was unhappy with the care he received toward the end of his life. She wanted to move him into another care home. As the coronavirus began to emerge, though, there were no beds available nearby. Her mother had checked into Redwood Springs with him in April 2019 — also 92 and suffering from dementia. The mother and daughter FaceTimed almost daily, but in late March, after Hortensia was diagnosed with the coronavirus, she visibly weakened. Officials from Redwood Springs told Lopez to put her mom in hospice care, essentially to wait out her death. Instead, Lopez demanded that her mother be admitted to a hospital. She received a call the following day from Redwood Springs, telling her an ambulance was on the way to get her mother and take her to Kaweah Delta Medical Center. Lopez met here there, still sealed off from actually seeing her. “The doctor looked at me and said, ‘What took you so long to bring her here?’ ” Lopez said. She added that a nurse echoed those comments later the same day. The next day — April 10, Good Friday — Hortensia Sosa died. Lopez discouraged friends and family from attending


Eating our way to a healthier planet

are here at this moment to empower young people to use their market muscle to push for food that’s better for both human and planetary health. Yet, the concept of climate-friendly eating has yet to break through into the zeitgeist. So, what has prevented climate-beneficial eating from becoming the norm in American food culture precrisis? We’ve gotten the messaging all wrong. All too often, climate-related initiatives aim to motivate through statistics and fearmongering. Yet, information alone doesn’t change habits — just look at the flat rates of fruit and vegetable consumption in the United States, despite decades of very well-intentioned, creative campaigns focused on education. And tales of an apocalyptic future often trigger difficult emotions that can turn people off instead of sparking action. We’ve also found that sustainability campaigns and products commonly target a small, elite audience, and leave others waiting in the wings, concerned about the climate, eager to contribute, but without easy ways to participate. The messaging has also been alienating more broadly through all-or-nothing framing; in reality, there are many meaningful ways to be a conscious eater without going full vegan — be it through buying a greater diversity of edible seeds and plants or using animal proteins as a garnish rather than the main course. These communications potholes have pigeonholed sustainable food as niche instead of mainstream. But now is the time to democratize sustainable food. We founded the Food for Climate League, a new nonprofit organization, to redefine sustainable eating and help businesses, nonprofits and governments promote food that’s good for both humans and the planet. Supported with seed funding from Food@Google, and leaders involved from Unilever, Sodexo and Future Food Institute, our team has expertise that spans culinary arts, food systems and behavioral science. We are spearheading new ways of talking about and engaging eaters around the beautiful diversity of affordable, delicious food that’s great for us and the planet. Our approach can be championed by leaders around the world so that sustainable food offerings can finally gain the traction they deserve, and all of us can play a role in tackling the climate crisis. At this moment, the global pandemic is causing us to shift our eating habits. Some are adopting chickens and planting victory gardens. Others are feeding sourdough starters and watering sprouts. Many are discovering a wider diversity of flours, legumes, fruits and vegetables as they substitute foods to compensate


Your quarantine experience, reviewed like a hotel

Gisele might be coming but never saw them. The concierge, “Bella,” greeted us. She was short, gray and well-groomed. Her English was nonexistent, but we love trying foreign languages when we travel! Unfortunately, the service deteriorated quickly. Our room has not been made up in days, despite hanging the little thingy on the doorknob without fail. The hotel’s highly rated restaurant is good, but they take the idea of “charming cooking classes” too far. Fun, yes, but every meal?!? I wanted to shout “That Michelin star won’t award itself!” We never saw the chef, despite repeatedly asking for him to stop by, and the concierge stared hard at us every meal. Thankfully, the hotel bar is open 24 hours! I booked three nights at a Walt Disney World resort to take part in the Star Wars Rival Run Half Marathon this weekend. In the end, the experience did NOT live up to my expectations. I was looking forward to staying at one of the newest and most luxurious Disney properties. You can imagine my disappointment when I discovered my lodgings would be nothing more than a suburban tract home. On the upside, it was quiet and parking was free, but on the downside, things were not as fresh or new as I had hoped. The theming was a little hard to discern; though I searched, I could not find any hidden Mickeys. The cast members were my own husband and son. The landscaping was not bad, but the property lacked swimming pools and spas. On another note, the half marathon course left a lot to be desired. It repeated a loop — in my own neighborhood -- over and over. There were no fireworks, no on-course entertainment, no character greetings, no finisher’s medal or swag — there wasn’t even a start or finish line! In sum, the magic was severely lacking for this running “vacation.” After arriving about 30 days ago, we are still impressed with the cleanliness and overall hospitality of Casa Costello. High Points: Happy Hour. Great selection of wines and other libations out on the patio starting promptly at 5:00 … unless it’s any day ending in “Y.” Then it’s 4 … or 3 … Things to Work On: Housekeeping. Spotty — not really sure what the schedule is, as some days the bed is made and dishes are done promptly. Other days, not so much. Food:


Will lingering suspicions undermine public support for South Sudan’s peace?

In February Such ceremonies can signal unified commitment to a peaceful future. But seeing a leader whose supporters have targeted one’s ethnic group for violence then switch gears and endorse a peace deal might raise suspicions — does the leader really support the deal, or will there be more violence in the future? Our research indicates that people living in conflict settings tend to be suspicious about endorsements of peace deals. In our survey, we found that when it was revealed that Kiir or Machar had endorsed a tentative peace proposal, people who belonged to groups victimized by forces aligned with the respective leader were less supportive of the deal. Research So it’s logical to expect that people would be persuaded by endorsements of peace deals coming from leaders who share their ethnicity — but be more distrustful of peace deal endorsements from leaders outside their own ethnic group. To explore these questions, we took advantage of a brief lull in violence in 2016 to conduct the first-ever endorsement study of peace policies in an active conflict setting. Following South Sudan’s independence in 2011, Kiir, who is ethnically Dinka, became the new country’s first president. Machar, who is ethnically Nuer, became vice president. In late 2013, Machar fled the capital, Juba, to become the de facto leader of the opposition, marking the beginning of the civil war. Over the course of our nearly six-month study, he returned to the capital to resume the role of vice president. But he fled again in July 2016 and fighting broke out, and we ended data collection. We conducted nearly 1,000 surveys with respondents from four different ethnic groups: the Dinka, Nuer, Luo (who in our sample faced indiscriminate violence from forces loyal both to Kiir and Machar) and Shilluk (who faced targeted violence from forces loyal to Kiir). Our respondents came from 42 villages across eight counties and five of South Sudan’s 10 states. We first asked respondents some basic questions about their background: their gender, ethnicity, exposure to violence and more. Then we asked respondents to use a scale of 1 to 5 to rate their level of support for six different peace policies — with 5 indicating the highest support. We chose policies from actual tentative peace agreements between Kiir and Machar, mostly from the 2015 peace accords. We investigated the effects of leader endorsements on peace deal support by randomly


became vice president. In late 2013, Machar fled the capital, Juba, to become the de facto leader of the opposition, marking the beginning of the civil war. Over the course of our nearly six-month study, he returned to the capital to resume the role of vice president. But he fled again in July 2016 and fighting broke out, and we ended data collection. We conducted nearly 1,000 surveys with respondents from four different ethnic groups: the Dinka, Nuer, Luo (who in our sample faced indiscriminate violence from forces loyal both to Kiir and Machar) and Shilluk (who faced targeted violence from forces loyal to Kiir). Our respondents came from 42 villages across eight counties and five of South Sudan’s 10 states. We first asked respondents some basic questions about their background: their gender, ethnicity, exposure to violence and more. Then we asked respondents to use a scale of 1 to 5 to rate their level of support for six different peace policies — with 5 indicating the highest support. We chose policies from actual tentative peace agreements between Kiir and Machar, mostly from the 2015 peace accords. We investigated the effects of leader endorsements on peace deal support by randomly assigning respondents to either see no endorsement before each policy, or a Kiir or a Machar endorsement. We then compared peace deal support among respondents who received no policy endorsement with support among those who received endorsements from either Kiir or Machar before ranking their level of support. Consistent with our expectations, we found that endorsements from leaders of another ethnic group backfired. Support for all six peace policies, and the peace deal overall, dropped precipitously when a respondent read that an out-group leader from a group with a history of violent attacks on their specific ethnic group had endorsed that policy. For our study, this meant that a Kiir endorsement led to drops in support among the groups that Kiir-allied forces had targeted: Nuer and Shilluk respondents. Similarly, a Machar endorsement left Dinka respondents less in favor of the peace policies. We also found some evidence that decreases in support for the peace policies were more severe among those who had faced more violence, and thus had the greatest reason to distrust the leaders they viewed as responsible for that violence. And we found that leader endorsements had little effect among respondents whose communities were not targeted by one


Virginia relaxes restrictions outside D.C. suburbs, Maryland opened at 5 p.m.; virus cases in region surpass 72,000

The number of known coronavirus cases in the District, Maryland and Virginia was 72,529 on Friday, with 36,986 cases in Maryland, 28,672 in Virginia and 6,871 in the District. The number of virus-related deaths reached 1,911 in Maryland, 977 in Virginia and 368 in the District, for a total of 3,256 fatalities. Here are some of the most significant recent developments as the region responds to the pandemic of the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19: • Virginia and Maryland eased restrictions today on some nonessential businesses and relaxing other shutdown measures, but some of their largest jurisdictions — including the suburbs that surround Washington — are opting not to do so. For jurisdictions that do participate, the changes took effect at midnight this morning in Virginia and will took effect at 5 p.m. in Maryland. • Officials in Maryland’s most populous jurisdictions questioned Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to ease his stay-at-home order. Their worries about adequate supplies of tests and safety equipment, as well as the continued wave of coronavirus infections, were also the focus of a letter sent to Hogan by Maryland’s Democratic Senate president and House speaker. • The number of new coronavirus infections and deaths in the Washington region continued to rise Friday, as parts of Virginia and Maryland plan to begin a gradual reopening. The District and two states combined to report 77 deaths and 2,077 new infections on Friday. There are now 72,529 cases across the three jurisdictions. • For those businesses scrambling to reopen, there was a sense of nervous excitement, with proprietors establishing safety measures and getting creative about how to space their customers apart. More than 103,000 jobless claims were filed last week in the District, Maryland and Virginia, bring the total number of people who have sought jobless benefits in recent weeks to 885,000. When will D.C. reopen?


73% of Democrats are wearing masks to fight coronavirus. Only 59% of Republicans are.

usual behaviors to combat covid-19 than than those who live in states with Republican governors. In the second wave, which ran from April 14 to April 21, we asked 3,060 people about a wider range of possible actions, including whether they had been wearing a mask or scarf in public. As you can see in the figure below, Republicans are less likely than Democrats to say they have been wearing a mask in public. An overwhelming majority, 73 percent, of self-identified Democrats report that they do so, while only 59 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of independents say the same. We also found that rates of mask-wearing differed by race and ethnicity. Communities of color reported that they were more likely to have taken this step; 82 percent of Asian Americans, 71 percent of Latinos and 74 percent of African Americans said they had been wearing a mask or scarf, while only 66 percent of whites said the same. We asked all of the respondents who said that they have worn a mask or scarf in public whether they worry about being mistaken for a criminal while doing so. The answers show a clear distinction by race and ethnicity, with 32 percent of Latinos and 30 percent of African Americans worried about this — more than either whites or Asian Americans, at 19 percent for both groups. Reported mask-wearing is even higher for black and brown men: Thirty-eight percent of Latino men and 36 percent of African American men worry about police perceptions when they wear masks. Why are minorities more likely to wear masks in public despite recognizing that this may lead to discrimination? We believe that this is a result of the racial and ethnic inequalities in covid-19 infection and death rates. As has been widely reported, racial and ethnic minorities have been more likely to be infected and to die from the coronavirus than non-Hispanic whites. Our study asked respondents whether they, someone in their immediate family, someone at work, or someone they know personally outside their immediate family or work had been sick with the virus. Thirty-two percent of racial and ethnic minorities said yes, more than whites at 25 percent. This may help explain the gap in mask-wearing. Respondents who know someone who has been ill with the virus are 40 percent more likely to report wearing a mask in public than those who


The Daily 202: Billions are out of work and millions of kids could die from coronavirus’s economic fallout

2,774 doctors who responded to the survey, 19 percent said they had to temporarily close their practices because of financial problems; 42 percent had to lay off or furlough staff. About 10 percent say they will have to close in the next month because of financial shortfalls.” “The coronavirus is threatening the survival of independently operated stores, restaurants, bars and other enterprises in cities with vibrant, walkable neighborhoods and soaring commercial rents. In the District alone, there are an estimated 38,000 small businesses, according to the D.C. Policy Institute. Some were already being pushed out by corporate chains before the pandemic brought the nation’s economy to a halt,” Ian Shapira reports. “‘I hate to be bleak, but we’re certainly going to see independent small businesses go quickly,’ said Amanda Ballantyne, the Seattle-based executive director of Main Street Alliance, an advocacy group for small businesses. ‘When the economy recovers, it won’t recover with the same level of diversity.’ … In the District, thriving commercial corridors from U Street to H Street and from Connecticut Avenue to Maine Avenue could lose some of the businesses that fueled the city’s renaissance and made the surrounding residential communities so appealing.” “Across the region, there were 93 new coronavirus deaths and 2,310 new infections reported on Thursday,” Michael Rosenwald, Ovetta Wiggins and Emily Davies report. ”Maryland accounted for nearly 1,100 of those new infections, versus the state’s 751 new infections the day before. … Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who exempted Northern Virginia from the reopening several days ago, announced Thursday that he would also delay the change for Richmond, at the city’s request, and for Accomack County on the Eastern Shore, where there are several poultry processing facilities that have experienced outbreaks. In Maryland, Baltimore City joined Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in opting out of [Republican Gov. Larry] Hogan’s reopening.” The chemical is “linked to potential brain damage in fetuses and newborns and thyroid problems in adults,” Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin report. “The move, which comes despite the fact that the EPA faces a court order to establish a national standard for the chemical compound by the end of June, marks the latest shift in a long-running fight over whether to curb the chemical used in rocket fuel. Under President Barack Obama, the EPA had announced in 2011 that it planned to set the first enforceable limits on perchlorate because of its potential


Lancet editorial blasts Trump’s ‘inconsistent and incoherent’ coronavirus response

One of the world’s oldest and best-known medical journals Friday slammed President Trump’s “inconsistent and incoherent national response” to the novel coronavirus pandemic and accused the administration of relegating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to a “nominal” role. The unsigned editorial from the Lancet concluded that Trump should be replaced. “Americans must put a president in the White House come January, 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics,” said the journal, which was founded in Britain in 1823. The strongly worded critique highlights mounting frustration with the administration’s response among some of the world’s top medical researchers. Medical journals sometimes run signed editorials that take political stances, but rarely do publications with the Lancet’s influence use the full weight of their editorial boards to call for a president to be voted out of office. “It’s not common for a journal to do that  — but the scientific community is getting increasingly concerned with the dangerous politicization of science during this pandemic crisis,” said Benjamin Corb, public affairs director for the nonprofit American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. “We watch as political leaders tout unproven medical advice, and public health and science experts are vilified as partisans — all while people continue to get sick and die.” The Lancet published the editorial as the death toll in the United States surpassed 85,000 and many states moved to reopen businesses and ease coronavirus restrictions that experts say are necessary to contain the pandemic. The journal said that while infection and death rates have declined in hard-hit states such as New York and New Jersey after two months of virus restrictions, new outbreaks in Minnesota and Iowa have raised questions about the efficacy of the Trump administration’s response. The authors accused the administration of undermining some of the CDC’s top officials, saying the agency “has seen its role minimised and become an ineffective and nominal adviser.” They said the agency, which is supposed to be the primary contact for health authorities during crises, had been hamstrung by years of budget cuts that have made it harder to combat infectious diseases. The editorial also charged that the administration left an “intelligence vacuum” in China when it pulled the last CDC officer from the country last July. The Lancet took the CDC to task, too, criticizing its botched rollout of diagnostic testing in the


Rural Florida county worries about reopening as coronavirus cases spike at nursing home

LIVE OAK, Fla. — The annual Blueberry Festival is the high point of the year here. Thousands of people visit the grounds of the Wellborn Baptist Church on the first Saturday in June, where they can get blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, blueberry preserves, and cartons of freshly picked blueberries from nearby farms. For nearly 30 years, the festival has ushered in the warm season and showcased a major industry in this rural county 40 miles south of the Georgia state line. This year, it’s canceled because of the novel coronavirus. At the same time that Gov. Ron DeSantis’s phased reopening of most of the state began earlier this month, organizers of the festival decided they didn’t want to risk it. “As much as we would like to have the festival, we don’t want to be the hotbed and really spark something here,” said Jordan Weldon, president of the Wellborn Community Association, which sponsors the festival. Even though DeSantis has said that the “worst-case-scenario thinking has not proven to be true” with the coronavirus in Florida and much of the state is primed to reopen, many residents in this county that’s bordered by the Suwannee River are still reluctant to embrace a return to normal. Cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, have been increasing statewide and in Suwannee County. More than 43,000 Floridians have tested positive for the coronavirus, and more than 1,800 have died as of Thursday. In Suwannee County, 151 people have tested positive, and 18 have died. All of the deaths have occurred inside a local nursing home, the Suwannee Health and Rehabilitation Center. From the beginning of the pandemic, DeSantis treated parts of the state differently, insisting for many weeks that rural counties like Suwannee didn’t need to follow the same stay-at-home rules that places such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale did. He says that’s still true. “We have a big, diverse state, and this is a radically different outbreak in different parts of the state,” DeSantis said at a news conference this week. On Thursday, he said the places with the most cases — Miami-Dade and Broward counties — can join the rest of the state in lifting some coronavirus restrictions next week, such as allowing restaurants to open, but at reduced capacity. But the tension between relief and worry at reopening is especially acute in Suwannee County, where about 45,000 people live.


U.S. tries to narrow loophole that allowed China’s Huawei to skirt export ban

create uncertainty and disruption for the global semiconductor supply chain, but it seems to be less damaging to the U.S. semiconductor industry than the very broad approaches previously considered,” John Neuffer, chief executive of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said in a statement. The new restrictions could hurt TSMC, which makes a large volume of chips for Huawei according to Huawei designs, with the use of U.S. equipment and software. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Asked why the United States was planning to undermine TSMC sales at the same time that the Taiwanese company is planning a large investment in the United States, State Department officials speaking on a call with journalists Friday said the matters were unrelated. Asked whether the United States would solve the problem by granting TSMC a license to continue its chip sales to Huawei, one State Department official described that as unlikely. “Roughly 10 to 12 percent of TSMC’s business is China, and I think that is in essence primarily Huawei,” said Keith Krach, the undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment. “So they will be restricted unless they are granted a license, and there is no assurance on that, and we don’t anticipate that.” Krach said TSMC’s U.S. factory investment “strengthens our relationship with Taiwan,” which he described as a “force for good” and for democracy in Asia. The new Commerce restrictions could hurt U.S. manufacturers of chip-making equipment, a sector the United States dominates. The Commerce rule will incentivize chip factories to buy that equipment from other countries, industry experts said. Christopher Ford, assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation at the State Department, said it would be hard for chip factories to completely avoid using U.S. equipment and software, which he said is necessary to make the most cutting-edge type of chips. Commerce’s latest action comes one year after it originally placed Huawei on a trade blacklist. The measures have hurt the Chinese company’s cellphone sales outside of China and complicated its effort to sell telecom network gear for super-fast 5G networks. Still, Huawei has vowed to survive the blockade. Last month, Huawei said its first-quarter revenue grew by 1.4 percent over the year-earlier quarter, a slowdown from the 39 percent growth it reported in the first quarter of 2019. The coronavirus crisis has also hurt the company’s sales. Eva Dou contributed to this report


A fever is 100.4 in Ohio; it’s 99.5 in Delaware: States, companies write their own rules for temperature screening in a pandemic

Covid-19 screening guidelines in Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania suggest that workers with temperatures of at least 100.4 degrees should be sent home because they could be infected with the novel coronavirus. But the cutoff is 100 degrees in Texas. And even lower in Delaware: 99.5 degrees. Some states don’t suggest temperature screenings at all. As states slowly start to reopen after weeks of coronavirus shutdowns, companies and workers face a patchwork of safety guidelines about what temperature should be a covid-19 warning sign. Without a national screening strategy, states and businesses are creating their own guidelines and establishing informal disease-surveillance systems with different detection levels, potentially creating confusion about what is a safe temperature. At Walmart, a temperature above 100 degrees is enough for a worker to be sent home. At Amazon, it’s 100.4. “Where do you set the bar? Well, what is your threshold for risk?” said Steven Lawrence, an infectious-disease specialist and professor at Washington University in St. Louis. “I think it would make it easier if there was one standard temperature we were using.” Fever is one of several symptoms of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, along with a list that includes shortness of breath, coughing, loss of taste and smell, sore throat and headache. But fever is the one symptom that can be measured and checked externally — an especially important distinction given the scarcity of rapid diagnostic testing. Fever screening — used in previous disease outbreaks, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Ebola — has become common during the coronavirus pandemic but is far from perfect. Though casting a wide net by setting a relatively low temperature threshold will catch more covid-19 cases, it also will snag many people who have nothing more than a common cold. A fever also can be a weak signal of covid-19, absent in the estimated 20 percent of covid-19 cases in which patients exhibit no symptoms. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine from Wuhan, China, where the worldwide outbreak originated, found that only 44 percent of people admitted to the hospital for covid-19 came in with a temperature of at least 99.5 degrees. “So, you’re missing half the cases walking in the door,” said David Thomas, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who cited the journal study as a sign of the screening problems.


Why don’t doctors seek mental health treatment? They’ll be punished for it.

Young doctors are planning funerals — their own. They are intubating patients — their colleagues. And they are hearing bedside monitors beep and fall flat over and over again in a single shift, only to return to more of the same in the next shift, and the next, as they find their years of training unequal to the awful challenges of the covid-19 pandemic. Last month, a prominent Manhattan emergency room doctor, Lorna Breen, died by suicide after describing the horrific events she had witnessed while fighting covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Her death highlighted what some of us in the mental health community have known since the start of the crisis: that the psychological impact of what is happening in American hospitals will stay with us long after the immediate crisis subsides and that among those most affected will be health-care workers. All agree that we should focus on how to help them seek the care they may need, but little has been said about the barriers that can discourage them from reaching out — or that a significant barrier is medical licensing. The pandemic has provoked fear in doctors and nurses. They’re scared, not just because they so often can’t save the lives of covid-19 patients, but because they can’t always protect themselves and their families from infection. Those like Breen who lead a hospital department probably feel most the additional burden of having to keep their colleagues safe and fight for protective equipment. National shortages, coupled with the highly contagious nature of this virus, have resulted in workers and vulnerable relatives getting sick and, in some cases, dying. No doctor imagines having to treat a colleague; confronting our own mortality and safety in the workplace on a daily basis is something none of us were taught in medical school. It makes the mundane experience of going to work terrifying and even traumatic. The toll that trauma and post-traumatic stress puts on the body is well-established. We’ve also known for some time that trauma can change the structure and chemical makeup of the brain. It hijacks the ability to reason and activates our most primal emotional responses. It should come as no surprise, then, that there is a proven link between trauma and suicide. While we do not know the specific circumstances of Breen’s challenges — she had also contracted the virus herself — we


Maryland to lift some restrictions on shops, churches at 5 p.m. Friday; D.C. mayor extends widespread shutdown through June 8

The number of known coronavirus cases in the District, Maryland and Virginia was 68,142 on Wednesday, with 34,812 cases in Maryland, 26,746 in Virginia and 6,584 in the District. The number of virus-related deaths reached 1,809 in Maryland, 927 in Virginia and 350 in the District, for a total of 3,086 fatalities. Here are some of the most significant recent developments as the region responds to the pandemic of the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19: • Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Wednesday he will lift the stay-at-home order that has shuttered most businesses and churches for nearly seven weeks. Beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, some small shops and all religious organizations will be allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity provided proper social distancing restrictions are followed — and local governments also say it is safe. Several jurisdictions, including Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, plan to keep restrictions in place. • D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) extended the city’s stay-at-home order, mass gathering ban and closure of nonessential businesses through June 8, saying infections have not declined enough to start reopening the capital. The social distancing measures were set to expire Friday. New cases have started to decline over the past several days, but officials want to see a sustained decrease over two weeks before starting to reopen. • Maryland, the District and Virginia added 1,796 new coronavirus cases Wednesday and 103 deaths, officials said. The District added 14 new deaths, the most since May 8, when 19 fatalities were recorded. When might local restrictions ease?


How Metro plans to gradually return to full service

wear masks and alternate locations to enable disinfection between shifts. But if even a few people who work in proximity need to quarantine, Metro is vulnerable to shift-length closures. Bus drivers are the largest segment of our workforce. Wearing masks and working modified schedules, they drive disinfected buses sitting behind Plexiglas shields. We have implemented rear-door-only boarding to reduce risks for drivers, who are permitted to bypass stops when buses become crowded by social-distancing standards. Still, bus drivers count for the highest number of quarantines among our workforce. Our recovery plan, first and foremost, considers how to protect employees and customers. It complies with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and supports guidelines from regional leaders — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser — that are based on science and public health. Finally, it relies on ridership and economic projections analyzing several models of covid-19 peaks, testing availability, supply chains for cleaning products and protective equipment, and other variables beyond Metro’s control. The plan also considers customers’ expectations. Our April survey of SmarTrip Cardholders found preferences for all passengers to wear masks, and for visible and frequent disinfecting of rail cars, buses and stations. Customers want plenty of room for social distancing when riding. These measures require fundamental changes to old practices. Until a vaccine is available, our customer experience can’t be what it was before the pandemic. Social distancing requires capacity to stay ahead of rider demand. Metro must return gradually, in phases, just like the region. We expect each of our three planned phases to take more than two months to implement as we inspect tracks and equipment, develop connecting bus and rail schedules, allow 4,000 employees to select assignments, reprogram information systems, and install signage. Under new safety measures, work can take much longer than it used to. Our recovery plan anticipates that when regional leaders move to the first phases of reopening, trains will run every 20 minutes. The first and eighth cars, which have been closed to passengers, will reopen. Buses will continue to operate on Sunday routes and schedules. Depending on the timing of subsequent phases in Maryland, Virginia and the District, we will begin to reopen stations, increase train frequency and operate more bus routes later this summer and into the fall. Free, rear-door boarding of buses will continue subject to ongoing


MyKayla Skinner’s Olympic journey was unconventional before an unprecedented turn

MyKayla Skinner had a precise plan, albeit an unconventional one for an elite gymnast, and it ended in Tokyo this summer. She got married in November. She took a year off from the University of Utah, where she was one of the nation’s top college gymnasts for three seasons. Her coaches at her club gym near Phoenix followed daily training plans that ensured she would peak this summer. After the Olympics, Skinner and her husband wanted to go to Hawaii, then buy their first house in Utah and finish school. Skinner’s college season next winter would be the send-off from her longtime sport. But as soon as the novel coronavirus pandemic forced organizers to postpone the Tokyo Games to 2021, every piece of that plan changed. “I sit in the gym and every day I’m like, ‘I could have had three more months in this place,’ ” said Skinner, an alternate for the 2016 U.S. Olympic team. “I have to go through another year? Really? I know that’s my decision. … I’ve come so far. I feel like I shouldn’t give up.” Even before the postponement added another hurdle, Skinner’s route toward Tokyo defied the norm. She opted to defer her final season of college gymnastics so she could train at the elite level. That’s still the plan, only now her final season will be in 2022, and it will require a waiver from the NCAA and some roster management on Utah’s end. The relationship between elite and college gymnastics is typically a one-way street in the United States. About half of the gymnasts who have represented the United States at the past five Olympics also have competed in college, but nearly all of them headed to the NCAA after their elite careers. Some international gymnasts (such as the University of California Berkeley’s Toni-Ann Williams, who represented Jamaica in 2016) have competed successfully for both their country and their college team. But the skill level required to make the U.S. Olympic team, along with monthly national team training camps, makes that difficult. Even for gymnasts who love experimenting with new skills, college routines aren’t nearly as jam-packed with difficulty as elite routines. “She knew that it’s going to take her a while to train, to get back up to speed in terms of the sheer length of the routines. … It’s just another level,” Utah Coach Tom Farden said of


My mother’s childhood bout with polio paralyzed more than her body. I’ve spent much of my life trying to understand that paralysis.

it’s hard to keep a good mother alive and on the page. The mothers who got the most ink were the bad ones. They locked their daughters in turrets, mad with jealousy over their beauty and youth. These women often took the form of a stepmother so that their evil could be distanced from bloodline. My mother must have been truly troubled, then, for she didn’t seem to know how to love her own flesh and blood. In America in 1946, just as birthrates exploded, so did polio. There were more than 25,000 reported cases that year, and the annual number ticked steadily upward, topping 58,000 in 1952. The disease spread fastest in warm months. Each June beaches and movie theaters, swimming pools and ice cream parlors went eerily quiet. Some cities shut down public parks; some businesses banned anyone under 18. Summer became known as “polio season.” “For children and adolescents, polio now became the fastest growing infectious disease,” historian David Oshinsky wrote in his book “Polio: An American Story,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. Newspapers ran images of children struggling in leg braces or lying prostrate in iron lungs. They kept tallies of victims, including age, sex and level of paralysis, much the way they tracked sports scores, and the psychological impact was significant, according to Oshinsky. “There was no escaping the damage that polio did, the random way in which it struck, or the gruesome truth that everyone was at risk,” he wrote. My aunt had finished my mother’s breakfast that fateful morning, and the arbitrary nature of the virus bothered them for years, neither understanding why one sister got sick and the other was spared. Women like my grandmother became the “foot soldiers” of the crusade to cure polio, according to Oshinsky. The March of Dimes had appealed directly to the public for donations for years, but in 1950 when my mother was still in the hospital, a volunteer in Phoenix launched a new campaign. On a January evening, at 7 p.m., an army of women carrying shopping bags took to the streets for one hour. They knocked on every house, apartment and even hotel door in the county. They had widely publicized beforehand with the slogan: “Turn on Your Porch Light! Help Fight Polio Tonight!” “The portrait of mothers marching against polio became one of the indelible images of postwar America,” Oshinsky wrote.


Polio was almost eradicated. Then came the coronavirus. Then came a threat from President Trump.

polio grows in the water supply and can infect those who drink from the tap before they have immunity. (Naturally occurring polio, known as wild polio, also spreads through feces-contaminated food and water.) “As soon as you let off, you get cases,” said Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of population health at the University of California at Irvine. Such was the case in the West African nation of Niger, which reported two new cases of polio in April. Doctors blamed the stalled vaccine campaigns. Workers who administer the droplets are not allowed to travel because of the pandemic, said Anya Blanche, the WHO’s representative in Niger. “The challenges are daunting,” she said Cutting funding to the WHO adds another challenge. The White House wants to divert money from the WHO to other organizations. The State Department is already advising employees to start finding new partners. In a limited number of cases, that could work, experts said. But the agency’s expertise and deep networks in the world’s most hard-to-reach places will be tough to replace, especially for polio. The race to mass produce a coronavirus vaccine “There is no substitute for WHO in this instance,” said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Health experts are worried about explosive outbreaks, he said. “Having the U.S. throw this wrench into the works doesn’t help matters” For those on the front lines the hope is that Trump, having got the organization’s attention, will retreat from the funding threat. In interviews, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has suggested that the United States might continue to support WHO work on polio and other diseases. “Let’s see if there’s a piece of this which we ought to continue to participate in,” Pompeo told “The Jack Heath Radio Show” on May 7, “because it’s doing good work on polio or whatever it may be,” he said. “But then let’s make sure that when the next risk arises,” he continued, “when the next risk from a pandemic arises, we need an institution that’s going to deliver good outcomes for the American people.” On the front line of the polio fight, health workers are waiting out lockdowns and worrying about the kids at risk. Qadir, the health worker in Pakistan, has worked through conflict and death threats — and will keep working. For now, he has been detailed


How we roll in a pandemic

there was nothing we could do but walk outside, but then we got the bikes and I felt free,” she said of her early days in quarantine. “It was like some sense of normalcy had returned to our lives.” Hewitt and her two children, ages 7 and 10, have quickly grown addicted to the new bicycles the family purchased from a local store in late March. Four times a week, the three of them strap on their helmets, mount their bicycles and meet with cousins down the block. The “bike gang of six,” as they now call themselves, then rides a mile to wave to their grandparents. “My parents get a kick out of it when all of us pull up in our bikes,” Hewitt said. “It has allowed us to make extended family time a part of our weekly routine.” Hewitt snagged the bicycles early in the pandemic, but many are now struggling to find an affordable bicycle available for purchase. Bikes waiting for repair at City Bikes. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post) Bicycle sales nationwide surged by 50 percent in March, according to the NPD Group, a market research company. It reported a 121 percent increase in adult leisure-bike sales and a 59 percent uptick in children’s bike sales compared with the same time last year. Industry names such as Trek Bikes are sold out of some lower-priced models, and businesses with inventory left are seeing it quickly dry up. Jamis Bicycles, a midsize brand that sells equipment to 600 independent bicycle dealers nationwide, shipped as many bicycles in April as it did in the three months prior. The company says it is on track to eclipse that total in May. “We do still have inventory, but it is dwindling quickly,” said Dave Rosen, marketing and creative director at Jamis. Spring typically marks the busiest time of year for the bicycle industry, and many sellers were behind schedule before orders started pouring in mid-March. Countries across Asia, where most bicycle parts are produced and assembled, were part of the earlier wave of coronavirus shutdowns. The shutdowns, combined with the Lunar New Year, stalled deliveries for about a month in February, according to Rosen and other manufacturers. Industry experts warn that low-priced and children’s bicycles will become more difficult to find until the next production cycle wraps up in late July. Meanwhile, longtime cyclists are hoping the unexpected bike boom


Why Gulf Dollar Pegs Are Strained by Oil and Virus

Although the decades-old currency pegs of the Gulf Arab region often come under strain in depressed oil markets, they always have survived. This time, however, energy prices are at historic lows and the coronavirus outbreak has unleashed recessions that are squeezing government budgets like never before. With some of the Gulf currencies under pressure from speculators, are the pegs facing their sternest test? 1. How are the pegs under pressure? As Saudi Arabia embarked on an oil-price war in March by boosting crude production, traders were betting through the derivatives market that the region’s currencies would weaken within a year. Such a scenario is possible only if countries abandon their currency pegs. Fixed exchange-rate regimes in Asia were swept away during the currency crisis of the late 1990s, when speculators forced the likes of Thailand and South Korea to abandon their links with the dollar. Currency pegs are now largely confined to the major oil producers in the Middle East which appear unwilling to let them go. 2. Who has pegs and why? The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- have been running currency pegs or managed foreign-exchange regimes since the early 1970s. Kuwait pegs the dinar to a basket of currencies believed to be dominated by the U.S. dollar, while the others are linked solely to the greenback. With oil and gas priced in dollars, the pegs have helped shield the countries from the volatility of energy markets and allowed central banks to accumulate foreign-currency reserves in the good times. Indeed, the robustness of pegs relates in large part to the size of countries’ foreign-exchange reserves and foreign assets held by their sovereign wealth funds. 3. Why the concern now? Most of the Gulf countries remain heavily reliant on hydrocarbons to pay the bills -- Saudi Arabia gets around two-thirds of its revenue from oil and Kuwait about 90% -- so the slump in prices has put the region’s economies under huge stress. As the price of Brent crude crashed by more than half in March, Saudi Arabia, the largest oil exporter, depleted the central bank’s foreign-exchange reserves by $27 billion that month, a decline of more than 5%. 4. Have we been here before? The system has survived stern tests, including successive years of low oil prices in the 1990s, a period of dollar


Coronavirus Haiti Dominican Republic Hispaniola

People stock up on food at a street market in the Pétion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, despite recommendations from authorities to maintain social distance to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Jean Marc Herve Abelard/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) For a while, the land border that separates Haiti and the Dominican Republic was also the demarcation point between two very different coronavirus outbreaks. In the Dominican Republic, which draws tourists from around the world, cases surged to the highest level in the Caribbean. In Haiti, which had grown more isolated during a year of political violence, the population appeared to have been largely spared. But over the last few weeks, that has begun to change, as tens of thousands of Haitian workers have returned from the Dominican Republic to their own country, many bringing the virus with them. That flow of returnees is expected to spark an outbreak that the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere will be unable to fight. “This epidemic is a tinderbox in the process of burning and will explode in the coming weeks,” said Jean William Pape, a doctor who is the co-director of Haiti’s presidential commission on the novel coronavirus. Haiti and the Dominican Republic each have populations of around 11 million, but few neighboring countries are as unequal. The average Haitian is almost 10 times poorer than the average Dominican. Haiti’s infant mortality rate is twice as high. At least 500,000 Haitians work in the Dominican Republic; the remittances they send home make up a third of Haiti’s GDP. [Haiti has a tragic history of disasters. Will covid-19 be next?] As the Dominican Republic closed down in response to its coronavirus outbreak, it suspended the temporary legal status of more than 150,000 of those Haitian workers. Undocumented Haitians also lost jobs. By this month, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates, 22,000 Haitians were returning home each week. “This is now the main vector of the disease,” said Sandra Lamarque, the head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. The Haitian government and international NGOs rushed to set up facilities along the border to screen returnees. But most entered the country through informal crossing points, and even some of those who showed symptoms at official crossings quietly continued into the interior of the country. “Haitian people are being forced out of the Dominican Republic and also running from the virus there,” Pape said. “Border crossings and


Charting the Global Economy: Covid-19 Pandemic’s Toll Deepens

The steepest-ever declines in U.S. retail sales and industrial production and record-high economic uncertainty in Europe highlight the rapid deterioration in business activity caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Here are some of the charts that appeared on Bloomberg this week, offering insight into the latest developments in the global economy: U.S. Sales at retailers and restaurants fell 16.4% in April from the prior month, almost double the 8.3% drop in March which was previously the worst in data back to 1992. With most Americans stuck at home and unemployment that the highest since the Great Depression era, people sharply reduced their spending. An index of output at the nation’s factories, mines and utilities decreased 11.2% in April, the steepest monthly drop in the 101-year history of the Federal Reserve’s series. Manufacturing production plummeted by a record 13.7% amid declines in all major industries. The politicization of Americans’ views about the Covid-19 outbreak, including whether to wear a mask, extends to small businesses: Firms in the Northeast and in Democratic-leaning states are more anxious about the future than their peers around the country, with many expecting economic pain from the pandemic to last longer than six months. Europe U.K. government borrowing looks on course to exceed 300 billion pounds ($366 billion) in the current fiscal year, according to the latest forecasts from the nation’s fiscal watchdog. Economic uncertainty in the euro area has soared to record levels in the face of the pandemic and stringent containment measures, with Bloomberg Economics’ uncertainty gauge surpassing four standard deviations above its long-run average in the last couple of months. Asia China’s industrial output increased in April for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, adding to early signs of a recovery that economists cautioned would be slow and challenging. Japan’s economy has slipped from sales-tax hangover into deep recession, official data is set to show on Monday, with worse to come even as coronavirus restrictions on activity are gradually lifted. Australia is the most China-reliant economy in the developed world, leaving it vulnerable to blowback from Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s calls for an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus. Emerging Markets The Paris Club is confident China will take part in a global drive to pause debt payments for poor countries that urgently need funds to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Russians are running out of money after six weeks of lockdown and


nation’s factories, mines and utilities decreased 11.2% in April, the steepest monthly drop in the 101-year history of the Federal Reserve’s series. Manufacturing production plummeted by a record 13.7% amid declines in all major industries. The politicization of Americans’ views about the Covid-19 outbreak, including whether to wear a mask, extends to small businesses: Firms in the Northeast and in Democratic-leaning states are more anxious about the future than their peers around the country, with many expecting economic pain from the pandemic to last longer than six months. Europe U.K. government borrowing looks on course to exceed 300 billion pounds ($366 billion) in the current fiscal year, according to the latest forecasts from the nation’s fiscal watchdog. Economic uncertainty in the euro area has soared to record levels in the face of the pandemic and stringent containment measures, with Bloomberg Economics’ uncertainty gauge surpassing four standard deviations above its long-run average in the last couple of months. Asia China’s industrial output increased in April for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, adding to early signs of a recovery that economists cautioned would be slow and challenging. Japan’s economy has slipped from sales-tax hangover into deep recession, official data is set to show on Monday, with worse to come even as coronavirus restrictions on activity are gradually lifted. Australia is the most China-reliant economy in the developed world, leaving it vulnerable to blowback from Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s calls for an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus. Emerging Markets The Paris Club is confident China will take part in a global drive to pause debt payments for poor countries that urgently need funds to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Russians are running out of money after six weeks of lockdown and minimal government support, adding to pressure that pushed President Vladimir Putin to start reopening the economy even as the infection total surges to the second-highest in the world. World The OECD’s indicator of future turning points for the global economy plunged to unprecedented levels in April as output, consumption and confidence slumped when governments locked down activity to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Global central bankers are echoing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s latest dismissal of negative interest rates, just as investors bet more of them will be dragged into the policy amid the coronavirus crisis. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2020 Bloomberg L.P.