reported a day earlier and not as low as the 84 registered on Saturday. Cuomo also said the families of front-line workers who died from Covid-19 would be eligible for death benefits, saying such employees did their jobs despite the risks. “They showed up because I asked them to show up, they showed up because I required them to show up,” Cuomo said at his daily briefing at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the Hudson River. Montenegro to Reopen Borders (12:05 p.m. NY) Montenegro will open borders June 1 without restrictions for visitors from nine countries -- Croatia, Slovenia, Poland, Austria, Germany, Albania, Czechia, Hungary and Greece, but not with immediate neighbors Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, Premier Dusko Markovic told reporters in capital Podgorica. The list will be expanded with more states where cases drop to under 25 per 100,000 people, he said. Putin Spokesman to Isolate (11:55 a.m. NY) The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was released from the hospital after a bout with Covid-19, the latest senior Kremlin official to recover. Dmitry Peskov said by text message he will spend the next two weeks self-isolating at home. Last week, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin returned to work after recovering from the illness. Three government ministers and at least five State Duma deputies have been diagnosed with the virus. Russia’s infections rose 2.4% in the past day to 353,427, with deaths reported up 92 to 3,633. Russia now ranks third in cases, after Brazil’s infections spiked over the weekend. U.K. Aide Won’t Quit Over Breach (11:50 a.m. NY) Dominic Cummings, one of Boris Johnson’s closest allies, refused to quit his job in the U.K. government, refuting claims he flouted lockdown rules that he had helped to draft. “I don’t regret what I did,” Cummings, 48, told reporters at Johnson’s residence. “I believe I made the right judgment though I understand that others may disagree with that.” Cummings spoke after newspapers reported he drove more than 250 miles to northeast England in early April to seek family support for his 4-year-old son, after his wife contracted Covid-19 and he began showing symptoms. Local police said they are investigating whether Cummings had broken lockdown rules after a retired teacher said he saw Cummings at a spot 30 miles away from his parents’ home. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2020 Bloomberg L.P.


Baidu Investors Fell Out of Love Years Ago

Five years ago, Baidu Inc. founder and Chairman Robin Li sat down with Bloomberg News to explain how foreign investors were getting it wrong. Listed on the Nasdaq a decade earlier, shares of the Chinese search-engine provider had taken a beating over the prior year, and Li’s chief complaint was that Americans just didn’t appreciate the coming changes in its business. The trend in China was toward services like delivery and ride-hailing, as well as bookings for restaurants, beauty salons and doctors. This online-to-offline economy would eclipse search revenue, he predicted. Now, it seems that Li has lost patience. Baidu is looking into the possibility of delisting its shares from the Nasdaq and moving to an exchange closer to home, Reuters reported Friday, citing three people familiar with the matter. Baidu thinks it’s undervalued, according to the report. The backdrop to these discussions is rising hostility to U.S. investments in Chinese assets amid worsening relations between the two countries. The U.S. Senate passed a bill last week that would force companies to delist unless they can prove they’re not under the control of a foreign government. That sounds like a good excuse for Baidu to look for the exit. The reality is that investors lost patience with its management years ago. It was inevitable that the company would seek one day to list elsewhere, as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has already done. Baidu’s U.S.-traded stock fell 15% between that September 2015 interview and the end of last year, before the pandemic hit. Over the same period, Alibaba climbed 248%. Li’s problem is that his company failed to grasp the transformation he was talking up half a decade ago. While Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd. have successfully moved into new areas like payments and physical retail, and upstarts like Meituan Dianping and Pinduoduo Inc. now dominate delivery and social-commerce, Baidu has barely changed. Its core business still centers on advertising and accounts for 73% of revenue, which climbed just 2% last year. Investments into new realms like artificial intelligence and autonomous driving have yet to bear fruit. Its other major sales contributor, iQiyi Inc., a video-streaming platform that listed separately on Nasdaq in March 2018, continues to lose money. Around the time that Li complained foreign investors weren’t getting it, some of his contemporaries decided to move home where they felt Chinese investors had a better understanding and would reward them


The Daily 202: ‘My wife deserves better’: Lori Klausutis’s widower breaks silence, calls for deleting Trump’s tweets

States scramble to hire teams of contact tracers, local health authorities across Germany have used contact scouts … since they confirmed their first cases early this year,” Loveday Morris and Luisa Beck report. “Epidemiologists say the effort has been essential to the country’s ability to contain its coronavirus outbreak and avoid the larger death tolls seen elsewhere, even with a less stringent shutdown than in other countries. Germany has experienced about 10 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people. … Germany aims to have five contact tracers for every 25,000 people — or about 16,000 for its population of 83 million. … Germany’s effort is decidedly low-tech. Privacy concerns — which run strong in Europe and particularly deep in Germany, with its not-so-distant memories of fascism and communism — have limited the potential of contact-tracing apps. So the tracing is largely a case of calling the recently diagnosed patient and asking his or her movements.” “A rift within his family, a collapsing economy and rising tensions with his key ally Russia lay bare the fragility of his regime,” Liz Sly and Asser Khattab report. “Cracks are starting to appear in the once-united front presented by loyalists who stood by Assad throughout his battle to crush the opposition. A rare eruption of criticism in Russian media outlets has drawn attention to his dependence on foreign allies — Iran as well as Russia — for his survival. Most important, an imploding economy is driving Syrians into poverty on a scale unprecedented in recent history. … The stirrings of a new rebellion in the southern province of Daraa speak to the potential for a fresh insurgency in areas that have been recaptured by the government.” Fox News’s Brit Hume mocked Biden for wearing a face mask. Trump retweeted this post, sparking backlash from the left. Trump, who claimed a “bone spur” to avoid service in Vietnam, attacked Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), a Marine veteran, over Memorial Day weekend. The congressman responded: Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), an Air National Guard pilot, marked the day: So did Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost her legs when her helicopter was shot down over Iraq: This minute-long rendition of “Taps” in an otherwise empty ceremony is deeply moving: Trevor Noah shared some good news: And, to draw your attention away from the pandemic for a moment, Hasan Minhaj took a look at the current state of the marijuana industry:


Trump’s comparison of the coronavirus to H1N1 in 2009 distills to ‘but Obama’

go back to 1918″ — the Spanish flu pandemic — “they just have to go back to 2009, 2010 and imagine a virus with a different lethality, and you can just do the math on that.” Nonetheless, this is not a favorable comparison for Trump. The polling doesn’t reflect well on Trump, either. In February, Gallup reported that its polling found broad confidence in the government to handle the coronavirus pandemic. Seventy-seven percent of respondents indicated that they had at least some confidence in the federal government to handle the virus. By comparison, only two-thirds said they had similar confidence when Gallup averaged polls from 2009. That February poll, though, came before there was confirmed uncontrolled spread of the virus in the United States. It came before the first reported death from covid-19 in this country. In other words, it was forward-looking, not an evaluation of how Trump’s administration performed. Notice that the poll numbers weren’t “terrible,” as Trump alleged. That 67 percent was better than the perceptions of other recent U.S. outbreaks, including Zika in 2016-2017, Ebola in 2014 and an avian flu outbreak in 2005. More importantly, polling on how the government has handled the coronavirus no longer sits at 77 percent confidence. By mid-March, only 61 percent indicated confidence in the federal government's handling of the pandemic. Late-April polling from Gallup found that only 50 percent of Americans — most of them Republicans — approved of Trump's handling of the virus. The first H1N1 case in the United States came on April 15, 2009. Three months later, Obama’s approval rating was 59 percent in Gallup’s polling. The first confirmed coronavirus case in the United States came on Jan. 21 of this year. Three months later, Trump’s approval was at 49 percent. None of this matters for Trump, of course. His point isn’t that the 2009 and 2020 pandemics are comparable. It’s instead that he hopes people will compare his efforts to Biden’s and, relying on partisan cues, determine that the Obama-Biden effort in 2009 was somehow demonstrably worse than the one that has unfolded over the past four months. One may judge the current effort on its own merits, but even the comparisons to which Trump points do not actually prove his point. But, again, he doesn’t need them to. He just needs to point to them and let his supporters do the rest of the work.


Disaster season is upon us. The pandemic changes everything.

Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician, directs the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Earth Institute at Columbia University; he is also a professor at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and president emeritus of Children’s Health Fund. It is already clear that 2020 be a year for the history books. The world has lurched from one mega-disaster to the next, witnessing devastating wildfires in Australia, plagues of locusts across East Africa and South Asia, and a pandemic that has crippled the global economy. But we are now at a point that many of us have long feared and for which we are not remotely prepared: the lethal confluence of an uncontrolled pandemic and a slew of large-scale natural disasters. The pandemic is about to be joined in the headlines by multiple catastrophic events that will cost lives, wreck communities and exact severe economic tolls on affected populations. Last week, catastrophic dam failures and massive flooding forced at least 10,000 people to evacuate their homes in Michigan, which happens to be among the states hardest hit by covid-19. In South Asia, one of the deadliest cyclones ever in the region swept across Bangladesh and India, reaping devastation where covid-19 cases are also surging. Both hurricane and wildfire season are quickly approaching in the United States. These challenges are each daunting on their own, but in the midst of covid-19 and an exhausted disaster-response infrastructure, are we prepared to cope with multiple disasters at once? Even without a pandemic, public health departments and hospital disaster preparedness programs across the United States have been chronically underfunded for more than a decade. Even the federally maintained strategic national stockpile of emergency equipment and supplies failed to meet urgent needs for mechanical ventilators and personal protective equipment that have been in high demand throughout the pandemic. Jeff Schlegelmilch, my colleague and deputy director at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, warns that "our current overall emergency response systems are at a breaking point. It’s not just the [strategic national supply]; virtually all of our response capabilities are stretched dangerously thin.” Beyond the overall response capacity concerns, conflicting protocols for simultaneous disasters pose unique challenges. How do we reconcile pandemic control guidance to stay at home and practice social distancing with a hurricane-related evacuation order or being housed in a crowded shelter with many people of varying degrees of covid-19 risk? Natural-disaster response planning under a


Man fatally shot in Columbia Heights neighborhood of Northwest Washington

A 22-year-old man was fatally shot Monday evening in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Northwest Washington, according to D.C. police. The victim was identified as Christopher Beckwith Jr., who lived in that neighborhood. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said the victim was a recent graduate of the Cardozo Education Campus. The shooting occurred about 6:15 p.m. in the 1400 block of Fairmont Street NW, in front of an apartment complex. Beckwith died at a hospital. A second man who was shot suffered wounds police described as not life threatening. Police had made no arrests in the case as of Tuesday. Beckwith was the District’s fourth homicide victim since Friday, bringing the total number of people killed this year to 61. That is a 5 percent increase over the number at this time in 2019, which finished the year with a decade-high number of killings. But speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Newsham said overall violent crime has decreased 10 percent this year. The fatal shootings since Friday included a man shot on East Capitol Street in Northeast. Newsham said the victim was found with a loaded firearm. A man was fatally shot Saturday in the 1800 block of Gainesville Street SE. Also killed was a 71-year-old woman who Newsham and the victim’s relatives said was trying to protect her granddaughter, who had been involved in an altercation inside a store. “We will continue to remove illegal firearms from the community,” Newsham said. He added that some recent homicides “involve some career criminals.”


Crowded housing and essential jobs: Why so many Latinos are getting coronavirus

for their community is significantly lower than that of African Americans. In an ABC News-Ipsos poll released Friday, 26 percent of Latino adults in the country said they know someone who has died of the virus or from complications related to it. Experts cite many explanations: Latinos are a dominant presence in service industry jobs, leaving them unable to ride out the pandemic from home. Many have struggled to get protective equipment, while others ignored shutdown orders to take risky jobs in exchange for much-needed cash. Outside of work, avoiding the virus can be nearly impossible, either because Latino families are more likely to live in multigenerational homes or because many take on multiple roommates to manage the Washington region’s high housing costs. Efforts to slow the virus’s spread are tangled with complications, public health experts say, including language barriers, economic stressors, limited resources and, in some cases, a slow response from local governments. “There is a lot of fear,” said Yukmila Soriano, a primary care doctor at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington County, where a majority of the patients she sees with positive tests for covid-19 are Latino. “We are asking everybody to stay home, but the idea of staying home is very different depending on who you are and what your role in society is.” In Northern Virginia, Latinos make up 16.8 percent of Fairfax County’s population but nearly 64 percent of its coronavirus cases where ethnicity is known, records show. In Prince William County, Latinos represent 24 percent of the population and nearly 77 percent of infections where ethnicity is known. In the Maryland suburbs and the District, predominantly Latino neighborhoods also have some of the highest rates of contracting the coronavirus. As it spreads, the virus has gnawed through the region’s economic backbone, sidelining thousands of cooks, custodians, landscapers and other front-line workers. Fredys Medina, a diabetic construction worker from Arlington County, waved off his wife’s suggestion that he had the virus after he developed a cough and fever in late April, and he continued to work. Two weeks later, he collapsed on the living room floor. By the time paramedics arrived, Medina, 56, was gone. His wife, Leonor Medina, an unemployed hotel housekeeper, was left with an $8,000 funeral bill she couldn’t pay until neighbors and members of their church chipped in. At the funeral, the couple’s middle child, Alberto, 14, flung himself onto his


WHO warns of second peak and cautions against scaling back restrictions too soon

second phase of reopening North Carolina limits outdoor gatherings to 25 people, Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said he would refuse to “enforce an unconstitutional law,” allowing the speedway’s opening night to proceed on Saturday, WTVD reported. “We’re tired of being stuck in the house,” one spectator told a local news station. “I’m not afraid of this virus one bit.” Several factors have contributed to ongoing clashes about how long restrictions should remain in place. Some parts of the country continue to wrestle with crippling caseloads, while others have barely been affected by the pandemic. Whether to wear masks has become a political issue, rather than merely a public health one. And on top of those divides, much about the virus remains uncertain and mysterious. “What’s crazy is, we’re three months in, and we’re still not able to calibrate our risk management. It’s a mess,” said University of Virginia professor Brian Nosek, who runs the Center for Open Science, which advocates for transparency in research. Basic questions about the virus that causes the disease covid-19 remain unanswered: How deadly is it? Exactly how contagious? Are there different strains with different clinical outcomes? Why does the virus create a devastating disease in some people while leaving others with few, if any, symptoms? With stay-at-home orders around the country expiring and businesses reopening, all the scientific data is being scrutinized anew. But the numbers are often ambiguous, with large margins of error. Because this is still an early phase of the pandemic, scientific findings have to be couched in tentative, provisional, sometimes squishy language festooned with caveats and admitted limitations. Despite that lingering uncertainty and the crowds in recent days that have caused angst among public health experts, there were flickers of economic optimism as the week began. Investors celebrated the reopening of the New York Stock Exchange by sending stocks soaring Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average closed the day up 530 points, about 2.2 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index jumped 36 points, about 1.2 percent, to finish at 2,991.77. “With more signs of the worst of the virus being behind us, investors are beginning to focus on more countries reopening and the lifting of travel bans around the world,” Torsten Slok, chief economist for Deutsche Bank Securities, said in an email. “More signs of reopening and more signs of travel bans being lifted creates more clarity for


Thunderstorms could scrub historic SpaceX launch of two NASA astronauts on Wednesday

the rules and prevent a rocket launch. This is an improvement from its assessment on Sunday that there was a 60 percent chance of violating the necessary weather conditions. Captain Jason Fontenot, a meteorologist with the Weather Squadron and spacelift weather operations flight commander, said precipitation in the launch area is his biggest concern but that “inland storms could lead to a scrub if they came close enough.” Should storms erupt Wednesday, forcing the launch to be scrubbed, SpaceX has scheduled backup launch windows on Saturday at 3:22 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Weather conditions are forecast to improve marginally with the probability of interference dropping to 30 percent by Saturday. In its forecast, the Weather Squadron wrote that although Saturday’s weather will be similar to Wednesday’s, the earlier liftoff time gives the launch “a fighting chance” before storms pop up over the peninsula and move toward the coast. Billowing cumulus clouds or anvil clouds associated with the tops of thunderstorms have a perilous spaceflight history. When rockets tear through them they can trigger a lightning strike, as happened during Apollo 12 when the Saturn V rocket was hit, causing damage to some nonessential components. The crew was able to complete the mission to the moon. “We have to make sure we stay away from triggered or natural lightning events that come with those different types of clouds,” Fontenot said. Cumulus clouds would also subject the rocket to strong updrafts and downdrafts, which could place added stress on the rocket and the Crew Dragon spacecraft. In addition to the weather on Cape Canaveral, NASA and SpaceX are closely monitoring sea states along the East Coast in the unlikely event the capsule with the two astronauts aboard is forced to abort its launch because of an emergency and ends up in the ocean. While unlikely, high winds and waves could also force officials to scrub the launch. Fontenot said his forecasting team has access to “one of the densest suites of weather sensors anywhere in the world” for monitoring conditions. They include wind sensors, lightning detection systems, a surface electric field system, and radar systems. The Weather Squadron will release one more public forecast Wednesday morning prior to launch and will then provide regular updates directly to SpaceX and NASA, some of which will likely be broadcast during the countdown process. Christian Davenport and Andrew Freedman contributed to this report.


The Technology 202: SpaceX’s historic launch could mark a new era in space exploration

is also poised to end a drought of launches of humans to orbit from U.S. soil since the space shuttle retired almost a decade ago. The rise of greater collaboration between companies like SpaceX and the federal government could reduce U.S. dependence on foreign space programs such as Russia, which has ferried American astronauts to the space station in intervening years. Countries used to vie against one another in space achievements, as the United States and Soviet Union famously did in the effort to land a man on the moon. But these days, companies are defining the space race. No one thought that Musk’s relative upstart would beat the legacy aerospace giant to space, Christian writes. The fact that SpaceX appears to have won the race underscores just how much space travel has changed as it becomes increasingly privatized. SpaceX may have had an advantage in its contract with NASA because it’s known for reusing materials, making it more cost efficient. The company has built a reputation for repurposing all sorts of things, even a 125,000-gallon liquid nitrogen tank that an employee found scrapped at an old abandoned Cape Canaveral launch site. “We had to be super scrappy,” Musk once told The Washington Post. “If we did it the standard way, we would have run out of money. For many years, we were week to week on cash flow, within weeks of running out of money. It definitely creates a mind-set of smart spending. Be scrappy or die: Those were our two options. Buy scrap components, fix them up, make them work.” Several incidents have raised questions about whether there’s enough government oversight of private space companies. The company has had two Falcon 9 rockets explode, and it struggled with a parachute system needed to slow down the spacecraft on its return to Earth. The company said last year that its Dragon capsule was completely destroyed during a test. Since these incidents, SpaceX has uncovered what caused the problems and fixed them, NASA tells Christian. “If it goes well, it would be a moment of triumph for an administration that boasts it is ‘renewing American leadership in space’ and would no doubt end up in election-year campaign ads,” Christian writes. “If something goes wrong, it would be a staggering blow that could send the space agency reeling and jeopardize the White House’s signature mission to return astronauts to the moon


College students: Take a gap year, but use it to make a difference

often involving travel to faraway locations. But this clearly isn’t the year to play gap-year tourist, even if travel restrictions ease. More important, covid-19 has created myriad social needs that we all have a social responsibility to meet. A gap year spent fulfilling that responsibility could become the most meaningful educational experience of a student’s college years. In 2020, gap-year experiences should center on work — and service. Students who take a pause from college can help put the nation — and the world — back together and add to their educations in the process. This applies both to well-off students and those struggling with the cost of their coursework. The numbers tell us that young people are at low mortality risk from covid-19, but that doesn’t permit carelessness. With prudent safeguards, though, students can go out and do good and useful things. Habitat for Humanity We need more such opportunities, and colleges and government can play a role in that. They might emulate the model of another gap-year program, City Year, that puts students in inner-city classrooms to tutor and student-teach. City Year is part of AmeriCorps, which sponsors service work of all kinds. This work helps us all — so we should expand its funding to allow lower-income college students to engage in it, too. And colleges that already offer service-learning programs should bolster those efforts and consider turning them into internships that earn course credit, which would help cash-strapped young people take part. Americans have gotten too used to thinking of higher education as a personal investment in a credential. The challenges of 2020 should remind us that at its core, the university experience isa public good. College and society should serve each other. Done well, the service gap year would bring students, higher education institutions and communities together. It would give young people and schools a way to give back, and, in the process, provide one of the best learning experiences any student, parent or teacher could ever wish for. Read more: Lanhee J. Chen and Vanila M. Singh: Here’s how college students can return to campus in the fall Ian Ayres and Martin Skladany: The sticker price of college can mislead students. Covid-19 might make it worse. Ronin Rodkey and Cole Graber-Mitchell: Letter to the Editor: U-Md. needs to refund more tuition money to students Ramona Edelin: The coronavirus crisis shines light on educational inequalities


Hogan empowered local leaders to continue their shutdowns. They wish he hadn’t.

Montgomery County rushed to create its own data dashboard last week, so elected leaders could justify to constituents why they remain stuck in a coronavirus shutdown. In Anne Arundel County, local officials secured their own virus tests, contact tracers and protective equipment, skeptical the state would provide enough. And in Charles County, the sheriff is keeping a closer eye on the homes of the county commissioners after someone posted their addresses on social media to protest their vote to remain shut down until Friday. Leaders in Maryland’s largest jurisdictions say they were left high and dry when Gov. Larry Hogan (R) allowed them to decide when they “felt ready” to ease pandemic-related social distancing restrictions that have crippled the economy and paralyzed daily life since mid-March. “All of us were taken aback by his announcement,” Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) said. “We were hung out to dry.” Hogan lifted Maryland’s stay-at-home order May 15 — before testing for the novel coronavirus reached adequate levels, and before many of the hardest-hit counties had stockpiled enough gear and resources, according to interviews with public health experts and local leaders. Several counties are scrambling to buy additional tests, masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment before they ease restrictions. The governor said localities could opt out of the first phase of reopening — and those home to roughly 60 percent of the population did. Hogan cast his approach as one that empowers local leaders. But county officials say the choice spread power among 23 counties and 157 municipal governments, creating a patchwork approach that stirred confusion and resentment among a restless public. “It’s a complicated message to communicate,” said Frederick County Executive Jan H. Gardner (D), who has spent hours trying to get all 12 municipalities in her county to agree to the same set of rules. “Some people only heard that the stay-at-home order was lifted. They didn’t really listen to the details.” Joshua Sharfstein, a vice dean at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said, “The message that ‘I’d be fine with a greater reopening, but it’s up to the county executives to decide’ is a bit confusing.” “People wonder if it’s necessary, if it’s not necessary,” said Sharfstein, who served as health secretary to Hogan’s predecessor, Democrat Martin O’Malley. “When people receive mixed messages, they’re not going to do what they need to protect themselves. . .


In the developing world, the coronavirus is killing far more young people

beginning to change. The young are dying of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at rates unseen in wealthier countries — a development that further illustrates the unpredictable nature of the disease as it pushes into new cultural and geographic landscapes. In Brazil, 15 percent of deaths have been people under 50 — a rate more than 10 times greater than in Italy or Spain. In Mexico, the trend is even more stark: Nearly one-fourth of the dead have been between 25 and 49. In India, officials reported this month that nearly half of the dead were younger than 60. In Rio de Janeiro state, more than two-thirds of hospitalizations are for people younger than 49. “This is new terrain compared to what’s happened in other countries,” said Daniel Soranz, the former municipal health minister in Rio de Janeiro. “Brazil is a very important country to be looking at.” Analysts say the emerging data suggests many of the problems that have long troubled the developing world — intractable poverty, extreme inequality, fragile health systems — are increasing vulnerability to the disease. In countries with more poverty and fewer resources, people who might have survived elsewhere are instead dying. George Gray Molina, chief economist for the United Nations Development Program, said poverty is triggering “compounding effects.” Because population density is so much higher in much of the developing world — and because so many people must keep working to survive — a far greater share of the population ends up being exposed to the virus. The virus then spreads through a population that’s less resilient. People in the developing world grapple not only with the diseases that have long been associated with it — malaria, dengue, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS — but increasingly with those more closely associated with wealthier countries. Rates of diabetes, obesity and hypertension are surging. But treatment for many such illnesses is lacking. When newly infected coronavirus patients already weakened by preexisting conditions seek treatment, they find hospital systems that are overwhelmed and unequipped to handle the deluge of patients. “It all points to social economic status and poverty,” Gray Molina said. The positive benefits associated with the developing world, such as younger populations, are being “wiped out.” “As this plays out,” he said, “we will see a balancing of the scales.” When the coronavirus hit Brazil, it was an infection of the rich. Brought in by


Welcome back: These 11 restaurants reopened for takeout this month

Cheung says. “We wanted to wait until, one, there was more information out there for us to make a more sensible decision, and two, we wanted to wait until more people understood what and how to interact and social distance safely.” Others took time off to re-strategize. Yuan and Carey Tang, the husband-and-wife founders of tasting-menu-driven Rooster & Owl near U Street, used a break to figure out all sorts of issues related to covid-19. That included everything from securing child care to dealing with supply chain issues for ingredients to sourcing packaging for delivery-friendly menu items. They even set up a 24-hour schedule in the kitchen so their team could work in small groups to produce the four-course takeout meals. “It’s interesting: we hadn’t thought about microwaving labels or the breathability of masks at 2 a.m.,” Carey Tang says. “If there’s anything the restaurant industry is, it’s adaptable.” Here are 11 popular D.C. restaurants that reopened with new takeout offerings this month, including everything from picnic packs to chicken parm lasagna. The long-running H Street spot for mussels, frites and Belgian beer is now firing up pasta machines. Granville Moore’s to-go menu includes such Italian comfort food as spinach and mushroom ravioli, stuffed shells, spaghetti and meatballs, seafood tagliatelle and broccolini and spinach gnocchi ($20-$25). The switch isn’t completely out of left field: Granville Moore’s hosted a pasta pop-up before the pandemic that turned out to be a hit. Expect to find tiramisu and cannoli for dessert, and a focus on local beers, too. 1238 H St. NE. Open Tuesdays through Sundays for takeout and delivery. granvillemoores.com. Recipe testing for Rooster & Owl’s $45-per-person, four-course dinner resulted in options such as crunchy fried chicken with miso honey. “It’s what I want to eat right now, and it’s something I will never make myself at home,” explains Carey Tang, co-founder of the 14th Street restaurant that relaunched takeout on May 19. The meals include Rooster & Owl’s popular house-baked pineapple bun, along with a salad and dessert. To-go cocktails are available, too — such as the “Murder Hornet’s Knees,” a play on a Bee’s Knees, shaken up with cinnamon. 2436 14th St. NW. Open Tuesday through Saturday for takeout; delivery coming soon. roosterowl.com. In mid-May, Adams Morgan newbie the Imperial launched a takeout menu that has both date nights and casual lunches covered. Pick up a $22 picnic pack with


Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination cannot be pardoned

Abdullah Alaoudh is a Saudi researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and a visiting adjunct professor at George Washington University. On Thursday, Salah Khashoggi, the son of the slain Saudi journalist and Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, announced in a tweet that he had pardoned the killers of his father. Salah invoked Ramadan, the month of Mercy, in announcing it. The family of Khashoggi is no different than any Saudi family that faces tremendous pressure and intimidation from the Saudi government. We are witnessing an unprecedented number of cases in which families are used as hostages to intimidate activists and writers abroad. The most recent example is the case of the former Saudi minister Saad Aljabri, who headed antiterrorism efforts for the Interior Ministry for decades. Aljabri’s son, Khalid, said this week that his 21-year-old brother, Omar, and his 20-year-old sister, Sarah, were taken by the Saudi government last month and have not been heard from since. (The Saudi government has not confirmed the arrests, according to a New York Times report.) The uncle was also taken and held incommunicado apparently for no reason other than his being a brother of Saad Aljabri. My own family After Khashoggi’s tweet, many pro-Saudi accounts in Saudi Arabia flooded Twitter with Islamic quotes and traditions on the virtues of mercy and forgiveness in Islam and Sharia, especially during the blessed last days of Ramadan. From the beginning, this “pardon” pushed for by the pro-government agenda never included prominent feminists such as Loujain al-Hathloul who Amnesty International has said has been tortured and electrocuted in jail; an economist such as Essam Al-Zamel, who has suffered abuse; or a political reformist such as Abdullah al-Hamid, who died in prison last month as a result of medical negligence. Saudi Arabia’s government follows Islamic law. Five years ago, the Saudi High Court, the kingdom’s highest judicial body, decided that a murder that involved luring the victim to a place to kill him is a crime that is not pardonable, even from a family member. In 2014, Saudi Arabia’s former justice minister, Muhammad al-Issa, announced that this kind of murder is not pardonable according to Saudi law. A year later, the Justice Ministry reiterated this decision. The Saudi attorney general has proved to be quite the convenient attorney general for Saudi Arabia. Jamal Khashoggi’s killing was a classic case of “gheelah” (premeditated murder that includes luring


Months in, scientists still seek answers

leaving others without symptoms or even knowledge that they were infected? With stay-at-home orders expiring and businesses reopening, all the scientific data is being scrutinized anew. But the numbers are often ambiguous, with large margins of error. And because this is still an early phase of the pandemic, scientific findings have to be couched in tentative, provisional, sometimes squishy language that is festooned with caveats and admitted limitations. The experts shy away from predictions and instead offer “scenarios.” For example, last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a document titled COVID-19 Pandemic Planning Scenarios that offered guidance to public health officials. The document gave a wide range of numerical estimates for the contagiousness and lethality of covid-19. The guidance was presented with a cautionary preamble: “Information about [covid-19’s] biological and epidemiological characteristics remain limited, and uncertainty remains around nearly all parameter values.” The CDC added that the numbers presented are “not” — the word is boldfaced for emphasis — “predictions of the expected effects of COVID-19.” With the science fuzzy, people are forced to do their own calculations and estimates, and figure out what’s safe and what isn’t. They have to decide whether to go to religious services, or head to the beach, or take a summer road trip. One of the fundamental problems is that the virus is stealthy, with a time delay of about six days on average between infection and symptoms. A sick person may delay getting tested or going to the hospital. The official covid-19 numbers typically lag behind the on-the-ground reality. Lurking out there is a possible second wave of infection, and the danger is that the wave will be detected only when it’s about to crest. Even a trained eye can have trouble bringing the pandemic into sharp focus and knowing what to do. “I wish I had any confidence at all in any of the prognostications,” Nosek said. The inescapable facts The ideologically divisive media ecosystem does not help in a crisis like this. Distrust of the numbers, and of institutions that rely on professional expertise, is widespread. Science has been dragged into partisan politics and the culture wars, and special interests cherry-pick the data to advance their arguments. Some critics of the stay-at-home orders have declared the numbers to be fake or exaggerated by scientists or the news media. There are multitudes who subscribe to the theory that the


of chronic underlying conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. These people do not care so much about statistical averages as they do about their personal risk level. Even the low estimates must be viewed in the context of a population that, at the start of this year, was completely susceptible to this highly contagious virus. Fatality rates fluctuate over time and from place to place, and depend on many variables, including demographics and access to health care. But if the CDC’s “best estimate” is correct and remains constant, and half the people in the United States become infected during the next two years without the introduction of a proven drug treatment or vaccine, that would result in about 426,000 deaths. The lethality of the virus has been hard to estimate because of the lack of testing and the paucity of solid data on how many people have been infected. That data is now coming in, however, including a report by researchers at the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles County health department, published in JAMA, that described a survey of Los Angeles County residents who were tested for antibodies to the virus. The authors estimated that about 4 percent of the population had been infected as of April 10 and 11. Although the report did not offer an infection fatality rate, lead author Neeraj Sood, a professor of health policy at USC, said it would probably be 0.13 percent for people outside nursing homes and 0.26 percent — identical to the CDC best estimate — when people in nursing homes were included. No one in the survey lives in a nursing home. All of the volunteers tested were “community-dwelling individuals,” he said. “Depending on how you make the assumptions, you can get different answers for the infection fatality rate,” he said. The published report, in keeping with scientific norms, acknowledges that it “has limitations” and states them: “Selection bias is likely. The estimated prevalence may be biased due to nonresponse or that symptomatic persons may have been more likely to participate. Prevalence estimates could change with new information on the accuracy of test kits used. Also, the study was limited to 1 county.” ‘Projections are not forecasts’ The pandemic has cast a bright light on epidemiology and the computer models that played a key role in spurring the massive shutdowns in March. Some critics of the models have


Power Up: Memorial Day weekend parties and crowds spark warnings from public health officials

24, 2020 Not the turning point officials hoped for: Scenes of large crowds prompted warnings from public health officials about the risk of the resurgence of the virus — Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus task force coordinator, said that she was “very concerned” by the unofficial kickoff to summer: “With the country starting to open up this holiday weekend, I again remind everyone that the coronavirus is not yet contained,” tweeted Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. “It is up to every individual to protect themselves and their community. Social distancing, hand washing and wearing masks protect us all.” More from Birx: “I think we have to communicate through different venues, making sure that our generation sees and our Millennials can help us get that message out there, of how to be together socially yet distant. And I think there is a way to do that. Americans are amazingly innovative. And I think we really just need to have better continuous communication on how important that is. And then highlighting these issues that come up like in Arkansas with this pool party.” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R)told reporters Saturdaythat his state was facing a “second peak” of cases stemming from a high school pool party. The images of the crowded Lake of the Ozarks pool prompted Randall Williams, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director, to warn that violating social distancing guidelines could have “a long-lasting and tragic impact”: “Close contact with others even if you are in the outdoors is still considered close contact and can lead to more infections as we still have new cases of covid-19 being detected each day in Missouri.” All this could worsen the “checkerboard” surge we're already seeing in rural areas: “The pandemic that first struck in major metropolises is now increasingly finding its front line in the country’s rural areas; “Rural counties now have some of the highest rates of covid-19 cases and deaths in the country, topping even the hardest-hit New York City boroughs and signaling a new phase of the pandemic — one of halting, scattered outbreaks that could devastate still more of America’s most vulnerable towns as states lift stay-at-home orders.” “It is coming, and it’s going to be more of a checkerboard,” Tara Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State University in Ohio, told them. “It’s not going to be a


of cases stemming from a high school pool party. The images of the crowded Lake of the Ozarks pool prompted Randall Williams, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director, to warn that violating social distancing guidelines could have “a long-lasting and tragic impact”: “Close contact with others even if you are in the outdoors is still considered close contact and can lead to more infections as we still have new cases of covid-19 being detected each day in Missouri.” All this could worsen the “checkerboard” surge we're already seeing in rural areas: “The pandemic that first struck in major metropolises is now increasingly finding its front line in the country’s rural areas; “Rural counties now have some of the highest rates of covid-19 cases and deaths in the country, topping even the hardest-hit New York City boroughs and signaling a new phase of the pandemic — one of halting, scattered outbreaks that could devastate still more of America’s most vulnerable towns as states lift stay-at-home orders.” “It is coming, and it’s going to be more of a checkerboard,” Tara Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State University in Ohio, told them. “It’s not going to be a wave that spreads out uniformly over all of rural America; it’s going to be hot spots that come and go. And I don’t know how well they’re going to be managed.” Graphic: Certain rural areas where the virus has already taken hold Yet: “There is little indication that the Trump administration or others have used the tool this way, even as its predictions about places like Dougherty County [in Georgia] have come true.” “Essentially the results showed that as the social vulnerability index increased, the incidence of covid increased in those counties — in general, significantly so — and so did the case fatality rate,” Arshed Ali Quyyumi, the director of Emory’s Clinical Cardiology Research Institute, told Reis and Abigail. The impact could be huge: TRUMP WANTS THINGS BACK TO NORMAL: “Plans are being made by many thousands of enthusiastic Republicans, and others, to head to beautiful North Carolina in August,” Trump tweeted. “They must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether the space will be allowed to be fully occupied.” “The threat singling out a Democratic governor who has followed federal guidelines echoed Trump’s pressure on other Democratic-led states to reopen as thecoronaviruspandemic pushes the


Where a Nats fan might revel in the roar of the crowd

for me and is worth every penny. I also bought a parking spot.” [A fresh batch of townhouses in Clarksburg, Md.] Rivera, who sold his home in Old Town Alexandria last summer, is renting now — and working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic. He plans to walk to work once his office, in the L’Enfant Plaza area of Southwest Washington, reopens. “It’ll be a nice, crisp 20 to 25 minutes. If it rains, I’ll jump into the Metro,” he said. 1 of 15 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Buying New | eNvy in Southeast Washington View Photos The condos are priced from $399,900 to $1,129,900. Caption The condos are priced from $399,900 to $1,129,900. The 11-story eNvy condominium building, in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Southeast Washington, is across the street from the Nationals Park baseball stadium. Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. wp_import(pbDeferredSSISingle).always(function(){initComplete=true})}};if(typeof wp_pb.StaticMethods=="undefined"||typeof wp_pb.StaticMethods.isPageHydrated=="undefined"||wp_pb.StaticMethods.isPageHydrated())if(!ssiSingleFooter.initComplete&&(document.readyState=="interactive"||document.readyState=="complete"))ssiSingleFooter.init();else document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){ssiSingleFooter.init()});__e.push(["shamble",function(){ssiSingleFooter.init()}])})(); Settlements and move-ins are expected to start in June, said Matt Ford, with Urban Pace, which is handling sales. Model units The bedroom is off the living room. A very short hallway leads from the bedroom past a walk-in closet to a second bathroom door. “The layout works for me, myself and I,” Rivera said. A schematic floor plan for the two-bedroom model unit, 413, shows the unit roughly divided into thirds that run end to end. The entry door opens to the kitchen in the middle third of the condo’s three sections. On one side of the kitchen is a bathroom. Beyond the kitchen, in the middle section, is the open-plan dining and living area, with a wall of windows at the far end. [Avidian nearing completion in Navy Yard neighborhood] The two bedrooms are on opposite sides of the living room, which increases privacy because they don’t share a wall. The bedroom on one side is part of a suite that extends, end to end, through a third of the unit and includes a walk-in closet and a private bathroom. The other bedroom shares another third of the unit with a large closet and the same bathroom near the unit’s entrance and the kitchen. This bathroom has two doors, one from the closet side and the other from the area near the entrance. The unit also has a hall closet and a closet for a stacked washer and dryer. Amenities


Washington airports reeling from impact of coronavirus pandemic

The presentation to the board that runs Dulles International and Reagan National airports was a grim summary of an average travel day in May vs. a year ago: Takeoffs and landings down 75 percent. Concessions sales down 90 percent. Passengers screened by the TSA down 95 percent. Parking revenue down 97 percent. The list went on, each figure another sobering reminder of the economic impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the nation’s airports. “Oh how quickly things have changed,” said A. Bradley Mims, a member of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board, after chief executive Jack Potter concluded the report. Indeed. Not long ago, MWAA officials were in a celebratory mood. Passenger traffic at both airports was booming. National was in the midst of a $1 billion building program that would add new security checkpoints and a concourse with 14 new gates. After years of floundering, Dulles had finally found its footing and was expanding its international offerings with new nonstop flights to Hong Kong and Tel Aviv. Even with reports of growing outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, air traffic remained relatively stable at the two airports. In January, passenger traffic was up 8.7 percent over the previous year (though airport officials noted that some of that growth may have been partly attributable to the bad weather and the government shutdown last January). And in February, despite the Trump administration’s ban on travel from China and Iran, Dulles and National posted 6.1 percent growth in passenger traffic. Just a month later, however, after the Trump administration restricted travel from 26 European nations, the bottom began to drop out as airlines moved to ground virtually all of their international flights. Domestic air traffic also took a hit as states issued stay-at-home orders and urged people not to travel. In March, the most recent month for which statistics are available, passenger volume dropped by more than half at both Dulles and National, compared with the same period in 2019. Roughly 456,000 passengers flew through National in March, down from just over 1 million in 2019 — a 56.5 percent drop. Passenger traffic at Dulles dropped by more than a million to 928,709 — less than half of what it was last March. The biggest decline at both airports came among international travelers. It’s a pattern that has played out at airports across the country. Flights and passenger numbers


Flying astronauts has always been risky. No wonder NASA and SpaceX are on edge.

But there are always concerns about the unexpected and the overlooked. The space shuttle Challenger exploded on chilly January day in 1986 after an “O-ring” joint failed amid unheeded warnings about launching in cold weather. In 2003, Columbia disintegrated as it was reentering Earth’s atmosphere after a piece of foam became dislodged during the launch and damaged heat resistant tiles on the wing. A subsequent investigation found a “broken safety culture” at the space agency. In the past several years, NASA and SpaceX have led investigations into a trio of failures. In 2015, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying supplies to the station exploded during flight after the failure of a strut designed to withstand 10,000 pounds of force buckled at 2,000. A year later, another rocket blew up on the launchpad after the failure of a pressure vessel in the second stage liquid-oxygen tank. And last year, during a test of the abort system, the Dragon spacecraft exploded because of a leaky valve. SpaceX also has struggled with the parachute system that would guide the spacecraft to a soft landing as it returns to Earth. No one was injured in any of those failures. NASA and SpaceX said they have investigated all the problems, fixed them and are now ready to launch humans. “This endeavor is the culmination of not only years and years of experience, or time and work, but hundreds of thousands of hours of tireless effort to bring us here,” said Benji Reed, SpaceX’s Commercial Crew Program manager. “And it’s all focused on the safety and reliability of the system.” He said that the mission was a “sacred honor” and that the company would do everything possible to fly the astronauts “to the space station and safely bring them back home to their families. Fundamentally, this is what SpaceX was founded for.” Outside experts agree the teams have prepared as best they could. “I would say the risk is acceptable. But it’s not zero. Spaceflight is inherently dangerous, so there is always risk,” said Wayne Hale, the former manager of NASA’s shuttle program. “But I think that all the appropriate checks appear to have been done. I think appropriate measures have been taken and having an uncrewed test flight was a big step.” That said, everyone will be holding their breath the moment the countdown ticks to liftoff. “I think we’re all very appropriately nervous,” Reed said.


The Technology 202: SpaceX's historic launch could mark a new era in space exploration

the race underscores just how much space travel has changed as it becomes increasingly privatized. SpaceX may have had an advantage in its contract with NASA because it's known for reusing materials, making it more cost efficient. The company has built a reputation for repurposing all sorts of things, even a 125,000-gallon liquid nitrogen tank that an employee found scrapped at an old abandoned Cape Canaveral launch site. “We had to be super scrappy,” Musk once told The Washington Post. “If we did it the standard way, we would have run out of money. For many years, we were week to week on cash flow, within weeks of running out of money. It definitely creates a mind-set of smart spending. Be scrappy or die: Those were our two options. Buy scrap components, fix them up, make them work.” But SpaceX still has had high-profile problems along its path. Several incidents have raised questions about whether there's enough government oversight of private space companies. The company has had two Falcon 9 rockets explode, and it struggled with a parachute system needed to slow down the spacecraft on its return to Earth. The company said last year that its Dragon capsule was completely destroyed during a test. Since these incidents, SpaceX has uncovered what caused the problems and fixed them, NASA tells Christian. The launch will also be a pivotal assessment of the Trump administration's space ambitions. “If it goes well, it would be a moment of triumph for an administration that boasts it is ‘renewing American leadership in space’ and would no doubt end up in election-year campaign ads,” Christian writes. “If something goes wrong, it would be a staggering blow that could send the space agency reeling and jeopardize the White House’s signature mission to return astronauts to the moon by 2024.” President Trump and Vice President Pence are planning to attend the launch, which is scheduled for 4:33 p.m. Wednesday from launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Trump has previously shown an interest in having high-profile “space barons,” such as Musk and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, and their companies play a role in rejuvenating space travel, Christian writes. “Rich guys, they love rocket ships,” Trump said in 2018. “That’s good. That’s better than us paying for them.” A pelican takes off from its perch near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Gregg Newton/AFP/Getty Images) The


website Top10VPN, CNBC reports. The new report alleges that Amazon and Google are providing Web services for Dahua Technology and Hikvision, two video surveillance companies blacklisted for aiding in the abuses of Uighurs, China’s Muslim minority population. Artificial intelligence start-ups SenseTime and Megvii were also blacklisted for human rights abuses but appear to still be using Microsoft technology. All four Chinese companies have disputed allegations of their involvement in human rights abuses. None of the U.S. companies mentioned in the report immediately responded to CNBC for comment. More industry news: Wikimedia is writing new policies to fight Wikipedia harassment A new plan will be unveiled this year. The Verge Mental health apps draw wave of new users as experts call for more oversight Services like Talkspace and BetterHelp have reported a rush of new users over the last few months, but teletherapy apps have also been dogged by concerns around privacy and efficacy. CNBC Trending Our Habits Have Changed. These Gadgets Are Proof. From Pelotons to “Animal Crossing,” these are the things that hooked us during the pandemic—and that we’ll likely stick with when it’s over. Wall Street Journal Gucci Says Fashion Shows Should Never Be the Same The Italian brand is reducing its runway schedule. Your Instagram is about to change. New York Times Bookmark this Here’s How Facebook And YouTube Allowed Conspiracy Theorists To Turn Bill Gates Into The Villain Of The Coronavirus Pandemic After months of conspiracy-mongering, people around the world are demanding Gates be arrested for crimes against humanity. Here’s how things got so bad. BuzzFeed News Daybook Dominic LeBlanc, president of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, will host a virtual event and make an announcement related to countering election interference, along with Microsoft and the Alliance for Securing Democracy, at 10 a.m. Register here. Ranking Digital Rights will host an event “Getting to the Source of the 2020 Infodemic: It’s the Business Model,” on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. Before you log off Nose for news? We’ve got you covered: Being informed is my favorite song pic.twitter.com/Cx8Lnf4jVq — Dave Jorgenson (@davejorgenson) May 23, 2020 h5{font:bold 24px/125% 'FranklinPro', sans-serif !important;text-transform: initial;margin-bottom:10px !important;}p + h5 {margin-top:32px !important;}blockquote p{font-style:italic !important; border-left:solid 5px #ccc !important;padding: 0 0 0 15px !important;margin-bottom:35px !important;}.signup-box-rr p{font:bold 22px/115% 'PostoniWide', serif !important;}#newsletter-signUp-button{width: auto !important;padding: 11px 14px !important;}.signup-box-rr .nl-wrapper{padding: 20px 0px !important;border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc !important;border-top: 1px solid #ccc !important;}@media only screen and (max-width: 61.9375em){ h5{margin-left:6%;margin-right:5%;}}


The Daily 202: ‘My wife deserves better’: Lori Klausutis’s widower breaks silence, calls for deleting Trump’s tweets

world, the WHO said. It just has 1.5 percent of the world’s reported cases. However, the various efforts to combat the disease in the continent have endangered food supply chains and disrupted essential health services, including vaccination efforts for other diseases. (Paul Schemm) Indonesia is deploying hundreds of thousands of soldiers and police officers to ensure that people wear masks and practice social distancing. (Antonia Farzan) Germany's contact tracing effort outpaces those in the U.S. and U.K. “As the United Kingdom and the United States scramble to hire teams of contact tracers, local health authorities across Germany have used contact scouts … since they confirmed their first cases early this year,” Loveday Morris and Luisa Beck report. “Epidemiologists say the effort has been essential to the country’s ability to contain its coronavirus outbreak and avoid the larger death tolls seen elsewhere, even with a less stringent shutdown than in other countries. Germany has experienced about 10 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people. … Germany aims to have five contact tracers for every 25,000 people — or about 16,000 for its population of 83 million. … Germany’s effort is decidedly low-tech. Privacy concerns — which run strong in Europe and particularly deep in Germany, with its not-so-distant memories of fascism and communism — have limited the potential of contact-tracing apps. So the tracing is largely a case of calling the recently diagnosed patient and asking his or her movements.” The White House said foreigners who have visited Brazil in the last 14 days will be barred from entering the U.S. starting Wednesday, two days ahead of schedule. (Antonia Farzan) More than 200 workers tested positive for the virus at a textile plant in Guatemala after the company failed to institute measures to safeguard worker’s health. (Farzan) Santiago Baten-Oxlaj, a 34-year-old Guatemalan migrant held by ICE in a South Georgia detention center died from the virus. CoreCivic, the private corrections company that operates ICE detention centers, said 51 of its employees who work at that facility have tested positive for the virus. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) The Sword of Damocles hangs over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “A rift within his family, a collapsing economy and rising tensions with his key ally Russia lay bare the fragility of his regime,” Liz Sly and Asser Khattab report. “Cracks are starting to appear in the once-united front presented by loyalists who stood by Assad throughout his battle to


Man fatally shot in Columbia Heights neighborhood of Northwest Washington

A 22-year-old man was fatally shot Monday evening in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Northwest Washington, according to D.C. police. The victim was identified as Christopher Beckwith Jr., who lived in that neighborhood. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said the victim was a recent graduate of the Cardozo Education Campus. The shooting occurred about 6:15 p.m. in the 1400 block of Fairmont Street NW, in front of an apartment complex. Beckwith died at a hospital. A second man who was shot suffered wounds police described as not life threatening. Police had made no arrests in the case as of Tuesday. Beckwith was the District’s fourth homicide victim since Friday, bringing the total number of people killed this year to 61. That is a 5 percent increase over the number at this time in 2019, which finished the year with a decade-high number of killings. But speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Newsham said overall violent crime has decreased 10 percent this year. The fatal shootings since Friday included a man shot on East Capitol Street in Northeast. Newsham said the victim was found with a loaded firearm. A man was fatally shot Saturday in the 1800 block of Gainesville Street SE. Also killed was a 71-year-old woman who Newsham and the victim’s relatives said was trying to protect her granddaughter, who had been involved in an altercation inside a store. “We will continue to remove illegal firearms from the community,” Newsham said. He added that some recent homicides “involve some career criminals.” Read more: Local newsletters: Local headlines (8 a.m.) | Afternoon Buzz (4 p.m.) Like PostLocal on Facebook


Meituan Shows What Really Matters in a Pandemic

Meituan Dianping suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic in all the ways that investors would have expected: In-person activities got stung, food deliveries stayed relatively resilient and groceries thrived. As a result, revenue dropped and losses widened. What’s surprising is the area where China’s leading delivery and bookings provider benefited most: advertising. Even with business activity decimated, suppliers who rely on Meituan’s connection with customers kept spending money to chase the few orders that were available. Ad spending on food delivery climbed 21%, while that same subcategory in bookings only dropped 8%. This latter figure is remarkable because the number of hotel room nights plunged 46%. These strong results helped lift the stock almost 10% in early Tuesday trading. This comes as revenue in Meituan’s only profitable division — the one that handles restaurant and hotel bookings — dropped 31%, which cut earnings there by 57%. Food-delivery sales fell a mere 11%, with losses narrowing by more than half. On the upside, demand for grocery shopping and micro loans drove the company’s new initiatives business 5% higher. Overall, operating loss widened 32% to 1.7 billion yuan ($238 million). I discussed Meituan’s advertising strategy six months ago, likening it to the virtuous cycle deployed by Amazon.com Inc. Having gathered both consumers and suppliers, Meituan can leverage that critical mass to extract income beyond simple commissions. To get ahead of the competition, restaurants not only need to be on the platform, but pay to be seen. In an investor call Monday night, management highlighted that big brands are jumping aboard. With stores closed and consumers afraid to go out, those that previously survived purely from in-store dining realized that delivery is critical. Customers, meanwhile, wanted food from the premium establishments because they’re perceived to be safer and more hygienic. It was a win-win. Except if you’re a little local eatery that’s made its business on stir-fry and two-dollar noodles. While millions of consumers will again one day appreciate the convenience and camaraderie of a quick, cheap meal at the neighborhood joint, volumes could drop sharply if people continue to embrace delivery. Now when they vie for ad space, smaller restaurateurs will be competing with a new wave of branded outlets that have larger marketing budgets. This will still be good for Meituan. The company’s earnings show that when the market is crowded and the pie is shrinking, advertising isn’t a luxury, it’s a


As Hong Kong resets, hygiene army scrapes by

to a company contracted by Hong Kong’s government to clean public spaces and began working 10-hour shifts sweeping, collecting trash and clearing garbage cans. Like most street cleaners, Lee was hired on a contract without health insurance or other benefits. He earns about $1,500 a month with overtime but gets help from a Catholic charity, the Pastoral Center for Workers. Ho Tin Lok, a program officer at the group, said private companies win government tenders by offering the lowest rates. Street cleaners are typically paid the legal minimum, about $4.50 an hour. “It is almost impossible for them to survive in Hong Kong on such low pay,” Ho said. Even before the outbreak, he said, the charity had been helping cleaners apply for subsidies and rental relief. [Bars and barre return, but date night isn’t the same: A glimpse into the new normal] Developing covid-19 does not count as a work-related injury, he added, meaning any cleaner requiring treatment for the virus must pay for it. Lee lives apart from his family — which is on the other side of Hong Kong, in a subdivided apartment of less than 100 square feet — so that he can be closer to work for his 6:30 a.m. starts. He does not have a washing machine, so on his own dime he visits a laundromat to clean and disinfect everything he wears, including his uniform. Lee said his wife works in a restaurant where business suffered as patrons dried up during the outbreak. “There is no other choice for me, really,” Lee said. “I have to make a living.” When reports of a new respiratory virus reached Hong Kong, which was hit hard in the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, Lee and other cleaners badgered their employers for protective gear such as surgical masks, hand sanitizer, gloves and eye protection, aware that their exposure to a variety of surfaces puts them at greater risk. [Singapore lost control of its coronavirus outbreak, and migrant workers are the victims] “Unlike the others, there is no work from home for us,” Lee said. For weeks, he said, street cleaners reused masks for nine-hour shifts, until nongovernment organizations stepped in to provide more. Later in February, authorities set aside masks produced by inmates at correctional facilities for some 21,700 government-contracted cleaners. But cleaners interviewed by The Washington Post said that one mask a


fixing or manipulating prices. Latinos are getting hit hard because many live in crowded housing and work in essential jobs. “Latinos, who make up about 10 percent of the population in the District, Maryland and Virginia, make up about a third of the coronavirus cases in the region,” Antonio Olivo, Marissa Lang and John Harden report. “The disparity is not unique to the capital area. Latinos young and old are contracting the virus at alarmingly high rates in places such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, although the fatality rate for their community is significantly lower than that of African Americans. … Experts cite many explanations: Latinos are a dominant presence in service industry jobs, leaving them unable to ride out the pandemic from home. … Outside of work, avoiding the virus can be nearly impossible, either because Latino families are more likely to live in multigenerational homes or because many take on multiple roommates to manage the Washington region’s high housing costs. Efforts to slow the virus’s spread are tangled with complications, public health experts say, including language barriers, economic stressors, limited resources and, in some cases, a slow response from local governments.” Holiday gatherings sparked concerns. In Ocean City, Md., visitors thronged the boardwalk and only some wore masks. Beaches from coast to coast saw dense crowds, including visitors to the Tampa area along Florida’s Gulf Coast that forced authorities to close parking lots. In Houston, partygoers packed into a club’s swimming pool area on Saturday, a day after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) eased restrictions on bars and restaurants. New York, the state hit hardest by the virus, marked the day with car convoys and small ceremonies instead of its traditional parades. (Ellen Nakashima) Demonstrators at a rally in Kentucky hung an effigy of Gov. Andy Beshear (D) as they protested his stay-at-home restrictions. Protesters carried guns, waved “Don’t tread on me” flags and called the pandemic “one of the biggest shams in world history.” (Courier Journal) Missouri officials issued warnings after videos surfaced of partygoers crowding a Lake of the Ozarks pool bar over the holiday weekend. St. Louis’s county executive issued a “travel advisory," urging “those who ignored protective practices to self-quarantine for 14 days or until testing negative for COVID-19.” (Post Dispatch) The Colorado restaurant that lost its license after it defied a statewide shutdown order by packing its dining room with customers


Retiring to a sunny foreign vacation spot was the American dream. Now the coronavirus is forcing some expats to come back.

and retirement security, said that retirees tend to stay abroad until their health begins to deteriorate. Then, the United States becomes attractive again, because of the availability of health care and the proximity to family. “There is a reverse flow to be closer to kids,” Mitchell said. “This epidemic may hasten that return flow for people on the edge of that, who are starting to struggle with taking care of themselves.” For retirees already abroad, many of whom are considered high risk for severe illness with covid-19, the decision to stay or go home is personal, based on health, savings and the potential for social and economic upheaval in their adopted countries. Retirees whose wealth and income is largely derived from U.S. investments need to factor in a potential drop in income from their investments or retirement plans and make sure they have a financial buffer. “Cash is king, so ideally you’ve got a lot of savings,” said William Jordan, the incoming president of the Association of American Residents Overseas and a retired American diplomat living in Paris. “Having that cushion is key for any retiree, but especially for retirees abroad in times like this.” It also makes sense to review health care in their retirement destination, Jordan said. “The coronavirus is acting as a test of health systems all around the world, and how they cope could affect whether people choose to retire overseas,” he said. And then there are security considerations. “Billions of people are out of work in many countries,” Mitchell said. “Food security is declining and corruption, bankruptcy and thievery are clearly going to become more of a concern.” Drobny and Barden are already beginning to factor those concerns into their plans. The couple expects to remain financially secure even as U.S. and global markets experience a significant downturn. But Drobny does worry that economic instability might trigger social unrest in Mexico, where many locals who are dependent on the informal economy, working as housekeepers, gardeners and in other service industry jobs, are now out of work. “People, when they’re desperate, do desperate things,” he said. If safety becomes a concern, he said he and his wife will return to the United States. Deborah Bickel, an American who runs Be Well San Miguel, a health-care consulting service in San Miguel de Allende that helps expatriates navigate the Mexican health-care system, has advised dozens of retirees on


review health care in their retirement destination, Jordan said. “The coronavirus is acting as a test of health systems all around the world, and how they cope could affect whether people choose to retire overseas,” he said. And then there are security considerations. “Billions of people are out of work in many countries,” Mitchell said. “Food security is declining and corruption, bankruptcy and thievery are clearly going to become more of a concern.” Drobny and Barden are already beginning to factor those concerns into their plans. The couple expects to remain financially secure even as U.S. and global markets experience a significant downturn. But Drobny does worry that economic instability might trigger social unrest in Mexico, where many locals who are dependent on the informal economy, working as housekeepers, gardeners and in other service industry jobs, are now out of work. “People, when they’re desperate, do desperate things,” he said. If safety becomes a concern, he said he and his wife will return to the United States. Deborah Bickel, an American who runs Be Well San Miguel, a health-care consulting service in San Miguel de Allende that helps expatriates navigate the Mexican health-care system, has advised dozens of retirees on whether to stay or return to the United States. She advised some, including David and Barbara Ziff, who have lived in San Miguel for 10 years, to return to the United States because of preexisting medical conditions. David Ziff, 75, had an aortic valve replacement 2½ years ago and has a pacemaker. Although the Ziffs were not worried about contracting the coronavirus in Mexico, they were worried about travel becoming difficult and dangerous. They wanted to be able to visit David’s cardiologist at Duke University, if the need arose. They drove from Mexico to North Carolina last month. “When we crossed the border into Texas, I felt an enormous feeling of relief that we were back somewhere where we could get good medical care, converse with doctors in English and use Medicare,” Barbara Ziff, 73, said. Their drive back was tense, as they armed themselves with cleaning products to wipe down hotel rooms. They will not return to Mexico until they feel safe traveling by air again. “We’re thinking we’re here anywhere for six months to a couple years,” Barbara Ziff said. “It’s not so much financial for us, everything is health-based.” They are still paying $1,250 a month in


The Health 202: Coronavirus proves U.S. needs Medicare-for-all, its advocates say

group coverage for a limited time under COBRA, but that’s typically pretty expensive. President Trump and first lady Melania Trump leave a Memorial Day event in Baltimore. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images) Polls show Steep job losses among older Americans could strengthen Biden’s proposal to slightly expand Medicare eligibility, “Millions of uninsured 55-65 year-olds could add new urgency to calls for a Medicare buy-in if Democrats control the White House and Congress in 2021,” Altman wrote. The coronavirus also highlights the lack of health-care affordability in the United States, even for the insured. Even Americans with generous coverage are vulnerable to high deductibles and unexpected “surprise” medical bills after receiving out-of-network coverage through no fault of their own. In the case of testing and treatment for covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, insurers aren’t always following measures signed by President Trump to protect patients from any additional costs, as Business Insider recently detailed. And prices for medical procedures and prescription drugs are considerably higher in the United States than in any other developed nation. That reality raises concerns about ensuring that every American is able to get a vaccine for the coronavirus once one is developed. If and when the vaccine comes, it won’t do somebody any good if they can't afford it.This is not a time for the drug companies' profiteering.A vaccine, when available, must be free and available to all people regardless of income. — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 20, 2020 Congress was trying to tackle some of these problems before the pandemic. But the needs presented by the virus ensure these systemic problems are front and center — even if there’s no consensus on whether the best solution is Medicare-for-all, a public option or something else. “Our broken, for-profit system left people vulnerable to covid-19 in a way that they would not have been,” Jayapal said. Welcome to The Health 202, our must-read newsletter on health policy. Ahh, oof and ouch AHH: The Trump administration has pledged to buy and distribute 100 million swabs to states by the end of the year. The pledge to help with testing was made in its Covid-19 Strategic Testing Plan to Congress, which was delivered right before the legally required deadline, Amy Goldstein reports. “The Washington Post obtained the 81-page document, called Covid-19 Strategic Testing Plan, from an individual on Capitol Hill who was not authorized to disclose it. Federal health officials


through the bailout program, which was part of the CARES Act economic stimulus package. The department plans to eventually distribute more than $100 billion more.” Compared with hospitals with deep reserves that are getting a large portion of the funding, smaller and poorer hospitals are getting only a small fraction of federal aid. “Hospitals that serve a greater proportion of wealthier, privately insured patients got twice as much relief as those focused on low-income patients with Medicaid or no coverage at all, according to a study this month by the Kaiser Family Foundation,” they add. Coronavirus latest Remembering the individuals behind the grim milestone: The New York Times highlighted some of the names and memories of those who have died, after putting 1,000 names in the paper over the weekend. The hardest hit: The “special enrollment” period for individual Affordable Care Act coverage for those who lost their health insurance due to layoffs is coming to a close at the end of the month in most states, the Associated Press’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar reports. Workers at meatpacking facilities are still getting sick, even as the industry tries to return to normal. There have been more than 11,000 infections tied to Tyson Foods, the nation’s largest meat processor, even as it has set up on-site medical clinics and started screening employees for fevers before their shifts, Taylor Telford reports. The number of working black business owners across the country has plummeted more than 40 percent, more than any other racial group during the pandemic, Hannah Knowles reports. In the states: A study estimates that the coronavirus may still be spreading at epidemic rates in two dozen states, specifically in the South and Midwest, Joel Achenbach, Rachel Weiner and Isaac Stanley-Becker report. Finding treatments: The World Health Organization said it would temporarily drop the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine from its global study of covid-19 treatments due to safety concerns, Kim Bellware reports for The Post’s live blog. Trump has touted the drug as a preventive treatment for covid-19 despite a lack of evidence and warnings about its side effects. Around the world: Local health authorities across Germany have been using contact tracers since they first confirmed coronavirus cases earlier this year. “Epidemiologists say the effort has been essential to the country’s ability to contain its coronavirus outbreak and avoid the larger death tolls seen elsewhere, even with a less stringent shutdown than in other


Americans scramble to leave Brazil

Gravediggers work during a mass burial of coronavirus victims at the Parque Taruma cemetery in Manaus, Brazil, on Tuesday. (Bruno Kelly/Reuters) Americans made plans to leave Brazil on Tuesday, hours before a U.S. ban on arrivals from the country was due to take effect. U.S. citizens and green-card holders are exempt from the prohibition, intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus from Latin America’s hardest-hit country. But foreigners in Brazil have struggled to leave the country in recent weeks. The State Department on Tuesday advised all Americans who wished to leave to do so immediately. Jennifer Ribachonek had been scheduled to return to the United States on Friday to care for her parents. Both are set to undergo surgery next month. But her Latam Arlines flight was canceled shortly after the White House announced the travel ban on Sunday. “They don’t have the capacity to care for each other,” said Ribachonek, a teacher at an international school in São Paulo. She said her parents had hoped to see their grandchildren before their surgeries. “Stuff like that just gives them something to look forward to,” she said. “It would be great to get back.” [Coronavirus seizes São Paulo as Trump ponders Brazil travel ban] http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/white-house-limits-travel-to-us-from-brazil-due-to-covid-19/2020/05/24/e7e6877f-c488-45c4-95b3-3a0801c4aef7_video.html (Reuters) Brazil has reported nearly 375,000 cases of the coronavirus, second in the world only to the United States, and more than 23,000 deaths, a number widely believed to be an undercount. On Monday, for the first time during the pandemic, more people died in Brazil than in the United States. The World Health Organization predicted at least 88,000 deaths in Brazil by August. “Brazil is having some trouble, no question about it,” President Trump told reporters last week. “I don’t want people coming in here and infecting our people.” Members of a group of about 200 Colombians living temporarily at Guarulhos International Airport near São Paulo due to coronavirus restrictions sleep at a lobby of the airport. (Amanda Perobelli/Reuters) The new restrictions bar foreigners who have been in Brazil during the previous 14 days from entering the United States. The ban was due to start Thursday but was moved forward to 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. It will remain in effect until Trump terminates it. “We are advising U.S. citizens who wish to return to the United States to do so immediately,” a consular official who identified himself as Antonio said during a virtual town hall


Courtland Milloy

Whenever I’ve gone grocery shopping these past few weeks, the produce department has been well stocked. But the customers have been few and far between. On a recent trip, I spent nearly 15 minutes perusing the produce alone before two other shoppers showed up. I asked those two why they thought so few shoppers were in the produce section. “We’ve been buying less because the prices are so high,” said Lisa Banks, wearing a mask, as she shopped for vegetables with her husband, Michael. He said: “Ever since the pandemic began, the prices have been going up and up.” She added: “We just have to choose carefully.” There has been a significant increase in the price of produce within the past month — by some accounts, the jump has been the steepest since 1974. The reason: When restaurants closed because of the pandemic, more people began buying fruits and vegetables — before they stopped — and the higher demand led to higher prices. Now, the unemployed or those with the lowest-paying jobs will be the first to lose access to the healthiest foods. [April had the sharpest increase in grocery prices in 50 years] I asked a stock clerk why he thought the produce was always piled high on tables and overflowing in vegetable bins, as if untouched. He cited a reason I’d heard from other shoppers. “Some people will see the water sprayed on the vegetables to keep them fresh and act like somebody sneezed on them,” the clerk said. What kind of virus is this, preventing people from getting the foods that could help strengthen them? In a Washington Post story in March, a virologist was quoted as saying that covid-19 is capable of “switching from being alive to not being alive.” The story described the virus as a kind of biochemical zombie, invading our cells and multiplying itself. Causing the immune system to malfunction and attack not just the virus, but healthy cells. Turning the body against itself. Now it was scaring people away from fresh foods, making them act against their best interest. Or it was driving up the cost, making it harder for the most vulnerable among us to afford the foods they needed most. Diabolical. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that youngsters need 40 to 50 hours of nutrition education each school year to change their pitiful sugar-laden eating


Courtland Milloy

flavors may want to check out the ANA website. Neither Bush nor the ANA claims that you can prevent or cure covid-19 with a diet. No one appears to be immune from the disease and no cure has been found. But the task force has compiled a wealth of research about nutrition that “points to optimizing immune responses and/or inhibiting viral load in general” by eating the right foods. An editorial in the May 1 issue of the Journal of Renal Nutrition about the impact of nutrition on covid-19 stated that, “notwithstanding emerging quackery on immune-boosting and magic foods to prevent or cure COVID-19 infection as a result of global desperation and anxiety, it is reasonable to ensure adequate consumption of citrus fruits (e.g., oranges, nectarines, tangerines, grapefruit, lemons, limes) as well as tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cantaloupe, kale, kiwi, sweet potato, strawberries, papaya, and all those fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C.” The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition added its backing of a healthy diet in its April issue, stating that the “responsibility of the individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic lies in making an effort to choose a healthy lifestyle, eat diets high in fruits and vegetables, exercise during free time, try to maintain a healthy weight, and get an adequate amount of sleep.” [How the capital region is being affected] I spoke with Baxter Montgomery, an African American cardiologist in Houston, who prescribes raw fruits and vegetables as part of his treatment for patients with hypertension and cardiovascular disease. “The bottom line is, people shouldn’t sit around worrying,” he told me. “Start eating fruits and vegetables, get outdoors, into the sunshine, walk around in the grass, barefoot.” Told that some people may not be buying fruits and vegetables because of rising costs, Montgomery suggested the next best option: cutting back on sugar, salt and processed foods. “It cost nothing not to go to a fast-food joint,” he said. “I never heard of anybody being charged for not ordering a cheeseburger and fries.” I don’t want to come off as blaming the victim. We need to make healthy foods as affordable as fast foods. Still, we need to do a better job of taking care of ourselves. Poor diet is the leading cause of death in the world, ahead of tobacco, according to the 2017 Global Burden of Disease Study. Too much salt, too much processed food, too few


Bon appétit again from 11 restaurants in D.C.

closed their Columbia Heights spot in mid-March but recently reopened. (Scott Suchman/for The Washington Post) “Due to the news and facts changing rapidly, we did not feel comfortable putting our staff and ourselves at risk so we decided to close down completely,” co-owner and chef Henji Cheung says. “We wanted to wait until, one, there was more information out there for us to make a more sensible decision, and two, we wanted to wait until more people understood what and how to interact and social distance safely.” Others took time off to re-strategize. Yuan and Carey Tang, the husband-and-wife founders of tasting-menu-driven Rooster & Owl near U Street, used a break to figure out all sorts of issues related to covid-19. That included everything from securing child care to dealing with supply chain issues for ingredients to sourcing packaging for delivery-friendly menu items. They even set up a 24-hour schedule in the kitchen so their team could work in small groups to produce the four-course takeout meals. “It’s interesting: we hadn’t thought about microwaving labels or the breathability of masks at 2 a.m.,” Carey Tang says. “If there’s anything the restaurant industry is, it’s adaptable.” Here are 11 popular D.C. restaurants that reopened with new takeout offerings this month, including everything from picnic packs to chicken parm lasagna. [Frank Ruta’s roast chicken, Rasika’s palak chaat and more takeout wins from D.C.’s top chefs] Mussels have been the star of the menu at Granville Moore’s for more than a decade, but the restaurant is switching to Italian comfort food. (James M. Thresher/for The Washington Post) Granville Moore’s Pasta Place The long-running H Street spot for mussels, frites and Belgian beer is now firing up pasta machines. Granville Moore’s to-go menu includes such Italian comfort food as spinach and mushroom ravioli, stuffed shells, spaghetti and meatballs, seafood tagliatelle and broccolini and spinach gnocchi ($20-$25). The switch isn’t completely out of left field: Granville Moore’s hosted a pasta pop-up before the pandemic that turned out to be a hit. Expect to find tiramisu and cannoli for dessert, and a focus on local beers, too. 1238 H St. NE. Open Tuesdays through Sundays for takeout and delivery. granvillemoores.com. [History, scenic views and community connections kept these restaurants in business for decades. Now, they’re adapting.] Rooster & Owl Recipe testing for Rooster & Owl’s $45-per-person, four-course dinner resulted in options such as crunchy fried chicken


imperialdc.com. The Salt Line After closing on March 16, the team at Capitol Riverfront seafood standby the Salt Line took their time brainstorming a newly launched “TSL To Go” menu with delivery-ready items. These reimagined dishes include interactive options like a “Shuck at Home” oyster kit ($25) complete with video tutorials or a $70 porchetta-plus-sides family meal that you can heat up at home. The $26 lobster rolls can be served ready to eat or ready to assemble at home. There’s also a $21 “Happy Meal for Grown-Ups” package for solo diners, featuring a choice of sandwich served with Cape Cod potato chips, a baked clam, a whoopie pie and Narragansett lager. 79 Potomac Ave. SE. Open daily for takeout and delivery. thesaltline.com. [This takeout is tailor-made for a picnic, even if that means your living room floor] Tail Up Goat/Reveler’s Hour Adams Morgan hotspots Tail Up Goat and Reveler’s Hour returned in mid-May after an eight-week break, as owners Jon Sybert, Jill Tyler and Bill Jensen pivoted to offer family-style dinners, wine tasting kits and pantry staples. At Tail Up Goat, order meals like $40-per-person smoked brisket accented by red wine and black garlic gravy, served with a dessert and such sides as Texas toast and pickled broccoli rabe. At the pasta-focused Reveler’s Hour, try dinners starring chicken parm lasagna, tagliatelle pasta with pomodoro sauce or meatballs, priced at $29-$30. Tail Up Goat, 1827 Adams Mill Road NW. Open Wednesday through Sunday for takeout and delivery. tailupgoat.com. Reveler’s Hour, 1775 Columbia Road NW. Open Friday through Monday for takeout and delivery. revelershour.com. Queen’s English Ever since reopening for takeout on May 6, Queen’s English husband-and-wife team Henji Cheung and Sarah Thompson have been getting creative with to-go items at their Columbia Heights restaurant. One week it’s all vegetarian dishes with mapo tofu, the next it’s a $58-per-person seafood takeaway meal with dishes like cured hamachi. They’re even experimenting with a weekend Hong Kong-inspired juice stand featuring fresh fruit and juices made with watermelon and carrots. “We change our menu weekly to keep it interesting,” Cheung says. 3410 11th St. NW. Open Thursday through Sunday for takeout and delivery. queensenglishdc.com. Cornmeal-crusted fried catfish is a popular takeout choice at Brookland’s Finest. (Kate Patterson/for The Washington Post) Brookland’s Finest After being closed for almost two months, chef and co-owner Shannan Troncoso started up takeout on May 7 for one main reason:


Live updates: Meat shortages could worsen as coronavirus infections at packing plants multiply

For many Americans, Memorial Day marks the start of barbecue season. But the ripple effects of the coronavirus pandemic are likely to cause meat shortages to worsen in the coming months, with analysts predicting that grocery stores could see their supply slashed by a third. Despite introducing new safety measures for workers, three of the nation’s largest meat processors have seen coronavirus infections nearly quadruple over the past month, a Washington Post analysis found. Similar concerns are mounting in Europe, where a growing number of coronavirus outbreaks have been linked to slaughterhouses and meat processing plants in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany. Here are some significant developments: President Trump threatened on Monday to find a new home for the Republican National Convention because the Democratic governor of North Carolina, where the event is scheduled to take place in August, is still in a “shutdown mood.” Republicans in Florida, which has reopened at a faster pace, are lobbying to move the convention there. The World Health Organization announced Monday that it would temporarily remove the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine from coronavirus trials due to safety concerns. Middle Eastern nations including Syria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait announced plans to loosen coronavirus-related restrictions this week. Both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have seen a sharp increase in infections since the start of Ramadan, while Syria’s relatively low number of cases is attributed to the country’s low rate of testing. Face coverings once again became a partisan issue on Memorial Day, with former vice president Joe Biden wearing a mask while President Trump went without. Trump later shared a tweet from Fox News commentator Brit Hume that mocked Biden for covering up, prompting condemnation from Democrats. Sign up for our coronavirus newsletter | Mapping the spread of the coronavirus: Across the U.S. | Worldwide | How states are reopening | Have you been hospitalized for covid-19? Tell us whether you’ve gotten a bill.