Author: CensorBiz

As the coronavirus outbreak spreads around the world and countries take various measures to contain it, the pandemic in India is causing an increase in incidents of COVID-19-related discrimination against the country’s minority Muslims.India’s Health Ministry announced last week that 30 percent of coronavirus cases were linked to a meeting in March of the Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary group, in Delhi. The country’s Muslim minority population has since witnessed a string of attacks by Hindu extremists, accusing the Muslims of “corona jihad.”Some India observers say linking the virus to the Muslim organization could result in more religious hatred in the country, warning that the effects of Islamophobic conspiracy theories could sow violence even after the pandemic.“Blaming Muslims for spreading coronavirus all over India is dangerous and discriminatory,” said Muqtedar Khan, a professor of Islamic political philosophy at the University of Delaware and an India expert at the Center for Global Policy.“The lax attitude of the Indian government allowed the Tablighi Jamaat to continue their activities. There are laws in India; the point is that they are using them only against the Tablighis and they are not trying to go after any Hindu group at all,” Khan said, adding that the nationalist media have also played a role in spreading accusations that Muslims were responsible for the spread of the virus throughout the country.As of Friday, India had recorded more than 13,800 cases of COVID-19, with at least 442 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The country has been on an official lockdown to combat the virus since March 24. However, some officials blame the Tablighi Jamaat for the coronavirus’ early spread.Firefighters spray disinfectant in front of the India Gate during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against COVID-19 in New Delhi on April 17, 2020.An estimated 1,500 to 2,000 people attended the missionary group’s annual meeting, which was held March 13-15 at its headquarters in the West Nizamuddin area of Delhi. Cleric Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, head of the group, has since been charged with violating government-issued coronavirus guidelines, culpable homicide and money laundering.Vikas Swarup, a senior official at India’s ministry of external affairs, in a press briefing last week said the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi “was compelled to call out this congregation.”However, some experts say there is a problem with the statistical accuracy of the government claims.“Since most of India has not been tested, there is no real accuracy of the denominator,” said Alyssa Ayres, a Washington-based senior fellow for South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations.‘Scapegoating of religion’Ayres said she was concerned by the “scapegoating of religion” in the South Asian country, where a decades-long conflict between the majority Hindus and minority Muslims has seen a surge in recent years.“There are challenges of large gatherings happening around the world,” and it seems the Tablighi Jamaat group is being singled out in India, Ayres said last week during a panel about the country’s response to the pandemic. “But it is happening, and that is something that I think we should all be concerned about.”Local media in recent weeks have reported an uptick in bullying and harassment leading to three reported cases of suicide and loss of wages due to boycotting of Muslim-owned businesses. Mehboob Ali, 22, last week was beaten by a Hindu mob in the village of Bawana, outside Delhi, after he was accused of intentionally spreading the virus among non-Muslims. In another incident, young Muslim activists distributing food to those in need were assaulted with cricket bats.A Hindu priest performs an evening prayer at the Dashashwamedh Ghat on the banks of the Ganges River on April 9, 2020, during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19 in Varanasi, India.Some analysts say such communal violence is likely to continue as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rises and Hindu nationalists continue to allege Muslims are responsible.Ashok Swain, a professor of peace and conflict studies at Uppsala University in Sweden, said the Indian government had “taken a number of missteps in addressing the threat of a pandemic.”As such, the authorities are likely trying to shift the blame and portray the pandemic as a part of communal conflict, he charged.“The aim is to give the corona crisis a communal color, which will give the regime an escape route from its abject failure and also at the same time the increasing anti-Muslim environment will bring them political benefits in the future,” Swain told VOA.On April 7, M.P. Renukacharya, a lawmaker in Karnataka and member of the legislative assembly for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told local media that Tablighi Jamaat members were spreading COVID-19 “like terrorism.”A day later, Devendra Fadnavis, a senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra chief minister, called those who had attended the religious meeting “human bombs.”Meanwhile, the opposition Indian National Party Congress, led by Sonia Gandhi, has refrained from making any statements on the Tablighi Jamaat incident.Hindu congregationsFaizan Mustafa, a professor of constitutional law in Hyderabad, said the Tablighi Jamaat were “irresponsible” and exhibited “reckless behavior” by holding the large gathering. However, he also said that Hindu groups that held similar meetings had faced no criticism from the government.“Most temples remained open till March 18, and some even till March 20. Several other religious worships happened after that. Just last week, 1,800 Gujrati Hindus who were stranded in Haridwar were sent to their homes in 28 luxury buses, but this kind of facility was not given to [the] Tablighis,” Mustafa said, citing several mass gatherings in Hindu temples throughout India.“Tirupati Temple was open to the public till 16th of March, where there are an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 visitors per day — at least 4,000 people praying at a time every hour. In Somanth Temple, visitors of up to 5,000 per day were reported till the 18th of March. And Kashi Visnath Temple was also open until March 20,” Mustafa said, citing local reports. 
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President Donald Trump on Friday announced a $19 billion relief program to help U.S. farmers cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, including $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers and mass purchases of produce, meat and other products. “American agriculture has been hard-hit, like most of America, with the coronavirus, and President Trump is standing with our farmers and all Americans to make sure that we all get through this national emergency,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said. USDA to spend $3 billion on fresh foodThe USDA in a statement said it will partner with regional and local distributors to purchase $3 billion in fresh produce, dairy and meat to be distributed for food banks, churches and aid groups. The agency said it will make monthly purchases totaling about $100 million each of fresh produce, dairy products and meat products. Long lines have formed at U.S. food banks in recent weeks as millions have become unemployed because of lockdowns to halt the spread of the coronavirus.The decision comes amid rising pressure from the U.S. farm lobby for government purchases as growers and ranchers struggle to get their goods to market because of disruptions caused by the pandemic, forcing some to throw out supplies. “Having to dump milk or plow under vegetables ready to market is not only financially distressing but it’s heartbreaking as well for those that produce them,” Perdue said. Direct payments will be sent “as quickly as possible” to farmers and ranchers as farm commodity producers have experienced “unprecedented losses,” Perdue said. Funding for the immediate aid program will be pulled together from a number of sources, including recent coronavirus-related aid laws passed by Congress and other funding authorities that USDA has access to, according to Perdue.Food supply chain strainedFurther details of the plan will be released at a later date, the USDA said in a statement. Reuters reported on Monday that the USDA will spend billions in the initial phase of its plan to bolster the nation’s food supply chain against the impacts of the outbreak. Several North American beef and pork packing plants have shut down as workers have fallen ill or died from the virus. Smithfield Foods, for example, the world’s biggest pork processor, said on Sunday it would shut a U.S. plant indefinitely due to a rash of coronavirus cases among employees and warned the country was moving “perilously close to the edge” in supplies for grocers.  
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NASA announced on Friday that a SpaceX rocket would  send two American astronauts to the International Space Station on May 27, the first crewed spaceflight from the U.S. in nearly a decade.”On May 27, @NASA will once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil!” NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said in a tweet.The astronauts will be sent to the ISS on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will be launched to the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. They will lift off at 4:32 p.m. (2032 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said.Since July 2011, the United States has relied on Russian Soyuz rockets to send U.S. astronauts to the ISS.
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VOA Connect Episode 118 – Stories offering hope during the coronavirus pandemic.  
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The death toll in Iran from the coronavirus pandemic is likely nearly double the officially reported figures, due to undercounting and because not everyone with breathing problems has been tested for the virus, a parliament report said.  
Iranian health officials offered no comment on the report, which represents the highest-level charge yet from within the Islamic Republic’s government of its figures being questionable, something long suspected by international experts. Iran on Wednesday put the death toll at 4,777, out of 76,389 confirmed cases of the virus — still making it the Mideast’s worst outbreak by far. 
The report, released Tuesday, comes as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani continues to push for a slow reopening of the country’s economy, which remains targeted by crushing U.S. sanctions. If its own figures offered to the World Health Organization are wrong, it adds to fears by some that encouraging people to return to work will spark a second wave of infections.  
“In order to have more compatibility between protocol and estimated statistics, it is necessary to increase laboratory and testing capabilities in the country,” the report said. “Needless to say that through increasing the capacities, diagnosis of disease will be more possible and spread of the disease will be more limited.”
The 46-page report by Iran’s parliament research center, published online, carries the weight of being written by nonpartisan experts within the country. Already, hard-liners have seized on Rouhani’s handling of the pandemic to criticize him and his administration, which is held in poor regard after his 2015 nuclear deal with world powers collapsed due to President Donald Trump’s move that unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the accord.  
The explosive charge was merely a footnote on page 6 in what appeared to be an otherwise routine report.  
It said Health Ministry death toll figures counted only those who died in hospitals and had gotten positive test results for the virus. That disregarded all coronavirus victims who died in their homes. The report also said that aggressive testing, something experts have seized upon as necessary in the pandemic, has not been done in Iran — meaning other cases likely have been missed. It suggested the true death toll in Iran is probably 80% higher than figures now given, or nearly double.  
As far as the positive cases are involved, and given the undertesting, the number of people infected is probably “eight to 10 times” higher than the reported figures, the report said.  
If correct, the report’s worst-case figures would put Iran’s death toll potential as high over 8,500, with some 760,000 total cases. That would catapult Iran to the country with the highest number of infections in the world.  
The U.S. has over 600,000 confirmed cases, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, though experts believe that number likely is larger as well.
International experts long have suggested they suspected Iran’s numbers as its mortality was higher than other nations. While other countriess also have seen cases spike, Iran’s reported numbers so far have offered a gradual slope.  
The report also accused authorities of not providing its authors with “detailed figures” over the disease. It also warned that more than 30,000 people could die if strict quarantine measures aren’t taken.  
Last week, lawmaker Reza Shiran from the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, said that there had “been no correct reporting on the death toll.” He alleged official reports instead labeled deaths as coming from an “acute respiratory syndrome.”  
Deputy Health Minister Ali Reza Raisi on Wednesday acknowledged that the “limits of testing” faced by Iran means it doesn’t have accurate figures of all those infected.
“The real figures are more than the official statistics but it is not correct to multiply official figures by two or three,” he said, without elaborating or directly addressing the parliament report.  
Also on Wednesday, Iran canceled ceremonies marking the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic over virus concers, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The cancellation of the early June ceremonies underscored Iranian officials’ expectation that the virus crisis will continue for several more weeks.
Meanwhile, Dubai’s long-haul carrier Emirates said Wednesday it has begun administering on-site rapid coronavirus tests for passengers, beginning with a flight to Tunisia. It described itself as the world’s first airline to conduct on-site rapid tests for passengers. Dubai health officials conducted the blood test, offering results in 10 minutes, according to the airline.
In Pakistan, officials said the United Arab Emirates has released some 400 Pakistani prisoners convicted of minor crimes over the outbreak. A plane carrying 181 prisoners and eight Pakistani nationals stranded in Dubai landed in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday, immigration official Mohammad Zahid said.
The 181 were quarantined, Zahid said, adding that the remaining prisoners will also return home soon.
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A leading public health expert said Friday that Britain likely has the highest coronavirus death rate in Europe due to what he described as “system errors,” while the government defended its record in responding to the pandemic.
Anthony Costello, director of the Institute for Global Health at University College London, said the U.K. “could see 40,000 deaths” by the time the first wave of the country’s outbreak is over.
The British government reported that as of Thursday, 13,729 people had died in U.K. hospitals after testing positive for the coronavirus. The number does not include hundreds, and maybe thousands, of virus-related deaths in nursing homes and other settings.  
Costello has been a vocal critic of the government’s strategy, saying it has not been doing enough testing for the virus and has failed to trace and isolate people who were in contact with infected individuals.
“What were the system errors that led us to have probably the highest death rates in Europe?” he said.
“We’re going to face further waves and so we need to make sure we have a system in place … that enables you to test people rapidly in the community, in care homes and to make sure that the results are got back to them very quickly,” Costello told a committee of British lawmakers Friday.
Britain was slower than many other European countries to impose mandatory restrictions on business and daily life to slow the spread of the coronavirus. A lockdown ordered on March 23 was extended Thursday for at least three more weeks. Schools, restaurants and most shops are closed, and most people are allowed to leave home only for essential errands or exercise.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock defended the government’s record, saying “test, track and trace” was part of its strategy.
“I think we took the right measures at the right time,” he said.
The government vowed to conduct 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of April, a more than five-fold increase on current rates. It has also promised to include nursing home deaths in the official tally.
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A new Panama City, Panama, hospital will solely treat COVID-19 patients.President Laurentino Cortizo on Thursday inaugurated the $6 million Panama Solidario hospital, which has 100 intensive care beds and a camera system to allow doctors and nurses to monitor patients while minimizing exposure.  It is unclear when the facility will begin accepting patients.Cortizo said the new hospital is part of a broader strategy, which includes an aggressive testing program that helps authorities identify people with the virus and devise a plan to begin treating them.Panama has so far confirmed more than 4,000 infections and reported 109 deaths. 
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The United Nations, the European Union and the United States welcomed the release and exchange of prisoners in eastern Ukraine, which has been torn by a 6-year-old armed conflict.The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he remained hopeful this “humanitarian action” ahead of Orthodox Easter “will serve as a positive step toward more progress, including a permanent cease-fire,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.“Further disengagement of forces and unimpeded humanitarian access across the contact line is expected as part of ongoing peace efforts of international actors,” added Dujarric.Guterres urged all parties engaged in the conflict “to take further measures in order to enable progress” in the implementation of peace agreements.“Full implementation of the Minsk agreements is the only way to reach a sustainable and peaceful solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” said Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU.“Russia and the armed formations that it backs must also ensure freedom of movement across the contact line for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission” and other humanitarian actors, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to reach all those still in detention, the statement reads.The EU also reaffirmed its strong support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.Foreign ministers of France and Germany said in a joint statement that the release and exchange of prisoners related to the conflict in eastern Ukraine “represents significant progress” for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, and the conclusions of the summit in Paris on December 9, 2019, “with respect to upholding the cease-fire, mine clearance, the opening of new crossing points and the identification of new disengagement zones.”In a Twitter message, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine welcomed the move and commended the country’s government on its “continued efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution to the Russia-instigated conflict in Ukraine.”It is also called on Russia “to immediately release all other Ukrainians who remain unjustly imprisoned and fully withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory.”Thursday’s prisoner exchange was the third since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was elected in a landslide last year on promises to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which began in 2014. More than 14,000 people have been killed, and it has heightened tensions between Russia and the West.
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China’s coronavirus crisis is expected to have tipped its economy into its first decline since at least 1992, data is set to show on Friday, raising pressure on authorities to prop up growth as mounting job losses threaten social stability.Beijing has succeeded in getting large parts of the economy up and running from a standstill in February, but analysts say policymakers face an uphill battle to revive growth as the coronavirus pandemic ravages demand at home and abroad.Analysts polled by Reuters expect gross domestic product (GDP) to have shrunk 6.5 percent in January-March from a year earlier. That would reverse a 6 percent expansion in the previous quarter and mark the first decline since at least 1992, when official quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) records started.China releases first-quarter GDP data at 0200 GMT on Friday, along with March factory output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment.Analysts at Nomura said they expected Beijing to deliver a stimulus package in the near-term, which could be financed by the central bank through various channels.“However, unlike previous easing cycles, when most of the new credit went to finance spending on infrastructure, property and consumer durable goods, this time we expect most of the new credit to be used on financial relief to help enterprises, banks and households survive the COVID-19 crisis,” they said in a note.For 2020, analysts polled by Reuters expected China’s economic growth to slow sharply to 2.5 percent from 6.1 percent in 2019, which would be the weakest clip since 1976, the final year of the decade-long Cultural Revolution that wrecked the economy.The pandemic has infected more than 2 million globally and killed more than 140,000. China, where the virus first emerged, has reported more than 3,300 deaths, although new infections have dropped significantly from their peak.In this April 12, 2020, photo, a Chinese couple walks past a worker wiping window panels at a clothing shop in Beijing.As China moves to ease travel restrictions and reopen factories, similar lockdowns now in effect in other major economies hit by the virus have significantly darkened the outlook for global demand.The world economy is expected to shrink 3 percent during 2020 in what would mark the steepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.The IMF expects China’s economy to grow just 1.2 percent in 2020, before rebounding by 9.2 percent in 2021.Uphill battleBeijing is scrambling to fend off mass job losses that could threaten social stability, while also keeping growing debt and financial risks under control.The global uncertainty has made it harder for Chinese leaders to set an economic growth target for 2020, given that the initial goal of around 6 percent now looks well out of reach, policy insiders said.Top policymakers are now likely to set a lower target lower than the initial one, ahead of the annual parliament meeting, they said.The meeting was originally scheduled for March 5 but was postponed due to the outbreak. No new date has been announced though sources have previously said it could be late April or early May.Sources have told Reuters that China is set to unleash trillions of yuan of fiscal stimulus to revive the economy, and the central bank will dole out more easing steps.On Wednesday, the central bank cut the interest rate on its medium-term lending facility by 20 basis points, paving the way for a similar cut in the benchmark lending rate on April 20. 
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Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. government has a three-stage prescription for restarting normal life in America.”We’re opening up our great country again,” announced President Donald Trump at a coronavirus task force briefing on Thursday where the guidelines were unveiled. “We’re going to be very vigilant and very careful.”A 14-day downward trajectory in COVID-19 cases and widespread coronavirus and antibody testing for hospital workers are suggested for individual states before beginning the phased restart of economies that are convulsing because of the highly infectious virus.In the first phase, schools and bars would remain closed. But places of worship, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and sports arenas could reopen with strict physical distancing. Hospitals could perform elective surgeries.In Phase 2, schools could reopen, and nonessential travel could resume, but most employees would be encouraged to continue to telework.The third phase recommends “unrestricted staffing of work sites,” but would see the medically vulnerable resuming public interactions, with them practicing physical distancing unless they take precautionary measures.The Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 16, 2020.The medical members on the White House’s coronavirus task force — infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — endorsed the plan.The driving element for the plan was “the safety and health of the American public,” Fauci said. Trump previewed the plan earlier Thursday on a videoconference call with governors of the 50 U.S. states, telling them, “You’re going to call your own shots” on the economy’s reopening. Earlier in the week, in response to a VOA question during a White House briefing, Trump declared he “calls the shots” on such decisions. Amid some fierce bipartisan criticism that the president has no such powers over states, he backed away from his assertion of total authority. “We did not put a timeline on any of the phases,” Birx said, explaining that would be left up to state governors.”Not every state, not every region, is going to do it at the same time,” Fauci emphasized.Trump expressed optimism that as many as 29 states were ready to enter Phase 1 immediately.The president has made no secret of his impatience to revitalize the country’s economy as quickly as possible, with commerce and industry at their lowest levels of activity since the era of the Great Depression nearly a century ago.Over the past month, more than 20 million people in the United States have filed for unemployment benefits.”There’s death, and there are problems in staying at home, too,” Trump said Thursday.Many health experts, business leaders and governors have been hesitant to quickly end social distancing, concerned that lifting the restrictions without widespread COVID-19 testing poses serious health risks.Trump acknowledged there could be flare-ups, and if that occurs, “we’ll be able to suppress it, whack it.”Decisions by statesSeven U.S. states in the Northeast have extended their shutdowns until May 15.”What happens after that, I don’t know. We will see, depending on what the data says,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state has been the hardest hit in the United States, told a news briefing on Thursday before the White House outlined its proposal.A person walks by a closed business in New York City, April 16, 2020. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced during his daily COVID-19 briefing that the “New York State on PAUSE” order will be extended until May 15.Governors of seven U.S. Midwestern states announced on Thursday a consortium of their own to coordinate a regional response.Three governors from the West Coast have formed a similar effort on reopening their economies. Last week, Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the U.S., extended its restrictions to May 15. The District of Columbia, home of the federal government, did the same on Wednesday.The governor of the Midwestern state of Ohio tweeted Thursday, “I am an optimist and am confident that Ohioans will also live up to the challenge of doing things differently as we open back up beginning on May 1st.”I am an optimist and am confident that Ohioans will also live up to the challenge of doing things differently as we open back up beginning on May 1st.— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) April 16, 2020The number of COVID-19 deaths recorded in the United States on Wednesday rose by 2,500, a second consecutive daily record. The U.S. death toll in the global pandemic exceeds 32,000, higher than any other country has reported.The virus has also taken a toll on Trump’s job approval ratings. According to the latest Gallup poll, his public support stands at 43%.”The six-point decline in the president’s approval rating is the sharpest drop Gallup has recorded for the Trump presidency so far, largely because Trump’s ratings have been highly stable and have yet to reach the historical average for presidents (back to 1945) of 53%,” according to the pollster.
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Brian Dennehy, the burly actor who started in films as a macho heavy and later in his career won plaudits for his stage work in plays by William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, has died. He was 81. Dennehy died Wednesday night of natural causes in New Haven, Connecticut, according to Kate Cafaro of ICM Partners, the actor’s representatives. Known for his broad frame, booming voice and ability to play good guys and bad guys with equal aplomb, Dennehy won two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe and was nominated for six Emmys. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010. Actor called ‘a colossus’Tributes came from Hollywood and Broadway, including from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who said he saw Dennehy twice onstage and called the actor “a colossus.” Actor Michael McKean said Dennehy was “brilliant and versatile, a powerhouse actor and a very nice man as well.” Dana Delany, who appeared in a movie with Dennehy, said: “They don’t make his kind anymore.” Among his 40-odd films, he played a sheriff who jailed Rambo in “First Blood,” a serial killer in “To Catch a Killer,” and a corrupt sheriff gunned down by Kevin Kline in “Silverado.” He also had some benign roles: the bartender who consoles Dudley Moore in “10” and the levelheaded leader of aliens in “Cocoon” and its sequel. Eventually Dennehy wearied of the studio life. “Movies used to be fun,” he observed in an interview. “They took care of you, first-class. Those days are gone.” Dennehy had a long connection with Chicago’s Goodman Theater, which had a reputation for heavy drama. He appeared in Bertolt Brecht’s “Galileo” in 1986 and later Chekhov’s “Cherry Orchard” at far lower salaries than he earned in Hollywood. In 1990 he played the role of Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh,” a play he reprised at the Goodman with Nathan Lane in 2012 and in Brooklyn in 2013. Played Willy LomanIn 1998, Dennehy appeared on Broadway in the classic role of Willy Loman, the worn-out hustler in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and won the Tony for his performance.  “What this actor goes for is close to an everyman quality, with a grand emotional expansiveness that matches his monumental physique,” wrote Ben Brantley in his review of the play for The New York Times. “Yet these emotions ring so unerringly true that Mr. Dennehy seems to kidnap you by force, trapping you inside Willy’s psyche.” He was awarded another Tony in 2003 for his role in O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night.” At the podium, after thanking his family, co-stars and producers and complementing his competitors, he said: “The words of Eugene O’Neill — they’ve got to be heard. They’ve got to be heard, and heard and heard. And thank you so much for giving us the chance to enunciate them.” Started acting at age 14Dennehy was born July 9, 1938, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the first of three sons. His venture into acting began when he was 14 in New York City and a student at a Brooklyn high school. He acted the title role in “Macbeth.” He played football on a scholarship at Columbia University, and he served five years in the U.S. Marines. Back in New York City in 1965, he pursued acting while working at side jobs. “I learned first-hand how a truck driver lives, what a bartender does, how a salesman thinks,” he told The New York Times in 1989. “I had to make a life inside those jobs, not just pretend.” His parents — Ed Dennehy, an editor for The Associated Press in New York, and Hannah Dennehy, a nurse — could never understand why his son chose to act. “Anyone raised in a first or second generation immigrant family knows that you are expected to advance the ball down the field,” Dennehy told Columbia College Today in 1999. “Acting didn’t qualify in any way.” First movie was ‘Semi-Tough’The 6-foot-3-inch Dennehy went to Hollywood for his first movie, “Semi-Tough” starring Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson. Dennehy was paid $10,000 a week for 10 week’s work, which he thought “looked like it was all the money in the world.” Among his films: “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” “Foul Play,” “Little Miss Marker,” “Split Image,” “Gorky Park,” “Legal Eagles,” “Miles from Home,” “Return to Snowy River,” “Presumed Innocent,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Assault on Precinct 13.” He played the father of Chris Farley’s titular character in the 1995 comedy “Tommy Boy.” He played serial murderer John Wayne Gacy in the 1991 TV movie “To Catch a Killer” and union leader Jackie Presser in the HBO special “Teamster Boss” a year later. “I try to play villains as if they’re good guys and good guys as if they’re villains,” he said in 1992 He worked deep into his 70s, in such projects as SundanceTV’s “Hap and Leonard,” the film “The Seagull” with Elisabeth Moss and Annette Bening and the play “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett at the Long Wharf Theatre. His last foray on Broadway was in “Love Letters” opposite Mia Farrow in 2014.He is survived by his second wife, costume designer Jennifer Arnott and their two children, Cormac and Sarah. He also is survived by three daughters — Elizabeth, Kathleen and Deirdre — from a previous marriage to Judith Scheff. 
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Facebook will soon let you know if you saw or interacted with dangerous coronavirus misinformation on the site.  The new notice will be sent to users who have liked, reacted to or commented on posts featuring harmful or false claims about COVID-19 after the posts have been removed by moderators. The alert, which will start appearing on Facebook in the coming weeks, will direct users to a site where the World Health Organization lists and debunks virus myths and rumors. The latest move is part of an unprecedented effort by Facebook, Google and Twitter that includes stricter rules, altered algorithms and thousands of fact checks to contain an outbreak of bad information online that’s spreading as quickly as the virus itself.  Challenges remain. Tech platforms have sent home human moderators who police the platforms, forcing them to rely on automated systems to take down harmful content. They are also up against people’s mistrust of authoritative sources of information, such as the WHO.  “Through this crisis, one of my top priorities is making sure that you see accurate and authoritative information across all of our apps,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page Thursday. 40 million warning labelsThe company disclosed Thursday that in March it put more than 40 million warning labels over videos, posts or articles about the coronavirus that fact-checking organizations have determined are false or misleading. The number includes duplicate claims.  Facebook says those warning labels have stopped 95% of users from viewing the bad information.  “It’s a big indicator that people are trusting the fact checkers,” said Baybars Orsek, the director of the International Fact-Checking Network. “The label has an impact on people’s information consumption.”  But Orsek cautioned that the data Facebook provided should be reviewed by outside editors or experts, and called on the historically secretive company to release regular updates about the impact of its fact-checking initiative.  Orsek’s organization is a nonprofit that certifies news organizations as fact checkers, a requirement to produce fact-checking articles for Facebook. Facebook has recruited dozens of news organizations around the globe to fact-check bad information on its site. The Associated Press is part of that program.  Get the FactsFacebook will also begin promoting the articles that debunk COVID-19 misinformation, of which there are thousands, on a new information center called “Get the Facts.” Putting trustworthy information in front of people can be just as useful, if not more, than simply debunking falsehoods. Still, conspiracy theories, claims about unverified treatments, and misinformation about coronavirus vaccines continue to pop up on the site daily — sometimes circumventing the safeguards Facebook has implemented.  Facebook users, for example, viewed a false claim that the virus is destroyed by chlorine dioxide nearly 200,000 times, estimates a new study out Thursday from Avaaz, a left-leaning advocacy group that tracks and researches online misinformation.  The group found more than 100 pieces of misinformation about the coronavirus on Facebook, viewed millions of times even after the claims had been marked as false or misleading by fact checkers. Other false claims were not labeled as misinformation, despite being declared by fact checkers as false.  “Coronavirus misinformation content mutates and spreads faster than Facebook’s current system can track it,” Avaaz said in its report.  This is especially problematic for Italian and Spanish misinformation, the report said, because Facebook has been slower to issue warning labels on posts that aren’t in English. Avaaz also noted that it can take as long as 22 days for Facebook to label misinformation as such — giving it plenty of time to spread. Facebook did not immediately comment on the Avaaz report on Thursday. False claims about coronavirus treatments have been deadly.  Last month, Iranian media reported more than 300 people had died and 1,000 were sickened in the country after ingesting methanol, a toxic alcohol rumored to be a remedy through private social media messages.  
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A Catholic priest was charged in Kenyan court on Thursday with spreading the coronavirus, the second person to face such charges in Kenya.Kenya, which has 234 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 11 deaths, has banned all public gatherings, limited the number of mourners at funerals, imposed a daily curfew and restricted movement in and out of four regions most affected.Catholic priest Richard Onyango Oduor was charged with having “negligently spread an infectious disease” after authorities said he failed to adhere to coronavirus quarantine rules following a visit to Italy.He denied the charges in a Nairobi court, and was freed on a 150,000 Kenyan shilling ($1,415) bond. He was ordered to spend another 14 days in quarantine and reappear in court on May 2.Archbishop Anthony Muheria, in charge of the Catholic dioceses of Nyeri and Kitui, told Reuters he could not comment on the case, and it was up to the authorities to determine whether the priest was at fault.Last week, another court charged Gideon Saburi, the deputy governor of the coastal region of Kilifi County, with spreading the coronavirus by going out in public without taking precautions. He also denied the charges as was freed on bond while being ordered to self-quarantine.Some African countries have had trouble persuading citizens to comply with restrictions imposed to curb the virus.Kenyan media have been awash with stories of people trying to circumvent restrictions, holding parties in their houses and parks due to bar closures. A lawmaker was arrested for holding a party at a restaurant in the capital on Easter weekend.Last week, some Botswana lawmakers were put in supervised quarantine after failing to observe an instruction to self-isolate. All of the country’s parliamentarians and President Mokgweetsi Masisi were asked to quarantine for 14 days after a health worker screening them tested positive.In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa last week put its communications minister on leave for two months, one of which will be unpaid, for breaking the rules of a countrywide lockdown and having lunch with a former official. 
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In these dark times, clouded by fears of an enemy we can’t see and sheltered in homes we’re itching to leave, it’s reassuring to know that California’s sunsets over the Pacific are just as vivid. You just can’t enjoy them with sand between your toes.
Most beaches and virtually every other destination in California are closed because of the coronavirus outbreak. Though the outlook has improved, Gov. Gavin Newsom has written off the possibility of a typical summer. It could be one where you travel on the internet, have your temperature checked before being seated in a half-empty restaurant and worry about tan lines from your face mask.  
While it’s uncertain when life as we knew it will return, it’s clear this summer will be like no other.  
Newsom’s sobering message this week has foreshadowed warm days without large outdoor concerts, rides at amusement parks or trips to the coast.
His so-called road map to reopen the economy won’t have anyone packing their car for a trip on the open highway. It felt more like a chart of the stars that need to align before restrictions could ease.  
“There is no light switch here,” the Democratic governor said. “I would argue it is more like a dimmer.”  
California is trying to keep the virus from spreading further and stretching hospitals like it has in New York and Italy. Schools are closed, many businesses — including bars and dine-in restaurants — are shuttered, large gatherings are banned, and popular hiking trails and beaches are largely off-limits.
Hopes for a night under the stars at a Dodgers game in Los Angeles have faded. Dreams of eating funnel cake and watching pig races at the state fair in Sacramento evaporated. Visions of sunning on beaches and riding the waves vanished.  
To begin gradually loosening restrictions in place for about a month, Newsom said there must be widespread COVID-19 testing, which has already proved problematic. Public health officials also would have to chase down everyone exposed to someone infected with the virus. That’s no small task in the nation’s most populous state, with 40 million people spread across 750 miles (1,200 kilometers).
Any broad reopening would depend on a vaccine that could be more than a year away and evidence of “herd immunity,” meaning a sufficiently high percentage of people won’t get infected.  
For those who stayed home, observed social distancing and otherwise followed the rules, Newsom’s message sounded like something Californians can’t envision in summer: a rainy day. And this could last all season.  
“From the sound of it, it’s going to be a really dreary summer,” said Molly Rood, who usually heads to Hermosa Beach with a book after work or rides her bike or skateboard. “The governor didn’t outright say, ‘Hey, you guys aren’t going to the beach this summer.’ But he said pretty explicitly no mass gatherings will be likely in June, July, August. You put that together — no mass gatherings means no beach, because the beach has hundreds of people on it at once.”  
The feel of summer arrives early in California — a characteristic of the climate. Yosemite Falls is roaring, but the national park is closed and no tourists are there to be drenched in its mist.
The Coachella Music Festival would have kicked off a season of big outdoor concerts last weekend in the desert near Palm Springs. But that show and Napa Valley’s Memorial Day weekend festival BottleRock were postponed until October. San Francisco Pride, a massive LGBTQ gathering held each June, has been canceled.
There’s also no camping at state and national parks from the redwoods to the desert for the foreseeable future.  
Baseball would already be in play at five major league ballparks from San Diego to San Francisco. Now that season — and all other pro sports — are in jeopardy.
For David Brady, summertime is about being outdoors — hiking, biking, running or taking a stroll. And it means catching a baseball game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
“The absence of baseball right now is really palpable, because it’s April and every team has hope in April,” said Brady, a public policy professor at University of California, Riverside. And now, “no team has hope.”  
Before the pandemic came to California, the governor ordered people to stay home and face coverings were ubiquitous, Linda York had big plans for the summer.
The South San Jose resident looked forward to her son’s wedding in Maui, her aunt’s 100th birthday in Canada and an annual trip to see her mother-in-law in Michigan.  
She isn’t certain any of it will go forward after watching Newsom’s news conference Tuesday and feeling “major depression and disappointment.” She’s not sure she wants to get on a plane the rest of 2020.
“I was thinking he was going to say something a little more positive,” she said. “I almost feel like this year’s going to be a wash.”
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China on Thursday denied allegations in a U.S. State Department report that it was secretly testing nuclear weapons in violation of its international obligations.  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing that the allegations about Chinese nuclear testing in the department’s Nuclear Compliance Reportwere “totally unfounded countercharges that confuse right and wrong.”  “China has always performed its international obligations and commitments in a responsible manner, firmly upheld multilateralism, and actively carried out international cooperation,” Zhao said. “The U.S. accusation against China is made of thin air, which is totally unfounded and not worth refuting.”  The 2020 Compliance Reportissued Wednesday accused China of failing to adhere to its non-proliferation commitments and suspend nuclear testing by maintaining a “high level of activity” last year at its Lop Nur test site in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang.  China has pledged not to test nuclear weapons, but like the U.S. and several other nations has yet to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. China is an acknowledged nuclear power but claims it possesses only a fraction of the number of weapons maintained by the U.S. and Russia.  Zhao on Thursday pointed to the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and other agreements as grounds for discounting Washington’s accusations.  China, in contrast, has “made important contributions to upholding the international arms control and non-proliferation regime, as well as safeguarding international peace and security,” Zhao said.  He also said the U.S. had yet to destroy its stock of chemical weapons and was continuously bolstering its armed forces in a manner that “undermines the global strategic balance and stability and obstructed the process of international arms control and disarmament.”  “So, it is not qualified to be a judge or referee in this regard,” Zhao said.  
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Tanzania has canceled this year’s April 26 national holiday celebration commemorating the 1964 merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar to become Tanzania as the country’s coronavirus tally rises.Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said the Union Day observance was called off because of the pandemic.Majaliwa said President John Magufuli is redirecting the $217,000 set aside for the holiday celebrations to go toward fighting the coronavirus in the country.Meanwhile, the government’s 30-day order closing schools and universities and banning public gatherings is to expire Friday.Tanzania’s coronavirus tally rose to 53 on Wednesday, with four more people testing positive and three deaths reported.
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Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega appeared on Wednesday in a live broadcast on national television after being absent from public life for a month, raising questions about his health and whereabouts as the world reels from the novel coronavirus.Ortega, a 74-year-old former leftist guerrilla with chronic illnesses, gave no explanation for his 33-day absence but said that the Central American country is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak responsibly.”We have not stopped working, because if the people do not work, they die,” said Ortega. “We are a country of working people, people that will not die of hunger.”Ortega’s health has been a closely guarded secret and his absence from public life led to speculation about it.Over the years, Ortega has suffered two heart attacks and developed high cholesterol and other ailments, an official told Reuters last week. Since then, the president has been increasingly protective of his health, the official said.Now in his second stint as president after orchestrating a constitutional change to allow for reelections, Ortega said that Nicaragua has the lowest number of coronavirus infections, registering only nine cases and one fatality.”We have the capacity to attend to coronavirus patients,” Ortega said.Public health experts have questioned the accuracy of the official figures and urged the government to report how many people have been tested for the coronavirus.Nicaragua is one of the few countries that does not have social distancing measures, does not prohibit mass gatherings and has not canceled school and university classes as recommended by the World Health Organization. 
  
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