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Your Tuesday Evening Briefing |
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Good evening. Here’s the latest. |
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1. California is inching forward with plans to gradually ease restrictions it imposed to curb the coronavirus outbreak. |
But to do that safely, some rules will be necessary: Masks and face coverings are likely to remain a feature of public life; patrons of restaurants will probably have their temperatures taken before being seated and will be served by someone in a mask and gloves; in the fall, students may attend school in shifts to avoid crowded classrooms. |
Gov. Gavin Newsom did not give a time frame, saying he would revisit the question in two weeks, but assured residents: “Normal it will not be.” |
Governors on both sides of the aisle have been at odds with President Trump over who has the authority to reopen parts of the country. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York urged the president to avoid being “dictatorial,” before shifting his tone. |
And in Washington, Mr. Trump ordered a halt to U.S. funding for the World Health Organization while his administration reviews its handling of the pandemic. Here’s the latest. |
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2. New York City’s coronavirus death toll soared past 10,000 after officials added more than 3,700 people presumed to have died of the virus but had never tested positive. |
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The revised numbers put a new focus on shortcomings in testing that have hamstrung city and state officials since the beginning of the outbreak. On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city had taken steps to ensure a regular supply of test kits, about 400,000 per month. Above, a patient at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. |
The new figures appeared to increase the overall U.S. death count by 17 percent, to more than 26,000. Nearly 2 million people have been infected worldwide. |
Britain also adjusted its numbers: New government figures indicate that deaths could be at least 10 percent higher than the official toll — 12,107 as of Tuesday — which does not take into account deaths at nursing homes or at home. |
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3. Why six feet? Is that really far enough to protect you and others? Based on studies of air flow, some scientists say farther would be even better. |
Researchers say no guideline is likely to offer perfect safety. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bases its recommendation on the idea that most large droplets that people expel when they cough or sneeze will fall to the ground within six feet. |
But air currents can carry virus particles from an infected person to another location more than 20 feet away. We visualized a cough to show how far respiratory droplets can spread. |
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4. The International Monetary Fund says global growth is headed for its worst levels since the Great Depression. |
The world economy will contract by 3 percent in 2020, according to the I.M.F. forecast, a downturn that would be far more severe than the last recession, when the world economy contracted by less than 1 percent between 2008 and 2009. Above, a shuttered street in the Bronx. |
As the coronavirus upends economic life around the world, small towns like Bristol, N.H., are particularly vulnerable. Economic destruction came quickly for the lakeside town. |
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5. Former President Barack Obama threw his support behind Joe Biden. |
“I believe Joe has all the qualities we need in a president right now,” Mr. Obama said in a video, endorsing his former vice president and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. [Watch the full announcement.] |
While he stayed publicly neutral in the Democratic primaries, Mr. Obama was considerably more engaged in the campaign’s endgame than has been previously revealed. Mr. Obama had at least four long conversations with Senator Bernie Sanders to ease him out of the race. |
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6. Getting an abortion, not easy in many states under ordinary circumstances, has become even harder in recent weeks. |
At least seven states — including Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, above, Tennessee and Texas — have declared abortion a nonessential medical procedure. Abortion rights groups have sued some states, saying that the coronavirus pandemic is being used as a pretense to restrict the procedure. |
If upheld, those moves would essentially ban abortion during the outbreak. Except in Texas, the efforts have been blocked by judges, but that could change. |
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7. “Life without school is much more boring than I thought it would be.” |
That’s 14-year-old Una Hoppe of Beacon, N.Y. We asked kids around the country about being stuck at home with their parents, remote learning, and their thoughts about the virus. |
Some children are having trouble sleeping, but there are ways to deal with disrupted bedtime routines. |
Like many of his young friends stuck at home, Elmo is having a virtual meet-up this week with his Sesame Street pals and celebrities like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anne Hathaway. It’s the latest children’s show to address the coronavirus and the changes it has brought for families. |
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8. You’re not the only one having weird dreams. |
We spoke to Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist and dream expert at Harvard Medical School, who confirmed that many people are having vivid dreams. “A ton of bug dreams,” she said. |
But there’s good news: You can program your dreams. Choose a category of dream you’d like to have — for instance, flying — and at bedtime, remind yourself of it. Perhaps watching this six-hour loop of grazing sheep will help as it did for our restaurant critic Pete Wells. |
You’re also not the only one who has lost track of time. Searches for “what day is it” have spiked online. |
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9. This might be the longest creature ever seen in the ocean. |
With the help of a remotely piloted deep-sea robot, scientists spotted a swirling 150-foot-long siphonophore — a colony of individual zooids, or clusters of cells that clone themselves thousands of times to produce an extended, stringlike body. Blue whales, by comparison, are nearly 100 feet long. |
But the siphonophore was only one of the amazing things scientists spotted in the deep ocean off Western Australia: They also identified up to 30 new species. |
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10. And finally, move over unicorns. |
Llamas are having their moment in the sun in the toy and home-décor industries. There are squishy llamas. Plush llamas. Sequined llamas. Pooping llamas. Even Lego is getting with the program, with plans to debut a play cube and a tiny accompanying llama later this year. |
Llamas, a cousin of the camel, may even unseat unicorns as the best seller. |
“Unicorns are magical, but llamas are real and relatable,” a toy company executive said. “They have different character attributes that kids can relate to: They blink, they grin, they spit.” |
Have a playful evening. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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