Sunday News: “Biden slams Trump in new ad: ‘The death toll is still rising.’ ‘The president is playing golf'”; “Covid Dreams, Trump Nightmares”; “Clean energy is key to Virginia’s economic recovery”; “Northam checks on Oceanfront during beach’s opening weekend”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, May 24.

Nearly 100,000 lives have been lost, and tens of millions are out of work.

Meanwhile, the president spent his day golfing. pic.twitter.com/H1BVNtgVjA

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 24, 2020

• South America Emerges As A New COVID Epicenter, While Cases In Africa Grow Rapidly (“A WHO doctor said Brazil is the most affected country in South America, and is relying heavily on the disputed drug hydroxychloroquine for treatment.”)
• Russian Deaths Increase; Japan to End Emergency: Virus Update
• Beijing Urges U.S. to Drop ‘Wishful Thinking’ of Changing China
• Netanyahu to be Israel’s first sitting PM on trial – case opens today
• Netanyahu in the dock: image of Israeli PM on trial may haunt him for ever (“If convicted on corruption charges, country’s longest-serving leader could be sentenced to more than a decade in jail”)
• Jacinda Ardern Sold a Drastic Lockdown With Straight Talk and Mom Jokes (“Leading New Zealand from isolation, Ms. Ardern coaxed her “team of five million” into accepting extreme restrictions. But the lessons of her success go beyond personality or charm.”)
• Oxford University Vaccine Trials Run Into Hurdle: Telegraph
• Earliest signs of vaccine effectiveness not until autumn, says head of global vaccine alliance
• Report: Brazil’s indigenous people are dying at an alarming rate from Covid-19
• Grappling With a Terrible Milestone: One Hundred Thousand Dead (“To mourn in a moment of collective trauma is to experience not one but multiple layers of loss.”)
• Coronavirus live news: Wuhan lab had bat viruses but not Covid-19 strain as Australia border row simmers
• UK Conservative lawmakers call on PM’s adviser to quit over lockdown drive
• Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair questions Trump’s coronavirus strategy (“The most important thing at a time like this is to say, ‘How do you bring the world together?’” Blair told NBC News.”)
• One final viral infusion: Trump’s move to block travel from Europe triggered chaos and a surge of passengers from the outbreak’s center
• Trump Takes Aim at a Watergate Reform: The Independent Inspector General
• Imperial College Model Finds COVID-19 Virus Reproduction Rate Still >1.0 in Much of U.S., Including Virginia (“We predict that increased mobility following relaxation of social distancing will lead to resurgence of transmission”; “deaths over the next two-month period could exceed current cumulative deaths by greater than two-fold”)
• Remdesivir alone not enough to treat COVID-19, study says
• Trump opts for a 2016 disruption strategy that Democrats say is ill-suited for a pandemic
• Covid Dreams, Trump Nightmares (“Of masks, unmasking and dropping our professional masks for our medical ones.”)
• Trump Sows Doubt on Voting, Keeping Some People Up at Night (“A group of worst-case scenario planners — mostly Democrats, but also some anti-Trump Republicans — have been gaming out how to respond to various doomsday options for the 2020 presidential election.”)
• Trump escalates fight against mail-in voting
• Crumbs for the Hungry but Windfalls for the Rich (“Billions are going to zillionaires under the guise of pandemic relief.”)
• The three reasons conspiracy theories are more dangerous than ever
• Bill Barr’s Bullshit Weaponizes Justice’s Civil Rights Division to Fight Against Trump’s Own COVID-19 Guidance
• There is one ingredient essential to reopening the economy, and still no federal plan to get it (“What if the novel coronavirus sticks around for a year or two or longer? In that case, diagnostic testing will be critical to our ability to manage lives, jobs, schools and health. Yet we still lack a federal strategy to get there.”)
• Anthony Fauci: ‘Now Is The Time … To Care Selflessly About One Another’
• Baltimore Mayor To Donald Trump: Don’t Come Here During Coronavirus Lockdown
• Poll: Many Americans won’t venture into public despite businesses reopening (“A new survey finds coronavirus fears, not government lockdowns, are keeping people at home.”)
• Lockdowns Ease, Even as U.S. Approaches a Grim Milestone (“Governors loosened restrictions in hopes of reviving the economy, despite warnings that lifting lockdowns could cause a spike in cases. But the perils of reopening are becoming on display in places like Germany, where 40 churchgoers became infected with the coronavirus during a service on May 10. Hong Kong antigovernment protesters, subdued for months by the virus, clashed with the police on Sunday. Here’s the latest.”)
• ‘Incalculable loss’: New York Times covers front page with 1,000 Covid-19 death notices (“As US Covid-19 death toll nears 100,000, Times presents a tribute to some of the Americans to fall victim to the disease”)
• The United States’ Coronavirus Death Toll Is About to Hit 100,000. Donald Trump Went Golfing Today.
• Trump tees up on golf outing as coronavirus death toll creeps towards 100,000
• Trump golfs at his Virginia club amid the coronavirus pandemic
• Biden slams Trump in new ad: ‘The death toll is still rising.’ ‘The president is playing golf’
• No, there’s still no Biden-Ukraine scandal (Nope. Nada.)
• Elizabeth Warren to Hold Big-Dollar Fund-Raiser for Joe Biden
• Fox News Poll: Biden tops Trump in Michigan, where Gov. Whitmer is more popular than president (Biden leads 49%-41%)
• Georgia is a swing state in 2020 (“Looking at all the polling shows a race within a point, and Biden already topping Hillary Clinton’s share of the vote from four years ago with plenty of undecided voters. Clinton earned 45% of the vote and lost Georgia by 5 points.”)
• N.D. governor makes emotional plea to anti-mask crowd: Stop this senseless culture war
• Trump’s Push To Open Churches Contradicts Jesus’ Teaching To Love Neighbors, Clergy Say (“Loving your neighbor means keeping them out of harm’s way, Rev. William Barber said — joining other faith leaders criticizing Trump’s push to reopen churches.”)
• As the coronavirus pandemic strains supplies, Native Americans fight food insecurity (“A ‘Seeds and Sheep’ project in Utah is one of many innovative programs seeking to help Native communities become more food sovereign and self-reliant.”)
• A second hairstylist who worked while symptomatic potentially exposed 56 clients to Covid-19, officials say
• Political fights break out as dozens of states modify voting rules in light of pandemic
• Senator Tim Kaine Hosts Virtual Roundtable in Virginia with Latino Small Business Owners
• Video: Speeches from Sen. Tim Kaine’s “Everybody’s the Graduation Speaker” Contest
• Meet the Republicans looking to unseat Sen. Mark Warner (Or…not.)
• Coronavirus infections in Washington region pass 89,000 amid hopes for reopening D.C. suburbs
• Video: On Stafford NAACP Call, Virginia Health Commissioner Warns of Potentially “Devastating” “Second Wave” of COVID-19 This Fall (“If we get any indication we’ve got another wave coming, yes, I do think we’re going to have to take some serious steps to protect you”)
• Saturday (5/23) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +799 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 35,749), +36 Hospitalizations (to 4,181), +23 Deaths (to 1,159) From Yesterday (Cases, hospitalizations increase at slowest growth rate since pandemic began)
• Brostom, Goodwin, Landry and Zahurancik: Clean energy is key to Virginia’s economic recovery (“The bottom line is that the Virginia Clean Economy Act and renewable energy make sense for our commonwealth. It’s the clean, low-cost and efficient path to economic recovery and healthy communities. It made sense before the coronavirus, and it makes even more sense today.”)
• Northam checks on Oceanfront during beach’s opening weekend
• Gov. Northam facing criticism for not wearing mask (“Saturday, Gov. Northam was seen not wearing a mask while outside and around members of the community while visiting Virginia Beach.”)
• Barry DuVal column: Advancing the commonwealth during COVID-19 (Duval is president & CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, so keep that in mind as you read this.)
• As Virginia reopens, who will care for returning workers’ kids?
• Virginia officials prepare for surge in mail-in voting after practice is used widely in municipal elections
• Editorial: Budget challenges abound as localities tackle COVID-19 effects
• With Virginia Beach open, why are other beaches closed for Memorial Day weekend?
• Fairfax Co. coronavirus testing reached capacity early Saturday
• Why Metro’s surprise announcement of closing the Silver Line is problematic for Tysons
• UVa employees endure furloughs as hospital wrestles ‘precarious’ financials
• Richmond-area churches seeing higher-than-normal attendance online
• ‘The million dollar question is: When will we re-open?’ The uncertain future of music venues in Richmond during COVID-19
• Proctor: Community revitalization as a catalyst for conservation in the Clinch River Valley of Southwest Virginia
• Richmond office tower slated for demolition on May 30
• Back to mostly cloudy and cooler today, before Memorial Day starts a new warming trend (“The clouds persist into the morning hours of Memorial Day, but we should see increasing sun and warmth during the afternoon and into midweek as well.”)