Florida breaks record for new coronavirus cases in a single day . . . Florida on Thursday broke its record for the highest number of coronavirus cases reported in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic. The Sunshine’s State department of health reported 1,698 new COVID-19 infections — almost 20 percent higher than the previous daily high of 1,419 cases recorded last Thursday.

There are now at least 69,069 reported cases and 2,848 deaths tied to the outbreak in Florida, according to the latest numbers released Thursday. Gov. Ron DeSantis was asked whether he would consider rolling back reopening plans over the increase in cases — and said the spike was tied to an increase in testing. New York Post

 

Houston on "precipice of disaster" . . . Houston-area officials are “getting close” to reimposing stay-at-home orders and are prepared to reopen a Covid-19 hospital established but never used at a football stadium as virus cases expand in the fourth-largest U.S. city. The announcement by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Thursday came a day after the Lone Star state recorded its highest one-day tally of new cases since the pandemic emerged. “We may be approaching the precipice of a disaster,” said Hidalgo, the highest-ranking county executive. “It’s out of hand right now. The good news is it’s not severe out of hand.” Bloomberg

 

How Cuomo and de Blasio made the pandemic worse . . .  New York leaders faced an unanticipated crisis as the new coronavirus overwhelmed the nation’s largest city. Their response was marred by missed warning signs and policies that many health-care workers say put residents at greater risk and led to unnecessary deaths. In the first few days of March, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio assured New Yorkers things were under control. On March 2, Mr. de Blasio tweeted that people should go see a movie. Only after the disease had gripped the city’s low-income neighborhoods in early March did Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio mobilize public and private hospitals to create more beds and intensive-care units. The hasty expansion that ensued, led by New York government leaders and hospital administrators, produced mistakes that helped worsen the crisis, health-care workers say. Wall Street Journal

 

 

Democrats want Biden to stay in the basement . . . Of course they do! Unfortunately, he will have to govern from the Oval Office, and that won’t be easy for him. Democrats say the main reason they want Biden hidden away is that it’s best to let President Trump just self-destruct. But that is what the Washington establishment always thinks. They think Trump plays poorly, because they don’t like him and don’t understand his appeal. I mean, he’s not lawyer, for example, and he doesn’t talk like one! He talks like a guy you meet at a bar, except one worth $4 billion. But the even bigger reason they want Biden hidden is that the former vice president has trouble . . . expressing himself. He knows what he wants to say, but he can’t say it. Actually, he doesn’t know what he wants to say, and he can’t say it. White House Dossier

 

It worked: Trump killing of Soleimani set back Iran influence in Iraq . . . It was a bold move to kill one of Iran’s top leaders. But Qassim Soleimani had been killing U.S. forces for years and undermining U.S. interests in the region. And now that he’s dead, it’s not so easy for Iran, turns out. The hit was a success. Iran =struggles to maintain sway over Iraqi militias six months after America assassinated Soleimani and top militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike, according to the Associated Press. White House Dossier

 

China used nearly 200,000 fake accounts for propaganda . . . Russia, which played a central role in trying to influence the 2016 elections, waged similar campaigns using just under 1,200 state-linked accounts, according to Twitter, which said that Turkey also conducted similar campaigns. China is by far the largest state-backed influencer on the website. Twitter said that it removed all of the accounts it found to be part of the Communist regime’s massive propaganda effort. Washington Free Beacon

 

Apple removes apps on China's orders . . . Apple Inc. removed podcast apps Pocket Casts and Castro from its App Store in China at the request of the Cyberspace Administration of China, the apps’ developers said this week. “We believe podcasting is and should remain an open medium, free of government censorship,” Pocket Casts wrote on Twitter. “As such we won’t be censoring podcast content at their request.” The developers said that Apple contacted them on behalf of the Chinese regulator and that the app was removed two days later. The developer wrote that Apple said Pocket Casts includes “content that is illegal in China as determined by the CAC.” Bloomberg

 

Australia all but eliminates coronavirus . . . Most parts of Australia have entirely eliminated the coronavirus, officials said Friday, as they announced that concert crowds, fans in stadiums and even students from abroad can all return next month. Brendan Murphy, the country’s top medical officer, said fewer than 40 infections have been recorded over the past week. More than half of those cases were in travelers who recently returned home from overseas or who had already been isolating themselves. “We have effectively achieved elimination at this time in many parts of the country,” Murphy said. Washington Post

 

Stocks suffer massive losses . . . Investors unloaded U.S. stocks Thursday at the fastest pace since March after the Federal Reserve a day earlier vowed to keep interest rates near zero through 2022 to support the beleaguered economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average  plunged 1,862 points, or 6.9%, to close at 25,128.17. The index is now down 11.9% for 2020. It was the worst day for the Dow since March 16, when it dropped 2,997 points, or 12.9%. Investors were worried about increases in reported COVID-19 infections in 21 states, as the U.S. economy reopens. Dow futures as this newsletter went out suggested a rebound Friday. MarketWatch

 

CNN analyst calls for statues of Jefferson and Washington to come down . . . CNN commentator Angela Rye has called for all statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to be taken down because the men they enshrine were slave owners, she said Wednesday. ‘American history is not all glorious ... George Washington was a slave owner. We need to call slave owners out for what they are,’ Rye declared on the network Thursday. ‘Whether we think they were protecting American freedom or not, he wasn't protecting my freedoms – my ancestors weren’t deemed human beings to him. ‘To me, I don't care if it's a George Washington statue or Thomas Jefferson, they all need to come down,’ Rye concluded. Daily Mail

 

LA Times chief says word "looting" is racist . . . Los Angeles Times executive editor Norman Pearlstine claimed that using the word "looting" in relation to the unrest that has taken place during the George Floyd protests has a "racist connotation." "One of the active debates we had over the past week was about the use of the word “looting” to describe the destruction of property," Pearlstein said. "The feeling among the black journalists at The Los Angeles Times who frankly educated the rest of us to the fact that looting had a pejorative racist connotation and that comparing it to the kind of behavior of the police and the kind of behavior that we witnessed really was a false equivalency and yet it was one that we were making as journalists if you picked up a copy of our paper." National Association of Black Journalists president Dorothy Tucker called the conversation "interesting," adding that the word "riot" falls in a "similar" category as the word "looting. Fox News

 

 

Video shows Chicago police lounging during riots . . . Late one night two weeks ago, a group of Chicago police officers put up their feet and lounged in the burglarized office of a U.S. congressman, preparing popcorn and coffee for themselves and napping on the couch. U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois, announced in a press conference Thursday that several officers were caught on videotape in his campaign office on the South Side. The office had been burglarized amid looting About 13 officers were lounging in the office, including three supervisors and 10 other officers, for four or five hours, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. USA Today

 

 

Chicago officers who kneel will be kicked out of union . . . The new president of Chicago’s powerful police union has issued a stern warning to officers. He says any officers showing sympathy to police protesters while in uniform could be thrown out of the union.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot isn’t happy about it. “I don’t believe it’s the time or place to be doing that,” said Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara. In office for only a month, Catanzara is laying down the law for his members. “If you kneel, you’ll be risking being brought up on charges and thrown out of the lodge,” Catanzara said. Fox 32 Chicago

San Francisco cops won't respond to non-criminal calls . . . San Francisco police will stop responding to neighbor disputes, reports on homeless people, school discipline interventions and other non-criminal activities as part of a police reform plan the mayor announced Thursday. Mayor London Breed said in a news release that on calls that don’t involve a threat to public safety, police would be replaced by trained, unarmed professionals to limit unnecessary confrontation between the police department and the community. Washington Times

 

Jewish kids take over NYC streets demanding reopening of sleepaway camps . . . Young Jewish children took over the streets of South Williamsburg on Thursday night calling on the state to allow sleepaway camps to operate this summer. Footage of the protest, with many of the youngsters voicing their demand while riding bikes and scooters, was posted to Twitter by several Jewish media organizations. “We want camp, we want camp,” the kids chanted as they rode on the sidewalks and through vehicular traffic on Wallabout Street and Lee Avenue. In another video, protesters were directed by an NYPD community affairs officer as the group crowded and blocked a neighborhood intersection. Many of the demonstrators held up paper signs that read “camp.” New York Post