The Commentariat -- April 21, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Manu Raju & Clare Foran of CNN: "Congressional negotiations have reached a deal on a bill that includes hundreds of billions of dollars in new funding for small businesses hurt by the coronavirus outbreak, three sources familiar tell CNN. The text of the bill should be unveiled as soon as Tuesday afternoon as the two sides give the deal a final read. Lawmakers will try to pass it in the Senate at 4 p.m. ET when the chamber convenes for a pro forma session."
Jin Wu & Allison McCann of the New York Times: "At least 28,000 more people have died during the coronavirus pandemic over the last month than the official Covid-19 death counts report, a review of mortality data in 11 countries shows -- providing a clearer, if still incomplete, picture of the toll of the crisis. In the last month, far more people died in these countries than in previous years, The New York Times found. The totals include deaths from Covid-19 as well as those from other causes, likely including people who could not be treated as hospitals became overwhelmed.... In Paris, more than twice the usual number of people have died each day, far more than the peak of a bad flu season. In New York City, the number is now four times the normal amount.... The differences are particularly stark in countries that have been slow to acknowledge the scope of the problem."
Gee, Nobody Saw This Coming. Jeff Stein & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Senior White House and Trump administration officials are planning to launch a sweeping effort in the coming days to repeal or suspend federal regulations affecting businesses, with the expected executive action seen by advisers as a way to boost an economy facing its worst shock in generations, two people familiar with the internal planning said. The White House-driven initiative is expected to center on suspending federal regulations for small businesses and expanding an existing administration program that requires agencies to revoke two regulations for every new one they issue, the two people said. While the plan remains in flux, changes could affect environmental policy, labor policy, workplace safety and health care, among other areas." The Raw Story has a summary story here. Mrs. McC: If Trump can't kill you one way (Covid-19), he'll kill you another (fall into a vat of chocolate).
Just Ignore Him. Asawin Suebsaeng, et al., of the Daily Beast: "... the White House's coronavirus response has diverged into two camps: one that defends whatever the president has chosen to care about or watch on TV, and another that actively works to ignore and paper over those excesses. The most recent, glaring example of that wild discrepancy came over the weekend, when Trump began encouraging protests against stay-at-home orders overseen by Democratic governors in several states. The president's messaging took on the language of uprising.... Rather than correct the record or even push back internally, [officials] have tried to proceed as if the president didn't just do what he had so clearly done.... [The task force] is now a team operating on a parallel but separate track: working to ameliorate a public-health crisis despite Trump pushing policies that scientists say could make that task harder."
"I Didn't Say That": ~~~
Ed O'Keefe of CBS News: "... Democratic governors asked the White House on Monday for help encouraging Americans to adhere to these local guidelines. The request came amid mixed signals from President Trump over who is ultimately responsible for determining when Americans can resume normal activities. Over the past week, Mr. Trump has insisted that only he could order an economic restart, but later told governors 'you're gonna call your own shots' on when and how to reopen and released federal guidelines on how to do so. But over the weekend, he tweeted support for small bands of conservative protesters that rallied in the state capitals of Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia and elsewhere against restrictions put in place by Democratic governors. Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday he would be speaking to all 50 governors on Monday to discuss testing and reopening the states. On the call, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said her state is using the White House guidelines to implement 'what we think are going to be best practices here in Michigan for the cautious, thoughtful, slow reopening of certain sectors of our economy. As we do that, any help on the national level to reiterate the importance of stay-at-home orders would be helpful,' Whitmer told Pence, according to audio of the meeting obtained by CBS News." Mrs. McC: Good luck with that.
Brendan Cole of Newsweek: Texas Lt. Gov. "Dan Patrick [R], who turned 70 this month, faced a social media backlash in March for telling Fox News that many of his generation were willing to 'take a chance' and return to work because an economy that was shut down by the coronavirus would harm future generations. As parts of Texas started to reopen this week following weeks of restrictions, Patrick defended his comments on Monday, telling anchor Tucker Carlson again that the recent economic hardship had left him 'vindicated.'... Comparing the death toll in Texas with its population, he went on to say, 'every life is valuable but 500 people out of 29 million and we're locked down and we're crushing the average worker, we're crushing small business, we're crushing the markets, we're crushing this country.... There are more important things than living, and that's saving this country for my children and my grandchildren and saving this country for all of us....'"
Republicans Are Dangerous to Your Health. Alison Dirr of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Officials have identified seven people who appear to have contracted COVID-19 through activities related to the April 7 election, Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said Monday. Six of the cases are in voters and one is a poll worker, Kowalik said.... Tuesday will mark the 14th day since the election -- a time frame during which epidemiologists agree symptoms typically appear."
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Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Here's the most discouraging story I've read about Covid-19: ~~~
~~~ Jeff Wise of New York: "Hopes for a return to normal life after the coronavirus hinge on the development of a vaccine. But there's no guarantee, experts say, that a fully effective COVID-19 vaccine is possible.... Not all viral diseases are equally amenable to vaccination. 'Some viruses are very easy to make a vaccine for, and some are very complicated,' says Adolfo García-Sastre, director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.... Unfortunately, it seems that COVID-19 is on the difficult end of the scale.... At this point, it's not a given that even an imperfect vaccine is a slam dunk. The way that the COVID-19 virus behaves out in the wild makes it hard to predict how it will respond to vaccination.... A recent study in China ... found that many patients who actually had the disease showed very low levels of antibodies in their blood after they recovered -- and in some cases had none at all. This might indicate that people who recover from the disease or get vaccinated against it might be able to catch it nonetheless."
Trump's Latest Threat to the Essence of the Nation: It's the "Foreigners"' Fault. Katie Rogers, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Monday evening that he intended to close the United States to people trying to immigrate into the country to live and work, a drastic move that he said would protect American workers from foreign competition once the nation's economy began to recover from the shutdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak. 'In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, 'I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!' In recent weeks, the Trump administration has used health concerns to justify aggressively restricting immigration.... But the president's late-night announcement on Monday signals his most wide-ranging attempt yet to seal off the country from the rest of the world.... It was not immediately clear what legal basis Mr. Trump would claim to justify shutting down most immigration."
"A Lot of People Love Trump." -- Trump. Ted Johnson of Deadline: At Monday's 5 pm Trump Show, [PBS reporter Yamiche] "Alcindor pressed the president about someone she recently interviewed who said his family got sick and did not take precautions 'mainly because the president wasn't taking it seriously.' 'Are you concerned that downplaying the virus maybe got some people sick?' she asked. Trump replied, 'And a lot of people love Trump. A lot of people love me. You see them all the time. I guess I am here for a reason, and for the best of my knowledge I won. And I think we are going to win again. I think we are going to win in a landslide.'" ~~~
~~~ Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC said, "That is the answer of a sociopath." Mrs. McC: One reason Alcindor is a super-successful reporter and I'm not is that my follow-up question would have been: "That's your answer? This family got sick because they listened to you and your response is, 'I'm here for a reason.' Using the royal 'we,' you say, 'We're going to win in a landslide'?? Where's your sympathy for the family? Where's your apology? Where's your contrition? Where's one normal response to an American tragedy?" However, this was Alcindor's follow-up: ~~~
~~~ Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "When [Alcindor then] asked [Trump] about rallies he held in February and March, Trump lied, ' don't know anything about rallies. I haven't left the White House in months, except to give a wonderful ship, the Comfort ... Why was Nancy Pelosi holding a street fair in Chinatown?'" ~~~
(~~~ Rem Rieder of FactCheck.org: "Pelosi did visit Chinatown in late February in an effort to encourage people to go there to eat and shop. But she did not support parades or parties, try to show the coronavirus didn’t exist or delete a tweet of her visit, as Trump [has] claimed.... On the same day as Pelosi's visit, Trump tweeted, 'The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!'")
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. “President Trump mounted a lengthy defense of the country's coronavirus testing capacity during his daily briefing on Monday, even as governors in several states scrambled to access testing materials. Mr. Trump and members of the White House coronavirus task force said they had shared information with state officials about where to find machines to process test samples, and Vice President Mike Pence again said there was' enough testing capacity for every state in America' to make decisions about lifting restrictions.... But officials at the briefing -- including Mr. Trump, who brandished a thick binder that he said listed about 5,000 testing facilities -- emphasized lab capacity over another issue that state officials have underscored recently: an insufficient supply of materials needed to conduct the tests. Pressed about the disconnect, Mr. Trump reacted dismissively to several governors." ~~~
~~~ Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "President Trump said on Twitter that the demand for more tests was driven by the same 'Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats' who earlier had demanded the federal government intervene to provide more ventilators for acute-care coronavirus patients.... [At his 5 pm show Monday,] Trump directed some of his ire at Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), the head of the National Governors Association, who he said 'didn't understand much about what was going on' when he criticized the federal government's performance in addressing the testing issue."
Trump's Evil Plan. Jonathan Chait: "President Trump's current pandemic strategy -- emphasize current; like the cliché about the weather, if you don't like it, wait a few hours -- is a baffling knot of contradictions. He is hurling all responsibility to state governments, leaving it to them to devise effective tests and to decide when to relax social distancing. At the same time, he is starving them of the resources to handle the job. And even as Trump hides behind a policy of deference to governors, he is goading right-wing protesters to force their hand.... Yet there does appear to be a strategy here. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday afternoon that Trump has 'asked White House aides for economic response plans that would allow him to take credit for successes while offering enough flexibility to assign fault for any failures to others.' Trump's seemingly paradoxical stance is an attempt to hoard credit and shirk risk.... On the surface, he is deferring responsibility and blame to the governors. Just below the surface, he is coercing them to resume economic activity as fast as possible, regardless of what public-health officials say." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Hating people is a waste of energy. I'm beginning to have trouble not wasting my energy on Trump.
Delusions of Grandeur. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The 5 pm Trump Propaganda Show is an embarrassing extravaganza every day. David Smith of the Guardian (April 18) wrote an account of this past Saturday's installment of Trump's sideshow. The story is full of chestnuts like this one: "The president ended the briefing-cum-rally as he began, talking about anything but the coronavirus. He attacked the Democratic congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as having a 'very strong anti-Israel bent'. He said of North Korea: 'Look, if I wasn't elected, you would right now -- maybe the world -- would be over'."
Katharine Seelye, et al., of the New York Times describe some of the cloak-and-dagger lengths to which state governors & hospital administrators have gone to try to secure protective gear & other supplies for medical workers & to protect the gear frombeing seized by federal agents or otherwise disappearing. For instance, "In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat ... this month announced a nearly $1 billion deal to buy hundreds of millions of masks from China. He has refused to provide details of the contract even to state lawmakers amid reports of deals getting upended at the last minute, either from countries offering higher prices or from federal agencies stepping in and seizing goods." Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) got his wife Yumi to help get more testing kits; she speaks fluent Korean & called two Korean labs to negotiate the deal.
The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. Fauci Puts a Damper on the Trumpendrooler Protests. "Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious-diseases expert, said Monday in response to protests of various states' stay-at-home orders that reopening the economy too early would backfire.... '... unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen.'... Fauci on Monday also cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from antibody tests, which determine whether a person was already infected with a virus. Many of the tests in circulation have not been validated or calibrated, he warned. Fauci added that although antibodies for other viruses generally confer immunity upon people who have them, experts have not proved that protection exists for the coronavirus and how long it lasts if it does exist." (Also linked yesterday.)
Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The White House and Congress on Monday tried to design another giant bailout package aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic's economic and health fallout, scrambling to resolve last-minute snags over loan access and testing.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on CNN Monday evening, '... now we're down to fine print, but I feel very optimistic and hopeful that we'll come to a conclusion tonight so that it can be taken up [Tuesday] in the Senate and Wednesday in the House or Representatives.'... The new package would amount to roughly $470 billion in new spending, with $370 billion directed to small businesses, $75 billion going to hospitals, and $25 billion set aside for testing." ~~~
~~~ Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "The federal government gave national hotel and restaurant chains millions of dollars in grants before the $349 billion program ran out of money Thursday, leading to a backlash that prompted one company to give the money back and a Republican senator to say that 'millions of dollars are being wasted.' Thousands of traditional small businesses were unable to get funding from the program before it ran dry. As Congress and the White House near a deal to add an additional $310 billion to the program, some are calling for additional oversight and rule changes to prevent bigger chains from accepting any more money.... Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) criticized the program, saying that 'companies that are not being harmed at all by the coronavirus crisis have the ability to receive taxpayer-funded loans that can be forgiven.'... Some of the companies receiving money are clients of JPMorgan Chase, adding fuel to criticism that Wall Street banks had helped their clients obtain large amounts."
Tom Boggioni of RawStory: "According to a report from the Daily Beast, Attorney General Bill Barr appears poised to take the lead and attempt to force governors to re-open their states during the coronavirus pandemic -- even at the risk of ramping up the spread of the virus when it appears to be slowing down. In the process, he could become the face of Donald Trump's failures to stem the COVID-19 health crisis." --s The Daily Beast story is firewalled. (Also linked yesterday.)
Patrick Wintour, et al. of the Guardian: "US hostility to the World Health Organization scuppered the publication of a communique by G20 health ministers on Sunday that committed to strengthening the WHO's mandate in coordinating a response to the global coronavirus pandemic. In place of a lengthy statement with paragraphs of detail, the leaders instead issued a brief statement saying that gaps existed in the way the world handled pandemics." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Oil Prices Drop to Minus $30/Barrel. That's Right: Minus. Stanley Reed & Clifford Krauss of the New York Times: "Something bizarre happened in the oil markets on Monday: Prices fell so much that some traders paid buyers to take oil off their hands. The price of the main U.S. oil benchmark fell more than $50 a barrel to end the day about $30 below zero, the first time oil prices have ever turned negative. Such an eye-popping slide is the result of a quirk in the oil market, but it underscores the industry's disarray as the coronavirus pandemic decimates the world economy. Demand for oil is collapsing, and despite a deal by Saudi Arabia, Russia and other nations to cut production, the world is running out of places to put all the oil the industry keeps pumping out -- about 100 million barrels a day. At the start of the year, oil sold for over $60 a barrel but by Friday it hit about $20. Prices went negative -- meaning that anyone trying to sell a barrel would have to pay a buyer $30 -- in part because of the way oil is traded." ~~~
~~~ Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Stocks fell sharply Monday, retreating after back-to-back weekly gains, as a historic decline in U.S. crude prices raised concerns about the economic damage being done by coronavirus shutdowns. A delay in funding the for the depleted small business rescue loan program also weighed on sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 592.05 points lower, or 2.5%, 23,650.44. The S&P 500 slid 1.8% to 2,823.16. The Nasdaq Composite pulled back 1% to 8,560.73."
"Send in the Quacks." Paul Krugman: "... why is there such a close alliance between modern conservatism and quackery? One answer is that a political movement that demands absolute loyalty considers quacks more reliable than genuine experts.... Another answer is that the modern right is driven in large part by the grievances of white men who don't feel that they're getting the respect they believe they deserve, and Fox-fueled hostility to 'elites' who claim to know more than guys in diners -- which, on technical subjects like epidemiology, they do -- is a key part of the movement.... Finally, there has historically been a strong association between right-wing extremism and grifting.... Fake experts have reached a kind of apotheosis under Donald Trump...."
Colorado. Denver nurses stop anti-lockdown nuts: ~~~
Georgia. Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday that certain businesses can reopen this week in a move that breaks from the majority of state leaders and defies the warnings of many public health officials. Kemp said specifically that fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, hair and nail salons, and massage therapy businesses can reopen as early Friday, April 24. Theaters and restaurants will be allowed to open on Monday, April 27, while bars and night clubs will remain closed for now.... According to an influential model often cited by the White House, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Georgia hit its projected 'peak' for daily deaths 13 days ago, on April 7. But that same model predicts that dozens of people will die each day in the coming week. And to limit a resurgence of the virus, the model says that Georgia shouldn't start relaxing social distancing until after June 15 -- when the state can begin considering other measures to contain the virus, such as contact tracing and isolation." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: On the bright side, Kemp does make Florida's Ron DeSantis look a little smarter. At least DeSantis (so far) hasn't recommended physical interactions among strangers in which sweat-sharing, touching, extended touching & breaking the skin takes place.
Iowa. Stephen Joyce, et al., of Bloomberg, republished in Yahoo! Finance: "Hundreds of National Guard personnel are being activated in Iowa as coronavirus sweeps through meat-processing plants in a state that accounts for about a third of U.S. pork supply. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (r) said 250 National Guard members have been moved to full-time federal duty status and could help with testing and contact tracing for workers at plants operated by Tyson Foods Inc. and National Beef Packing Co. Activating guard soldiers is the latest attempt to contain the disease, which has forced a growing number of slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants to slow or halt operations. The disruptions are stoking concerns for eventual fresh-meat shortages in grocery stores as well leaving some farmers without a market for their animals. That's pushing down prices for hogs and cattle, while making meat more expensive. Wholesale pork posted its biggest three-day gain in six years."
Kentucky. Christina Zhao of Newsweek: "Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced Sunday that the state had set a grim record with 273 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the highest single-day rise to date. Kentucky's increase in infected individuals comes after protesters took to the streets throughout the week to call for the state to be reopened. With the 273 additional confirmed infections, Kentucky now has 2,960 cases of the novel virus and 1,122 recoveries. Beshear also announced four new deaths on Sunday, bringing the total number of fatalities across the state to 148."
South Dakota. It's the "Foreigners"' Fault. Albert Samaha & Katie Baker of BuzzFeed News: Gov. Kristi Noem (R) & Smithfield Foods executives blame "living circumstances in certain cultures ... [unlike] your traditional American family" for the huge outbreak of coronavirus among workers in Smithfield's South Dakota pork processing plant. Noem said in a Fox "News" interview "that '99%' of the spread of infections 'wasn't happening inside the facility' but inside workers' homes, 'because a lot of these folks who work at this plant live in the same community, the same buildings, sometimes in the same apartments.' But internal company communications and interviews with nearly a dozen workers and their relatives point to a series of management missteps and half measures that contributed significantly to the spread of the virus."
Texas. Not Their Best Rodeo. Perla Trevino of the Texas Tribune & ProPublica: "The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the city's largest annual event, attracting 2.5 million people and generating nearly $400 million in economic activity for the region.... Days before the ... rodeo kicked off, area politicians celebrated this great piece of Americana -- dubbed the world's largest livestock show -- which was going forward in the age of the coronavirus. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a 29-year-old rising political star..., reassured residents that 'the overall risk of COVID-19 to the general public within our counties remains low at this time.'... Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner ... posted a video of himself line dancing to the 'wobble.' But over at the Rodeo Houston headquarters, organizers worried that the 20-day event would have to be shut down early as they watched a global increase in coronavirus cases... Enough evidence existed [at the time] that 'something was probably going to develop during that time period. We just didn't know how or when, [Dr. Kelly Larkin, an ER physician and longtime rodeo board member] told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.... Many in the community were urging organizers and city leaders to cancel the event.... Ultimately, on March 11, after eight days, the rodeo shut down. A police officer from a neighboring county who attended a pre-rodeo barbecue tested positive for the new coronavirus...."
Ishaan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "Countries such as Germany and South Korea moved to ease restrictions this week, but they have established far more efficient and widespread regimes of contact tracing and testing for the virus [than the U.S].... Even then, they remain wary about the possibility of a second wave ravaging their countries.... German Chancellor Angela Merkel..., in contrast to Trump..., urged local authorities to maintain and enforce social distancing rules to ensure that the country's slowdown in infections would continue.... And none of the indignation of Trump supporters over their apparent loss of rights during a global public health crisis can be heard in the messaging from authorities in countries that are slowly trying to restart their economies."
Brazil. Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "Former presidents, politicians and newspaper editorial boards have lined up to denounce the 'moronic' and 'anti-democratic' behaviour of Brazil's far-right leader after he hit the streets to egg on protesters demanding a return to military dictatorship. As the number of deaths caused by Covid-19 rose to nearly 2,500 on Sunday, Jair Bolsonaro left his presidential palace in Brazil's capital, Brasília, to fraternize with flag-waving radicals." --s
Singapore. Hannah Beech of the New York Times: "After recording its first coronavirus case on Jan. 23, the prosperous city-state [of Singapore] meticulously traced the close contacts of every infected patient, while keeping a sense of normalcy on its streets. Borders were shut to populations likely to carry the contagion, although businesses stayed open. Ample testing and treatment were free for residents. But over the past few days, Singapore's coronavirus caseload has more than doubled, with more than 8,000 cases confirmed as of Monday, the highest in Southeast Asia. Most of the new infections are within crowded dormitories where migrant laborers live, unnoticed by many of the country's richer residents and, it turns out, the government itself. The spread of the coronavirus in this tidy city-state suggests that it might be difficult for the United States, Europe and the rest of the world to return to the way they were anytime soon, even when viral curves appear to have flattened.... If anything, the trials of this intensely urban, hyper-international country hint at a global future in which travel is taboo, borders are shut, quarantines endure and industries like tourism and entertainment are battered."
Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "High levels of air pollution may be 'one of the most important contributors' to deaths from Covid-19, according to research. The analysis shows that of the coronavirus deaths across 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France and ;Germany, 78% of them occurred in just five regions, and these were the most polluted. The research examined levels of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant produced mostly by diesel vehicles, and weather conditions that can prevent dirty air from dispersing away from a city." --safari: Seem appropriate to remember that the EPA has stopped enforcing environmental regulations now. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "An emerging shortage of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) caused by the coronavirus pandemic may affect food supply chains and drinking water, a Washington state emergency planning document has revealed. The document, a Covid-19 situation report produced by the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC), contains a warning from the state's office of drinking water (ODW) about difficulties in obtaining CO2, which is essential for the process of water treatment.... Th main reason for national shortages, according to the CEO of the Compressed Gas Association (CGA), Rich Gottwald, is a ramping down of ethanol production." --s
Justin Wise of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday lashed out at FBI leadership over the origins of the investigation into Russian election interference, calling investigators who led the probe 'human scum.' Trump made the remarks during a White House briefing after being asked about a pair of his former associates who were sentenced to prison following charges stemming from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Asked whether he'd pardon Paul Manafort and Roger Stone so they wouldn't be exposed to the coronavirus while in prison, Trump said, 'You'll find out.'" Mrs. McC: If you sometimes think maybe Trump isn't mentally disturbed, he's so often ready to disabuse you of your generous musings.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Israel. David Halbfinger & Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former challenger, Benny Gantz, agreed Monday night to establish a unity government, a deal that finally breaks a yearlong political impasse and keeps Mr. Netanyahu in office as he faces trial on corruption charges. After three inconclusive elections in the past year, the creation of the new government forestalls what had appeared to be an inevitable fourth election and offers a deeply divided Israel a chance for national healing as it battles the coronavirus pandemic."
North Korea. Jim Sciutto, et al., of CNN: "The US is monitoring intelligence that suggests North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, is in grave danger after undergoing a previous surgery, according to [US officials].... A South Korean source told CNN Monday that the country's top leaders are very much aware of reports about Kim's health status but cannot independently verify details published by Daily NK.... South Korea's Unification Ministry and Defense Ministry have given a 'no comment.'"
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