Wednesday, May 27 coronavirus and top news briefs
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Wednesday, May 27. Here are today’s top news briefs.
Today there was supposed to be a historic NASA and SpaceX rocket launch with two American astronauts, but it was cancelled and delayed to Saturday due to bad weather. President Donald Trump flew around the launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Air Force One. Over 1.5 million people were watching the launch preparations LIVE on NASA’s YouTube channel. The astronauts were seated in a Dragon capsule and the rocket was getting fueled up, but there were thunderstorms in the area. That’s typical Florida weather. The launch will happen on Saturday afternoon at 3:22 pm EST. It’ll be LIVE on NASA’s YouTube channels and other news channels.
The U.S. has reached 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus in only five months. The New York Times has their own database and was the first to say we’ve hit that grim milestone. The Johns Hopkins dashboard says there are 99,800 deaths as of this afternoon, and it is likely to be past 100,000 by the time this video is posted tonight.
So, with 100,000 deaths, we see that the coronavirus is not similar to the common flu, which kills 24,000 to 62,000 people a year in the U.S. Compare that with 100,000 in five months. There is no vaccine or cure for the coronavirus, and it is far more contagious.
[Sponsored Video from Convo: https://bit.ly/2RyMogR ]
France banned the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a Covid-19 treatment due to a medical study in “The Lancet” that found there was a higher risk of heart problems and death among coronavirus patients who took the drug. President Trump has frequently promoted the drug and said he took it as a preventative for the coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview with CNN that according to scientific data, hydroxychloroquine has a “lack of efficacy” against the coronavirus. Dr. Fauci did not say if he thinks the drug should be banned, but said that the data is clear that it may cause heart issues.
President Trump is angry with Twitter for slapping a “fact check” link under two of his tweets from yesterday. The tweets by Trump claimed that mail-in ballots would be a massive fraud with mailboxes being robbed. When you click on the blue “fact check” link, it leads to a series of news links and a brief bullet-point list that says there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud. President Trump responded by tweeting that Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election and said that Republicans feel that social media platforms silence conservatives voices and that they would regulate or close them down instead of allowing it to happen.
The NHL announced that when they are allowed and able to resume their suspended season due to the coronavirus, they will go straight to a 24-team playoff in two hub cities, one for teams from the Eastern Conference and one for teams from the Western Conference. The NHL plans to test players every night for Covid-19. The tournament could take place in July.
There were protests last night in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being kneeled in the neck by a white police officer. Pictures on social media shows hundreds of people congregating on streets and around a police precinct. Some police officers
launched tear gas and fired rubber bullets at people who damaged police cruisers. The FBI is investigating Floyd’s death. The officer who kneeled on Floyd has been identified as Derek Chauvin. He and three other officers involved in with Floyd’s arrest and eventual death have been fired. Floyd’s family said all four officers should be charged with murder.
Today we had our second named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season — Tropical Storm Bertha. It formed this early morning off the coast of South Carolina with wind speeds of over 39 mph. It made landfall after 9:00 a.m.
Sec. of State Mike Pompeo said Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China. That means the U.S. doesn’t consider Hong Kong to be free from China’s rule. This declaration means the U.S. may impose the same tariffs and export controls it has for China on Hong Kong.
Disney World in Florida plans to reopen in mid-July with rules limiting the number of visitors, mandatory face masks, and deploying staff tasked with enforcing social distancing. Disney World and its six parks has been closed since March 15.
That is all the top news for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aymrnzianf0
https://www.axios.com/fauci-hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-75aefe6a-adb0-4ff8-a5c3-6017f1dbeb56.html
https://twitter.com/i/events/1265330601034256384
https://www.axios.com/nhl-hockey-coronavirus-return-plan-d054a64e-f454-4212-a465-e601b9a3e2aa.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/27/us/minneapolis-george-floyd-police-death/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/business/coronavirus-disney-world-reopening.html
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