Coronavirus update: Donald Trump warns US headed for ‘very, very painful two weeks’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned of a “very painful” two weeks as the United States wrestles with a coronavirus surge that the White House warns could kill as many as 240,000 Americans.
“This is going to be a very painful, a very, very painful two weeks,” Trump told a press conference at the White House.
Trump described the pandemic as “a plague.”
“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” he said.
Top health experts said that the decision to maintain strict social distancing was the only way to stop the easily transmitted virus, even if this has caused massive disruption to the economy with three quarters of Americans under some form of lockdown.
“There’s no magic vaccine or therapy. It’s just behaviors, each of our behaviors translating into something that changes the course of this viral pandemic over the next 30 days,” Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator at the White House, said.
Birx displayed a chart at the press conference charting a range of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the United States, when current efforts at mitigation are taken into account.
Infectious diseases specialist Anthony Fauci told the press conference that “mitigation is actually working” and that authorities are “doing everything we can to get it (the death toll) significantly below that.”
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Pakistani trans drama wins Cannes 'Queer Palm' award
A Pakistani movie featuring a daring portrait of a transgender dancer in the Muslim country on Friday won the Cannes "Queer Palm" prize for best LGBT, "queer" or feminist-themed movie, the jury head told AFP. It is the first-ever Pakistani competitive entry at the Cannes festival and on Friday also won the Jury Prize in the "Un Certain Regard" competition, a segment focusing on young, innovative cinema talent.
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As Russia eyes rest of Donbas, Ukraine reminded of Mariupol horrors | 10 updates
As Moscow continues its offensive in Ukraine's Donbas, officials fear that Donbas will suffer a similar fate as Mariupol - a port city in the war-torn country that fell to Russia after weeks of heavy fighting following the invasion. Russia-backed separatists have already controlled some parts of the Donbas region for eight years. Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine have claimed control of a town in the Donetsk region, Lyman.
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Texas shooting: Cops waited outside classroom as students begged for help
A top Texas security official on Friday revealed that students trapped inside a classroom at the elementary school repeatedly called 911 as officers waited more than an hour to breach the door after following the gunman into the building, news agencies reported. “From the benefit of hindsight... it was the wrong decision, period,” the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw said. Not before Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers.
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Shanghai's baby steps in ending curbs, N. Korea sees relief | Top Covid updates
As of Friday evening, some 88,520 more people reportedly showed fever symptoms, compared with nearly 400,000 - in the same time period - about 10 days ago. Meanwhile, in China's financial hub of Shanghai, gradual steps towards the lifting of its Covid lockdown are being taken. The city has been one of the major hotspots in China which saw a harsh two-month lockdown to arrest the spread of virus.
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Texas school shooter’s warning signs get lost in sea of posts on social media
The foreboding posts, however, are often lost in an endless grid of Instagram photos that feature semi-automatic rifles, handguns and ammunition. There’s even a popular hashtag devoted to encouraging Instagram users to upload daily photos of guns with more than 2 million posts attached to it.
