Your Friday Evening Briefing

March 20, 2020

Your Friday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Marcus Payadue

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

1. Nearly 85 million Americans will be under stay-at-home orders by this weekend as states aim to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo told New Yorkers to stay indoors and ordered all nonessential businesses to keep workers home as the number of coronavirus cases in his state topped more than 7,800. Above, Brooklyn on Friday. The move came 24 hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom of California issued a similar order.

New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois were preparing to follow their lead. The number of known cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. surged past 15,000 on Friday as testing expanded and the virus spread.

Meanwhile, the White House said that U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada would be closed to nonessential travel beginning this weekend.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain told restaurants, bars, cafes and health clubs to close tonight. Italy reported 627 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing its total fatalities to 4,032, and Spain became the second European country to report more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths.

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James Glanz, Lauren Leatherby, Matthew Bloch, Mitch Smith, Larry Buchanan, Jin Wu and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

2. The coronavirus has infected many more people in the U.S. than testing has shown so far.

That’s according to Columbia University researchers who used a New York Times database of known cases and Census Bureau transportation data to model how the outbreak could evolve based on what is known about the virus.

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Stringent measures to limit social contact in large parts of the country are needed to significantly stem the tide of illness and death in the coming months, they said.

In Washington State, medical leaders are quietly preparing for what once might have looked like a doomsday scenario: rationing medical care.

Erin Scott for The New York Times

3. Senators and White House officials, above, are scrambling to reach a bipartisan agreement on a $1 trillion economic rescue plan.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said he hoped to reach “an agreement in principle” by midnight. But Republicans and Democrats remain deeply divided over the details of a deal, including direct payments to individuals from the government, paid leave provisions and assistance to businesses.

One all-too-predictable result: a lobbying gold rush at the prospect of an unprecedented bailout.

Separately, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina called for an ethics investigation as he seeks to clear himself following the disclosure that he sold at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in shares after being briefed about the coronavirus outbreak.

Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

4. Americans with tight financial resources have few options as they navigate coronavirus closures and layoffs.

Summer Mossbarger and Jordan Spahn, who have six children, pictured above, are among the many struggling families in Texas who rely on free meals from the local school to feed their children.

“I’m not going to let my kids go hungry,” Ms. Mossbarger said. “If I have to just eat once a day, that’s what I have to do.”

And working from home isn’t an option for some two million Americans who have jobs in grocery stores. “At the end of the day, what we’re doing is important to a lot of people, so it’s a sacrifice we have to make,” said a grocery store manager in Queens, N.Y.

Al Drago for The New York Times

5. A global health crisis, this time without U.S. leadership.

When H.I.V. and Ebola hit crisis levels, the U.S. stepped up as a leader, working with allies and the U.N. to draw up a global response.

That was then. As the coronavirus pandemic spreads to 150 countries, the U.S. under President Trump is abandoning that role, our diplomatic correspondent writes. The American position stands in contrast to that of China, which is sending ventilators, masks and testing kits to Europe.

Doctors in the U.S. say they’re facing critical shortages of the medical supplies needed to treat infected patients, but Mr. Trump is reluctant to use federal law to require American businesses to produce those materials.

Margeaux Walter for The New York Times

6. Here is some practical advice for a household working from home.

Establish boundaries and an agreed-upon everyday routine. And if you want to hide from your colleagues during Zoom calls, cover your camera with tape. Caity Weaver, your Work (from home) Friend, shares some new work rules in the time of coronavirus.

We have some other sanity-saving advice from across the newsroom:

The coronavirus has turned drinks at the bar into drinks at home. Here’s how to have a successful virtual happy hour.
You don’t need fancy equipment or a lot of time: Here are six things you can do every day to maintain your physical and mental health at home.
And for a touch of self-care, T Magazine rounded up ingredients that can help transform a simple bath into a restorative, spalike escape.

The New York Times

7. “Delete Forever” sounds simple at first. But the singer and songwriter Claire Boucher, who performs as Grimes, says it’s anything but.

Her new album, “Miss Anthropocene,” tackles climate change, consumerism, drug addiction and more, blending dance music, Bollywood sounds, Taiwanese rap, nu-metal and electronic pop with science fiction and comic book imagery.

In our latest “Diary of a Song,” she breaks down how the opioid crisis and comic books inspired one of her most vulnerable songs yet.

Luke Sharrett for The New York Times

8. Craft beer fans know hops. What about yeast?

In search of distinct aromas, brewers are embracing bacteria and yeast strains from across the globe. During fermentation, yeast converts sugars into alcohol and creates pungent compounds that might evoke peaches, oranges or pineapples.

“How creative can you get?” said DeWayne Schaaf, above, who uses yeasts from places like Spain, Wisconsin and Norway to ferment his eclectic beers.

If you’re looking for a cooking project this weekend, we recommend this handy guide on how to make sourdough bread.

Ana Cuba for The New York Times

9. And now for an escape to the movies.

In this profile from our Style section, Daniel Radcliffe, 30, talks about his work onstage and in TV comedies, ending his run as Harry Potter and learning from a fake tweet that he had the coronavirus.

The tweet wasn’t true, but this is: The outbreak is prompting some studios to rethink the way movies are released. “The Invisible Man” and “Emma” are among the films that will be available for streaming at home much earlier than expected.

Our film critics Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott can’t go to the movies for now, so they decided to revisit some classics. Their first Weekend Watch is “Top Gun.”

George Rose/Getty Images

10. Finally, calling on all citizen scientists.

Where do monarch butterflies go in early spring, after leaving the central California coast and heading west and north? Researchers are hoping to crowdsource their paths in the next several weeks, asking for photos of any sightings.

They would like anyone who spots a monarch north of Santa Barbara this spring to snap a quick picture and include a date and location to confirm where the monarchs might be traveling. It’s part of a bigger question to answer what’s causing their decline.

“Butterfly populations are bouncy,” one scientist said. “While we think the situation right now is very concerning, we do think there’s a lot of potential to turn it around.”

Have a hope-filled weekend.

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