Coronavirus, 2020 Debate, Tigers
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Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead. |
1. The coronavirus outbreak has now spread to 49 states. |
The virus has been reported in more than 2,700 people, and at least 58 patients have died. The only state not reporting cases is West Virginia. Here’s a full map of U.S. cases. |
The House passed a sweeping relief package on Friday to assist people affected by the outbreak, and it now goes to the Senate. Free coronavirus testing for all is among the provisions, as well as two weeks of paid sick leave, though millions could be left uncovered. |
For centuries, the U.S. has resisted a centralized public health policy. This week, as protective measures against the coronavirus varied county to county, Americans saw the cost. A lack of investment in public health has left local and state health departments particularly ill-equipped to face the swelling crisis ahead. |
| Chona Kasinger for The New York Times |
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For weeks, forecasters have warned of the coronavirus’s potential to disrupt the American economy. But there was little hard evidence beyond delayed shipments of goods from China and stomach-churning volatility in financial markets. |
| Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times |
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3. Life for people around the world is beginning to look very different. |
Italians remain essentially under house arrest. That hasn’t stopped them from a cacophony of music — sung and played from their balconies, from the southern islands to the Alps to Milan, above. |
Spain and France also announced severe restrictions on public life. The U.S. extended its travel ban to the United Kingdom and Ireland. |
| Erin Schaff/The New York Times |
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4. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Bernie Sanders will be auditioning for the presidency on Sunday night, trying to convey leadership, against the backdrop of a pandemic. |
Mr. Biden, the former vice president, and Mr. Sanders, the senator from Vermont, will face off in a one-on-one debate in Washington (without a studio audience). The debate will be hosted by CNN and Univision beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern time. We’ll have live coverage and analysis at nytimes.com. |
| Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times |
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Working with his Republican allies in the Senate, above, he installed 51 judges in just three years — appointing more than a quarter of the appellate bench at a record pace. At least seven had previous jobs with Mr. Trump’s campaign or his administration, and all but eight had ties to the Federalist Society, a legal group with views once considered on “the fringe.” |
| Adam Dean for The New York Times |
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6. A year has passed since the terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand. For one family who survived, it’s been a year of pain, anguish and stubborn love. |
The attack that claimed 51 lives at two mosques made Zulfirman Syah a hero and a victim — he dove over his 3-year-old son to take bullets in his back and groin, nearly dying to save his only child’s life. |
| Aldo Manzuetti |
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Discovered in Uruguay, the skull suggests that the largest saber-toothed tigers might have been able to take down giant plant-eaters, as heavy as pickup trucks, that researchers had thought were untouchable. The skull belonged to Smilodon populator, extinct for 10,000 or so years and probably tipped the scales at around 960 pounds. |
| Brett Carlsen for The New York Times |
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8. The question on dairy farmers’ minds these days is not whether anyone’s got milk. It’s how to sell it. |
Since 1975, milk consumption per capita has dipped roughly 40 percent, according to data from Nielsen, and between 2010 and 2018, sales of milk dropped by 13 percent. |
Dairy farmers are now pivoting to nondairy products (hemp, oat and plant-based milks), opening their farms to tourism (Chaney’s Dairy Barn in Kentucky, above, grosses over a million dollars a year) and finding new ways to market (think colorful packaging) in the hopes of bringing back the milk mustache. |
| Damon Winter/The New York Times |
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9. “We’re alive! As long as we’re alive, we have to keep moving.” |
When Marion Sheppard began to go blind, she cycled through many emotions — pity, rage, fear. She spent months wrestling with those emotions, until she realized she could surrender to the darkness, or she could dance. |
In an essay for Opinion, our columnist Frank Bruni, who has had his own brush with blindness, dropped in on Ms. Sheppard’s dance class at a community center for blind people. |
“When you go blind, you lose your confidence,” Ms. Sheppard said. “What I want them to do is to have confidence.” |
| Jack Hartin |
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The list is back in its old format this weekend, with stories about a former teenage Riverdancer, essential Indian recipes and The Times Magazine’s list of 25 songs that matter right now. |
For more ideas on what to read, watch and listen to, may we suggest these 11 new books our editors liked, a glance at the latest small-screen recommendations from Watching and our music critics’ latest playlist. |
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