| We’re covering new federal guidelines on lifting coronavirus-related restrictions, a break in China’s decades-long economic growth, and Amazon’s struggles during the pandemic. It’s also Friday, so there’s a new news quiz. | |  By Chris Stanford | | | The Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn last week. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday extended New York State's shutdown until May 15. Andrew Seng for The New York Times | | | President Trump issued nonbinding guidelines on Thursday that recommend a patchwork reopening of the country, backing down from an earlier assertion that he would decide how and when to end widespread lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. | | | “You’re going to be calling the shots,” he told the nation’s governors on a conference call. “We’ll be standing right alongside of you, and we’re going to get our country open and get it working.” | | | The guidelines urge states not to lift restrictions until they reach a 14-day period in which case numbers fall steadily and hospitals are not overwhelmed. But the guidance doesn’t envision the comprehensive testing that public health experts have sought and left difficult questions unanswered, including on travel between states. | | | ■ Protesters in several states have urged governors to relax stay-at-home orders, reflecting both economic frustrations and political divides. In Ohio on Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine said some businesses could begin to reopen on May 1, after growing pressure from Republican lawmakers. | | | ■ Britain extended its lockdown for at least three more weeks. Our reporters in London also learned that the British government paid $20 million for tests that were said to detect antibodies for the virus. The only problem? They didn’t work. | | | ■ Call it “corona-shaming.” Jennifer Lopez, George Stephanopoulos and Ivanka Trump are among the celebrities called out for appearing to flout virus-related restrictions. | | | New podcast: What is the internet doing to us? Our latest audio series, “Rabbit Hole,” explores what happens as our lives move online. Listen to the first episode here. | | | Coffins being transported in hard-hit Bergamo, Italy, last month. Fabio Bucciarelli for The New York Times | | | Infectious disease experts are unsure just how deadly the coronavirus will be, after projecting earlier this year that around 1 percent of infected people would die, a rate 10 times that of a typical flu. | | | According to various unofficial trackers, about 6.4 percent of people confirmed as infected with the virus have died worldwide. But on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where scientists have a much better understanding of how many people the infection really reached, the rate was a small fraction of that. | | | Related: Obesity may be one of the most important predictors of severe coronavirus illness, new studies say. It’s an alarming finding for the U.S., which has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. | | | Another angle: A nursing home in Queens has reported 29 deaths from the virus, although two workers told The Times that the actual toll was far higher. | | | Since the pandemic reached the U.S., the online retailer has struggled to respond after experiencing sales growth in one month that usually would take years, according to one business adviser. Sometimes products are in stock. Sometimes they aren’t. | | | Amazon’s adjustments have generated confusion for consumers, just as people are turning more than ever to online shopping. | | | Kate Scarpa, an Amazon spokeswoman, said the company was regularly updating its processes. “We know that people are depending on us,” she said. | | | Go deeper: The pandemic has illustrated how close to the edge many Americans were living, with pay and benefits eroding even as corporate profits surged. In the past month, about 22 million people in the U.S. have lost their jobs, roughly the number of positions that were created in the past decade. | | | Tony Cenicola/The New York Times | | | Masks have become an emblem in the fight against the coronavirus, with officials recommending — and in some cases requiring — that people wear them. | | | PAID POST: A Message From XBrand | | Renewable Energy in Today's Age | | Look around you...All of the things that you love about this planet can be used to power it. the sun, rain, wind, tides and waves. We are creating renewable enery that benefits you and our planet, more efficiently and inexpensively. Recharge today with something different. | | | | Learn More | | | | Weaker rules on mercury: The Trump administration’s latest regulatory rollback, which focuses on mercury and other toxic metals released from power plants, could lead to loosened controls on other pollutants. | | | Nicole Perlongo and Jennifer Jade Roberts | | | Featured video: How does a New Yawker tawk? The #BestNYAccent challenge on Instagram, started by a film director who was sidelined with Covid-like symptoms, brought out the sound of an unflappable city. | | | In memoriam: Brian Dennehy won two Tony Awards in an acting career that spanned more than 50 years in theater, movies and television. He died on Wednesday at 81. | | | News quiz: Did you follow the headlines this week? Test yourself. | | | Modern Love: In this week’s column, a married couple who lived in separate cities face the pandemic. | | | Late-night comedy: Conan O’Brien lamented New York’s new mask policy: “Yeah, everyone has to wear a mask. The players on the New York Jets said, ‘That’s OK, we’re used to hiding our identity.’” | | | What we’re reading: This Bon Appétit essay about learning to cook through crisis with the help of an Italian mother over FaceTime. “Until this, I hadn’t laughed once while reading about how people are coping with the pandemic,” writes Jenna Wortham, a staff writer for The Times Magazine and a host of our “Still Processing” podcast. | | | This week, our video team took you inside Tripoli, Libya, where residents already facing the horrors of a war zone are grappling with the pandemic. Shelling has prompted more people to flee to the city center, and fresh attacks in residential areas mean they must choose between fleeing further, and risking exposure to the virus, or staying put, and risking bombardment. | | | Melina Delkic, on the Briefings team, spoke with one of the people interviewed in the video, Montaha Nattah, a 21-year-old student. Here’s their text exchange lightly edited for space. | | | What’s your typical day like? | | | Most of my day is spent writing papers, preparing projects, attending classes and studying for exams. Studying during quarantine is quite difficult — you barely have the energy to get tasks done — but studying while living in a war zone and being quarantined is an outrageous combination I would never want anyone to experience. | | | Libyans are used to leaving their houses whenever there is intense shelling nearby. Unfortunately, during the era of Covid-19, that is not the case. | | | Montaha Nattah, 21, has lived in Libya for most of her life. | | | How long have you lived in Tripoli? | | | My whole life until 2018, when I got to study at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. I visited Libya every summer and winter break, but during these extraordinary times and despite the ongoing conflict, I decided to go back home because I believe that home is a feeling, not only a place. | | | If this pandemic is going to be the end of the world, then I’d rather die in my hometown next to my family. | | | What are you seeing and hearing around you right now? | | | Living in Tripoli nowadays means hearing drones flying above your head most of the time. It means hearing projectiles falling around you. It means seeing and smelling smoke and polluted air when you open your window because of the places that get bombed. | | | And finally, it means putting your earphones on whenever there is intensive shelling, so you can forget about the reality a little. | | | That’s it for this briefing. | | | As we end another week, I wanted to thank all the readers who’ve written recently, particularly those who’ve asked how we at The Times are doing. It means a lot to us. | | Thank you
To Melissa Clark for the recipe, and to Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the rest of the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. | | | Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the Morning Briefing. | | |
