Your Thursday Evening Briefing

April 9, 2020

Your Thursday Evening Briefing

By Lara Takenaga and Marcus Payadue

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

The New York Times

1. The American economy continues its swift, staggering decline.

Another 6.6 million people filed for unemployment last week, the Labor Department reported on Thursday, bringing the total number of jobless claims to over 16 million in just the last three weeks.

By the end of the month, more than 20 million people may be out of work, pushing the unemployment rate toward 15 percent, several economists have predicted.

The new figures came as the Federal Reserve said it could inject $2.3 trillion into the economy through new and expanded initiatives, including a lending program targeting midsize companies. The measures go far beyond anything the Fed attempted during the 2008 financial crisis.

A proposed $250 billion infusion for small business loans was held up in the Senate.

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William Widmer for The New York Times

2. The American South may be especially vulnerable to the coronavirus.

Public health officials are worried about the region’s mix of bad health, poverty and flimsy insurance options for the working poor. Critics argue that the delayed or tepid responses from some of the South’s Republican governors have exacerbated the issue.

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Above, a shuttered Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans, where obesity and other pre-existing health conditions might have contributed to the city’s high death rate.

In the Southwest, the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. faces a similar nightmare, as the virus spreads at an alarming pace across the Navajo Nation.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

3. The question of Democratic unity now looms over the presidential race.

Though Bernie Sanders, above last month, has repeatedly said he will back the eventual nominee against President Trump, it remains to be seen whether his voters will show up for Joe Biden at the polls.

In an appeal to Mr. Sanders’s progressive base, Mr. Biden announced proposals to lower the eligibility age for Medicare to 60 and to expand student debt forgiveness programs for low-income and middle class families.

4. The coronavirus has hit meat plants across the U.S.

Some companies have offered bonuses to keep people on the job, but the virus has forced the closures of some plants, where low-wage workers have fallen ill processing beef and chicken in close quarters. Some have died, like Annie Grant, above, who spent more than a week on a ventilator, prompting urgent calls for protective gear.

There are unlikely to be major disruptions to the food supply, industry analysts say, but extended closures could make some products harder to find.

Small farmers and ranchers are facing a much different problem: With no restaurants or chefs to sell directly to, they’ve scrambled to find other ways to sell their crops.

Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

5. Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are facing new waves of coronavirus cases.

Infected people who recently arrived from abroad — particularly from Europe and the U.S. — have largely fueled the resurgences, according to a Times data analysis. Above, Hong Kong airport last month.

Singapore has also seen a rise in community transmissions, with more than 400 in the past week linked to migrant worker dormitories.

None of these places had a single day with more than 10 new cases until March, but that has changed over the past two weeks.

Separately, new research shows the virus came to the New York area mainly by travelers from Europe, not Asia, and began to circulate by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case.

Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

6. How can the U.S. emerge stronger from the pandemic?

This question is at the center of a new Times Opinion project, which will publish over the next two months and focus on inequality in American society.

Though the crisis has affected the country in profoundly unequal ways, it offers an opportunity to build a better nation, as previous dark periods have, the introductory editorial argues.

The first Op-Eds of the project call for investing significantly in the public health system and shifting the balance between the rich and the poor.

Bryan Tarnowski for The New York Times

7. Many cities across the U.S. have ignored the rules for federal flood insurance, according to a Times analysis of federal data.

Only homes and buildings that are not likely to flood — meaning their ground floor is at least as high as the expected peak of a major flood — are supposed to be covered. But local governments in more than 2,000 counties have flouted those regulations — and faced few penalties. Livingston Parish in Louisiana, above, is one of them.

As many as a quarter-million insurance policies violate the rules and account for more than $1 billion in claims over the past decade. And the problem is likely to grow as climate change makes flooding more frequent and intense.

Netflix

8. Critics of “Tiger King” fear the popular Netflix documentary could roll back efforts to stop the abuse and ownership of big cats.

Many of the series’ interview subjects say the story was presented to them as a way to expose private big cat ownership in the U.S., in the same vein as conservation-themed documentaries like “Blackfish,” the SeaWorld exposé.

But conservation experts believe it instead created a glamour around tiger ownership, and turned Joseph Maldonado-Passage, the prolific breeder better known as “Joe Exotic,” into a folk hero.

On the latest episode of “Still Processing,” hosts Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham discuss what the show says about America’s unique relationship to freedom.

Cari Vander Yacht

9. Clapping has become a comfortingly predictable ritual in New York City.

The nightly cacophony devised to thank health care workers, following similar gestures around the world, also serves the larger community, argues Amanda Hess, our critic-at-large.

“It is a reminder that though we are isolated, we are not alone,” she writes.

Finding ways to stay connected has also meant the return of the humble phone call. Verizon, for example, now handles an average of 800 million wireless calls on weekdays — more than double the volume on Mother’s Day, one of the busiest call days of the year.

Art Streiber for The New York Times

10. And finally, the life and singular mind of Weird Al Yankovic.

In a lengthy (but well worth your time) New York Times Magazine profile, Sam Anderson, a staff writer, examines the unexpected longevity of Mr. Yankovic’s career, built preposterously out of song parodies.

Yankovic, he writes, is “a completely ridiculous national treasure, an absurd living legend.”

To capture his weird world, The Magazine photographed the singer with 232 of his most ardent admirers in Los Angeles in January, above, well before the world got a whole lot weirder.

Have a wacky evening.

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