Newsweek 4/10/2020

1993 “For 30 years conservationists have waged campaigns to save animals on the brink of extinction,” said Newsweek, “but wildlife biologists are now claiming that greed, complacency and stupidity have torpedoed many of these efforts.” At the time, there were only 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild. The most recent counts show that this number has grown to 1,864. While still very low, this is a large enough increase that the giant panda is no longer listed as an endangered species. However, these lovable bamboo eaters are still considered vulnerable. 1955 Newsweek wrote that then-IRS Commissioner T. Coleman Andrews overhauled income-tax-collection methods: “Loopholes have been plugged, the morales of agents lifted, their standing in the public eye improved.” Andrews also oversaw the IRS’ initial computer trial to process tax returns. 1967 Newsweek reported that…

A boat sails past the symbol of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 on March 25, the day after a joint statement by the IOC and the Tokyo Organizing Committee announced the Games’ postponement until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic “to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.” This is the first time the modern-day Olympics have been canceled or postponed other than for World Wars, when they were canceled in 1916, 1940 and 1944.…

EVEN AS PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS HE TESTED negative for coronavirus, the COVID-19 pandemic raises the fear that huge swaths of the executive branch or even Congress and the Supreme Court could also be disabled, forcing the implementation of “continuity of government” plans that include evacuating Washington and “devolving” leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations. But coronavirus is also new territory, where the military itself is vulnerable and the disaster scenarios being contemplated—including the possibility of widespread domestic violence as a result of food shortages—are forcing planners to look at what are called “extraordinary circumstances.” Above-Top Secret contingency plans already exist for what the military is supposed to do if all the Constitutional successors are incapacitated. Standby orders were issued more than three weeks ago to ready these plans, not…

THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS HAS highlighted the popularity of the hundreds of sites that publish health care hoaxes and misinformation regularly. At least 138 such sites in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Italy are publishing false claims about the coronavirus, NewsGuard’s Coronavirus Misinformation Tracking Center has found. But these sites don’t promote false hoods and fake “cures” just for the thrill of it. They’re peddling misinformation for profit, and there’s a lot of money to be made from it. NewsGuard found eight American websites—including the NaturalNews.com network, which has 54 domains such as FactCheck.news—that promote their own products as cures or remedies for the novel coronavirus. The harmless-sounding HealthImpactNews.com advertises coconut oil in an article that claims the oil destroys coronavirus. NaturalHealth365.com is selling air fresheners to fight coronavirus. Mercola.com says…

“In times of crisis, I think we all know that it’s the celebrities that we count on most. They’re the ones who are gonna get us through this.”—RYAN REYNOLDS“WHERE WE ARE TODAY, YOU WILL BE IN FOUR WEEKS OR FIVE WEEKS OR SIX WEEKS.”—NY GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO TED “It’s very tough to say to people, ‘Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner. ’”—BILL GATES“We’re just trying to keep a routine going, but we’ve also got a little Netflix and chilling happening.”—MICHELLE OBAMA TO ELLEN DEGENERES The New York Times “EVERY STATE, EVERY DISTRICT, EVERY LANE, EVERY VILLAGE WILL BE UNDER LOCKDOWN.”—Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi“I think the corporate bailout was too much, too soon. Maybe we didn’t need it ever.”—FORMER GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE…

IT’S BEEN A COUPLE OF WEEKS NOW and here you are, slumped over the grimy keyboard of your laptop, unsure what day it is since you never go outside, and you’ve had these sweatpants on since…was it Wednesday? The first few days were great. No need to put together an outfit, no reason to comb your hair or even look in the mirror. No commute! But unlike many things in life, working from home does not always get better with experience. Life on lockdown isn’t what you wanted, after all—and it may be what “office life” will be like from now on. The coronavirus pandemic has utterly disrupted the way millions of us work, and while the public health emergency will someday dissipate, some aspects of the Work From Home Revolution are…