memeorandum: Trump expands battle with World Health Organization far beyond aid suspension (Washington Post)

8:40 PM ET, April 25, 2020

Top Items:

N. KOREA DICTATOR KIM JONG-UN REPORTEDLY DEAD ... After Botched Heart Surgery — North Korea's Supreme Leader/dictator Kim Jong-un has reportedly died, or is on his death bed with no hope for recuperation — according to media outlets in China and Japan. — Amid reports China has sent …

Discussion: New York Post, The National Interest, Redstate, Instapundit, Big League Politics, PJ Media Home, KETK | FOX51 and The Daily Caller

Reuters:

Exclusive: China sent team including medical experts to advise on North Korea's Kim — BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.

Discussion: Fox News, New York Post, PJ Media Home, Bloomberg, TheBlaze and Outside the Beltway

Wall Street Journal:

White House in Talks to Replace Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar — Discussions follow criticism of his handling of the Trump administration's early response to the coronavirus pandemic — Administration officials are discussing replacing Health and Human Services Secretary …

CNN:

How a media-distracted Trump ended up derailing his own briefing — See Dr. Birx's reaction to Trump's dangerous suggestion — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump was absent from the Situation Room on Wednesday when William Bryan, the acting head of science at the Department of Homeland Security …

Discussion: emptywheel

Politico: White House weighing plan to replace Azar

NBC News: Fauci's absence from recent coronavirus briefings draws notice

Politico:
Trump grapples with a surprise threat: Too much Trump

Discussion: The Guardian, NBC News, Althouse, Raw Story and Fox News

Piers Morgan / Daily Mail:
President Trump's batsh*t crazy coronavirus ‘cure’ …

Discussion: The Daily Dot and HuffPost

MJ Lee / CNN:

Biden's accuser says mother called into ‘Larry King Live’ in 1993 for advice after alleged sexual assault — (CNN)Newly surfaced video from 1993 appears to feature the mother of Tara Reade, a woman who accused presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of sexual assault …

Discussion: Breitbart, Slate, NB Blog, Fox News, Twitchy, New York Post, Instapundit, PJ Media Home, HuffPost, The Federalist, The Intercept, TheBlaze, Townhall and Conservative News Today

Brian Flood / Fox News:
CNN slammed for treatment of Biden sexual assault allegations after old Larry King clip surfaces

Discussion: Breitbart, Redstate, PJ Media Home, Twitchy and Conservative News Today

Shelby Talcott / The Daily Caller:
CNN Failed To Uncover Footage From Its Own Archives That Could Back Up Biden Accuser's Allegations

Discussion: KTLA, Fox News and Redstate

Goli Sheikholeslami / WNYC News:

Statement From CEO Goli Sheikholeslami To The NYPR Staff On The Death Of WNYC's Richard Hake — It's with a heavy heart that I write to inform you that our beloved colleague and friend Richard Hake passed away suddenly on Friday at home. We are in touch with his family, and the exact cause of death hasn't yet been determined*.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown / Reason:

No, Poison Control Calls Aren't Suddenly Spiking After Trump's Disinfectant Comments — On Thursday, the president suggested that perhaps an “injection” of disinfectant could help cure people of COVID-19. Critics of Donald Trump went to town—and rightfully so!—while supporters scrambled …

Discussion: PJ Media Home, VICE and Redstate, more at Mediagazer »

New York Daily News:
A spike in New Yorkers ingesting household cleaners following Trump's controversial coronavirus comments

Discussion: Twitchy, Raw Story, EurAsian Times, Mediaite and Contemptor

New York Times:

Nervous Republicans See Trump Sinking, and Taking Senate With Him — The election is still six months away, but a rash of ominous new polls and the president's erratic briefings have the G.O.P. worried about a Democratic takeover. — WASHINGTON — President Trump's erratic handling …

Discussion: Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, Daily Kos and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Kiyerra Lake / WLNS-TV:

“It was not a Confederate flag,” State Senator explains questionable mask — LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Friday afternoon during a senate vote at the capitol it was brought to our attention that one State Senator was wearing a mask that appeared to have the confederate flag on it.

Discussion: The Guardian, Detroit Metro Times and The Hill

Angie Jackson / Detroit Free Press:
Michigan senator apologizes for wearing face mask that looks like Confederate flag

Discussion: Washington Post and CNN

Richard Ruelas / Arizona Republic:

'That's the one there': A photo of a protesting nurse in Phoenix goes viral — He saw that the rally to reopen businesses shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic was transitioning from speeches at the plaza to a march to the Arizona state Capitol across the street.

Washington Post:

I work at Smithfield Foods. I'm suing them over putting our lives at risk for your dinner. — Meat processing plants can do more to protect us from the coronavirus — On the “cut floor” at Smithfield Foods, the meat processing company where I work in Milan, Mo., we use knives to butcher …

Discussion: New York Times

Washington Post:
As they rushed to maintain U.S. meat supply, big processors saw plants become covid-19 hot spots, worker illnesses spike

Discussion: Iowa Starting Line

Washington Post:

Trump expands battle with World Health Organization far beyond aid suspension — President Trump and his top aides are working behind the scenes to sideline the World Health Organization on several new fronts as they seek to shift blame for the coronavirus pandemic to the world body …

Discussion: Raw Story, Bloomberg and Just Security

Wall Street Journal:

Trump, Putin Statement Stirs Concern Among Some — Rare declaration comes amid U.S.-Russian strains, military tension, disinformation complaints — President Trump issued a symbolic joint statement Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a move that has stirred debate within …

Discussion: The Hill, The Week and New York Post

Ariana Eunjung Cha / Washington Post:

Young and middle-aged people, barely sick with covid-19, are dying from strokes — Thomas Oxley wasn't even on call the day he received the page to come to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. There weren't enough doctors to treat all the emergency stroke patients, and he was needed in the operating room.

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

America Shouldn't Have to Play by New York Rules — A national lockdown is bad medicine and worse politics. — In 1976, the artist Saul Steinberg drew a cover for The New Yorker — “View of the World from Ninth Avenue” — that became an instant classic. You know the one …

Discussion: The Wrap

World Health Organization: WHO:

“Immunity passports” in the context of COVID-19 — Scientific Brief — WHO has published guidance on adjusting public health and social measures for the next phase of the COVID-19 response.1 Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 …

Discussion: NPR, Axios, CNN, Associated Press, WLNS-TV, Townhall, Vox, Daily Kos, The Guardian, Talking Points Memo, Financial Times, The Week, Gizmodo, Bloomberg, KTLA and The Hill

New York Daily News:

Cuomo: ‘I dare you’ to let states declare coronavirus bankruptcy in scathing new attack on GOP — Gov. Andrew Cuomo angrily challenged Republicans to force hard-hit states to declare bankruptcy instead of giving them stimulus aid to cope with the coronavirus crisis. — “Pass the law.

Michael A. Cohen / The Boston Globe:

Say it loud, say it clear: Donald Trump needs to resign over his handling of the coronavirus — The United States has just over 4 percent of the world's population, but had about one-third of all global coronavirus cases and one-quarter of the fatalities, as of Friday.

Discussion: FOX40 and FOX31 Denver

New York Times:

Prescriptions Surged as Trump Praised Drugs in Coronavirus Fight — Prescriptions for two antimalarial drugs jumped by 46 times the average when the president praised them on TV. There's no proof they work against Covid-19. — It was at a midday briefing last month that President Trump …

Discussion: Raw Story

Seung Min Kim / Washington Post:

Tensions emerge between Republicans over coronavirus spending and how to rescue the economy — The economic havoc wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic is opening up a rift in the Republican Party — as the Trump administration and some GOP senators advocate for more aggressive spending …

Teran Powell / WUWM:

40 Coronavirus Cases In Milwaukee County Linked To Wisconsin Election, Health Official Says — Forty people in Milwaukee County may have become infected with the coronavirus as a result of participating in Wisconsin elections on April 7. — Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik …

Richmond Times-Dispatch:

SATURDAY UPDATE: Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Virginia jump by 733, deaths increase by 25 — The Virginia Department of Health reported Saturday there are 11,902 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state - an increase of 733 from the 11,169 reported Friday. — Also, there are 432 confirmed …

Discussion: Newsradio 1140 WRVA, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, The Federalist and Breitbart

Ellen Barry / New York Times:

In a Crowded City, Leaders Struggle to Separate the Sick From the Well — Chelsea, Mass., has an infection rate higher than any other community in the state. With families in cramped housing, it is difficult to contain the spread. — CHELSEA, Mass. — Paul Nowicki …