Coronavirus live updates: Health a bigger worry than finances, poll finds; SCOTUS won't rush church reopenings; United announces cuts - USA TODAY
Coronavirus live updates: Health a bigger worry than finances, poll finds; SCOTUS won't rush church reopenings; United announces cuts - USA TODAY |
- Coronavirus live updates: Health a bigger worry than finances, poll finds; SCOTUS won't rush church reopenings; United announces cuts - USA TODAY
- You would think Twitter is the most visited website, but it's not. By a long shot. - USA TODAY
- The stakes have never been higher as America reopens. What can a post-coronavirus world look like? - USA TODAY
| Posted: 30 May 2020 02:45 PM PDT CLOSE  Social distancing matters. Here is how to do it and how it can help curb the COVID-19 pandemic. USA TODAY A new poll has found Americans continue to be worried about their health amid the coronavirus pandemic and support a slow easing of social distancing restrictions, a finding that comes as hard-hit New York City says it is on track to begin reopening June 8. But the economic effects of social distancing measures are at the center of a growing partisan divide, according to a Public Agenda/USA TODAY/Ipsos poll. In just 10 weeks, 40.7 million have sought jobless benefits, an economic crisis that some Americans say should be the government's top priority over health concerns. There are more than 6 million confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world, with almost 1.8 million in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The virus has killed more than 103,000 people in the U.S., and more than 367,000 worldwide. Our live blog is being updated throughout the day. Refresh for the latest news, and get updates in your inbox with The Daily Briefing. Scroll down for more details. Here are a few key developments to know: Cuomo signs bill giving death benefits to families of frontline workersNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday signed a bill into law that creates a death benefit for the families of state and local government workers who have been on the front lines of the state's coronavirus response, according to a statement. Those workers "gave their lives for us," Cuomo said in a statement. New York has been the state hardest hit by the coronavirus. On Saturday, Cuomo also confirmed 1,376 new cases of the virus. According to the governor's office, that brings the statewide total to 369,660 confirmed cases. Lake of the Ozarks pool partier tests positive for coronavirusA week after images of Memorial Day weekend revelers jammed into a Lake of the Ozarks pool party made international headlines, the Camden County Health Department announced a Boone County resident tested positive for the novel coronavirus after visiting the Lake of the Ozarks area in Missouri over the holiday weekend. The Boone County resident arrived at the lake on Saturday, May 23, and "developed illness" on Sunday, according to a news release obtained by LakeNewsOnline.com, part of the USA TODAY Network. The infected person "was likely incubating illness and possibly infectious at the time of the visit," the health department said. The health department released a timeline of possible COVID-19 exposures "due to the need to inform mass numbers of unknown people." -- Gregory J. Holman, Springfield News-Leader United Airlines announces executive cutsUnited Airlines will cut 13 of its 67 senior-executive positions, the company said Friday. Eight of its executives will leave Oct. 1 and five openings will not be filled. The moves are part of United's plan to cut management and support staff by at least 30% in October, the earliest it can do so under terms of $5 billion in federal aid it is getting to help cover payroll cost, according to the Associated Press. United Airlines President Scott Kirby has issued bleak outlook after bleak outlook since the coronavirus crisis began hitting U.S. airlines in late February, noting each time that he was laying out a worst-case scenario. -- Morgan Hines Supreme Court won't force California, Illinois to speed up church reopeningsA deeply divided Supreme Court refused Friday night to allow churches in California and Illinois to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic with more worshippers than allowed by state restrictions Chief Justice John Roberts, who cast the deciding vote in the more consequential California case, said choosing when to lift restrictions during a pandemic is the business of elected officials, not unelected judges. He was joined in the vote, announced just before midnight, by the court's four liberal justices. Writing for three of the four conservative justices who dissented, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh said California's current 25% occupancy limit on churches amounted to "discrimination against religious worship services." The legal battle reached the nation's highest court days before Pentecost Sunday, when churches that have been restricted to virtual or drive-by services since before Easter are eager to greet congregants. – Richard Wolf Poll: Americans worry about their health, partisan divide over economy growsAmericans see the coronavirus pandemic primarily as a health crisis rather than a financial one, but the government's role in fixing economic fallout is an increasingly political issue, a new poll has found. The Public Agenda/USA TODAY/Ipsos poll released Friday found Americans see the crisis as a bigger threat to their physical health than to their mental health or financial well-being. Still, disagreement over the government's priorities has grown since a survey in late March. There's a growing number of Americans who believe economic recovery should be the government's top priority – a shift primarily led by Republicans. – N'dea Yancey-Bragg Without more coronavirus relief, schools slash budgets, prep layoffsSchool districts around the nation are scrambling to respond to a double whammy: a reduction in money from states and an increase in costs to operate safely as the pandemic wears on. A $3 trillion House bill backed by Democrats in early May included nearly $1 trillion for states and local governments, but Republicans are balking. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lawmakers would decide in the next few weeks whether there would be another relief bill, according to CNBC. Even if there is, McConnell signaled it would have to be narrower in scope than what the House passed. Time is running out; many state and school district fiscal years begin July 1. Around the country, school boards and grassroots groups are pressuring lawmakers to send more stabilization funds before then. – Erin Richards More coronavirus news and information from USA TODAYMany with coronavirus deal with lingering symptomsMany of the more than 1.7 million Americans who've contracted the virus are confronting puzzling, lingering symptoms, including aches, anxiety attacks, night sweats, rapid heartbeats, breathing problems and loss of smell or taste. Many are living a life unrecognizable from the one they had before. USA TODAY interviewed more than a dozen COVID-19 survivors to capture their thoughts on beating the virus that has infected more than 6 million people worldwide and learn how their lives have changed. Read their stories here. More coronavirus headlines from USA TODAYRead or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/05/30/coronavirus-update-scotus-church-reopenings-donald-trump-who/5286691002/  |
| You would think Twitter is the most visited website, but it's not. By a long shot. - USA TODAY Posted: 30 May 2020 06:06 AM PDT CLOSE To read, watch or listen to the news this week, you might have thought that with all the talk about Twitter, it is the most visited website in the world. It's far from it. It ranks at No. 20 on the ComScore ranking of the top 50 most visited websites. It averages 166 million daily active users, compared to 229 million for Snapchat, 500 million for Instagram or 1.66 billion for the most popular social network, Facebook. Verizon Media (which includes TechCrunch, the Huffington Post and AOL), Amazon, Apple, the Weather Channel and even PayPal get way more traffic than Twitter. So why are we all talking about Twitter? You can thank President Donald Trump for putting Jack Dorsey's social platform on the front page, due to his heated war of words and deeds with the internet company. It has an outsize influence that resonates far beyond the people who visit. "Twitter has a small user base of a few hundred million, but its reach is to billions, as the content is shared and embedded in global media," says Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst with Kaleido Insights. To recap, Twitter put a "Get the Facts," warning label on a tweet by the president, which claimed mail-in ballots would produce election fraud. Trump responded the next day by signing an executive order which, by his own admission,will get tested by the courts. It directs the federal government to review its authority to strip internet companies of their legal protection from liability for content posted on their platforms. On Friday, Twitter escalated it further, by blocking a Trump tweet that called Minneapolis rioters "thugs," and threatened to have them shot, saying it glorified violence. He responded by tweeting it again from the official Twitter White House account, where it also got blocked. (However, users are free to click through to get to the message after the initial block.) Which brings us back again to Twitter. Trump wrote the exact same comment on Facebook, which let it stand without comment. On Facebook the post received more than 235,000 likes, 51,000 comments and 61,000 shares as of Friday afternoon, vs. no social media love on Twitter, which doesn't allow comments or likes on a blocked post. Yet the Trump tweet is what was reported on by every major news organization and then some. "The reality is, we don't see his tweets," says Karen North, a professor of social media at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications. "Journalists do and report them. Twitter is a small, but incredibly influential and powerful network." Facebook's size dwarfs Twitter, but because the social network is built around a circle of friends, it has an algorithm that limits your entire network from seeing a post. Instead it goes to just the people who comment and interact with you. On Twitter, North notes, the tweet is seen by the world, with no restrictions on audience size or registration. Twitter was launched in 2007 at the South by Southwest conference in Austin as a way to bring text messages into the mainstream, offering users the ability to share their thoughts in 140 characters – which got increased to 280 characters in 2018. "People see the website or hear about it, and their immediate reaction is, 'That's the stupidest idea I ever heard,' " Jack Dorsey, who co-founded the company with Ev Williams and Biz Stone, told USA TODAY in 2008. "I do not want to know that my brother is eating a hot dog." Because at the time, many people were sharing what they ate for lunch, breakfast and dinner, and other mundane things. "It's really to stay in touch with those you care about," explained Dorsey. "And to make your world a little smaller." Williams and Stone have moved on, but Dorsey (@jack) remains as CEO of Twitter, splitting his duties with another business, the Square financial services company, where he's also CEO. Twitter went public in 2013, and has struggled to make much of a financial splash since, as its earnings ($3 billion in 2019) are dwarfed by other social networks, from Facebook ($70 billion in 2019) or Google's YouTube ($15 billion in revenue.) Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, says Twitter should have been able to ride Trump's fascination and daily usage of the platform to greater heights over the last few years. "They had this amazing opportunity to grow, but haven't exploited it," he says. "The stock is doing okay, but nowhere near where it should be, with all the free publicity they've gotten from Trump." In other tech news this weekThe latest new subscription service, HBO Max, debuted with an asterisk. The two most popular streaming platforms, Roku and Amazon, declined to offer it, making it available only to those primarily with an Apple TV, Google Chromecast streaming device, or recent models of Sony or Samsung smart TVs. Max is nominally a new service, selling for $14.99, but subscribers to HBO Now upgrade for free, with the HBO library, plus programing from Warner Bros., DC Comics, Turner and Looney Tunes. Google said some Googlers could return to work on July 6. However, the call is only for about 10% of the staff, who need to be in the office, growing to 30% in the fall. At the same time, Google is granting $1,000 stipends for at home workers to invest in office furniture and is making the return to work voluntary. AT&T said it would credit DirecTV subscribers who paid for sports subscriptions. This comes after the COVID-19 outbreak postponed or suspended sporting events across the globe. This week's Talking Tech podcasts Instagram is now paying creators Use your old Canon Rebel as a webcam Now you can schedule your tweets Follow USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/05/30/twitter-gets-lots-ink-but-its-audience-size-dwarfed-facebook/5283490002/  |
| Posted: 28 May 2020 02:43 PM PDT CLOSE Our new series, Rebuilding America, sheds light on the many efforts to resume life and reopen in the aftermath of the deadly coronavirus pandemic USA TODAY America will rebuild. But much like shop owners removing boards off windows in the wake of a natural disaster, Americans aren't quite sure what the aftermath of the deadly coronavirus pandemic will look like. Will our economic engine need to change what it sells and how it sells it? Will the same consumer habits return? Can the familiar rhythms of the nation's unabashedly capitalist system resume? The galvanic forces exerted by pandemics have always shaped global history, says Marina Gorbis, executive director at the Institute for the Future, a nonprofit think tank in Palo Alto, California. "Whether it's the bubonic plague, the Spanish flu or coronavirus, pandemics inevitably are both health events and social events that cause transformations in society and politics," she says. Leading indicators — from soaring unemployment to looming bankruptcies — suggest a rough re-start. As the nation opens, scientists continue a feverish search for a vaccine while health officials remain concerned that the coming fall and winter could bring a spike in new virus cases that require renewed quarantines. But those possible obstacles aside, those who study the human march through history say it is vital to remember the nation's future can be better than its past. "This isn't a snow day where you're waiting for the sun to shine and the world to return, because the world we have lived in for so long in many ways is never coming back," says Jamie Metzl, technology futurist and co-founder of OneShared.World, an online group that promotes a globally interconnected response to the pandemic. "This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for the country, the world and our species," says Metzl. "Everyone has a role to play to build back something better than what is being destroyed." From Maine to California, reconstruction has started, in most places with equal parts excitement and caution. In Roswell, Georgia, restaurant general manager Mikaela Cupp says "the community's excited, there's this pent-up 'We want to get out of the house' energy." But in Atlanta, office worker Denita Jones fears bringing the virus home to her family since few coworkers wear masks. "I see people going back to pre-pandemic behavior like everything's OK in the world, and the rest of us are walking on eggshells," she says. As this tenuous rebuilding phase unfolds, the USA TODAY Network took a deep dive into a dozen societal sectors to get a sense of how things might look in the future for key facets of the economy. The result is a portrait of a nation in the initial throes of a rebirth, one both painful and high-risk as the country continues to feel the toll in human lives and economic livelihoods. Among our glimpses into the future: • Health care: Despite its critical role in safeguarding the public during the pandemic, the virus has exposed the dire distress of those without healthcare, the financially tenuous nature of smaller hospitals, and the need to better secure nursing homes, whose residents and staff account for many U.S. coronavirus deaths. • Education: School districts are facing massive shortfalls as state coffers get decimated by the coronavirus outbreak. That puts into jeopardy school feeding programs, teacher job security and online learning curriculum for students without at-home technology. • Employment: The highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, around 15%, is arguably the biggest threat to a robust recovery from the pandemic. Inevitably, sectors will face consolidation, new businesses will be created, and employees will be expected to develop new skills accordingly. The workplace environment also promises to be forever changed, with employees increasingly shifting to telecommuting. • Entertainment: Restaurants are in dire straits, with reservation service OpenTable recently predicting 25% of all restaurants might never re-open. Scripted TV shows will remain on hold until sets can be made safe. Movie theaters, when they come back, are likely to find patrons seated apart and the same film on multiple screens. Big concerts may well never return until there is an effective global vaccine. Virus will spur creative responsesUnmistakable in this emerging post-virus reality, experts say, are signs that human creativity will forge new approaches, new products and new social paradigms not only more adaptable to future global crises, but also more responsive to income inequality, climate change and other issues laid bare by coronavirus. "COVID-19 is a dress rehearsal for a more turbulent world, one that will require businesses to be more adaptable to a consumer that is forever changed," says James Allen, senior partner at global consulting firm Bain & Company and author of a recent blog post, "The Great Retooling: Adapting for Coronavirus and Beyond." Among a variety of coming trends, Allen sees a shift toward more "values-based consumption," where consumers reward enterprises that are "acting as good citizens" during the epidemic." Meanwhile, white-collar professions will combine lessons learned from remote working with the enduring need for some occasional "high-touch experiences at offices," he says. And those office spaces are likely to shrink, paving the way for a possible revitalization of urban cores as office buildings become condos. Maria Bothwell, CEO of future-focused advisory firm Toffler Associates, a firm started by the late futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler, authors of the seminal 1970 book, "Future Shock," says the nation will reach a phase called "the novel normal" in three to five years. Bothwell anticipates a long period of discomfort in public spaces with strangers, as a "heightened sensitivity to the vulnerability of our health" causes a reflexive recoiling at sneezes and coughs even after there is a vaccine. In addition, no-touch payment systems will proliferate. Public places will temperature screen. And expect an exodus from crowded cities for those whose jobs promote telecommuting. From COVID-19, a New AmericaIn the end, there's little debate that the America that emerges from the coronavirus pandemic will be a New America, not unlike the new nations that emerged from the forge of the Great Depression and World War II. The former created a nation of frugal savers, the latter created a young post-war populace that fueled an unprecedented era of optimistic consumerism. If there is one thing futurists seem to agree on as America rebuilds, it is the hope that resides in those children and young adults whose lives have been indelibly stamped by this pandemic, a group that may well prove to be the next Greatest Generation. Says Bothwell: "In 10 years, we'll look back at today's graduates in amazement at what they did as a result of this event." Follow USA TODAY national correspondent Marco della Cava: @marcodellacava Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/28/after-coronavirus-ends-what-life-like-new-america/5193279002/  |
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