Michael Che of ‘SNL’ to pay rent for public housing tenants where grandma who died of coronavirus lived
“Saturday Night Live” comedian Michael Che announced that he’s going to pay the rent for people living in a New York City public housing building where his grandmother, who died of coronavirus, lived.
“it’s crazy to me that residents of public housing are still expected to pay their rent when so many new yorkers can’t even work,” he wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday.
Che, 36, said he would cover the rent for all 160 units in the building.
17 bodies found crowded into tiny morgue at New Jersey nursing home
An anonymous tip led to the discovery of 17 bodies crowded into a four-person morgue at one of New Jersey’s largest nursing homes.
Police found the bodies this week at the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II in Sussex County, in northwest New Jersey, Rep. Josh Gottheimer confirmed to NBC New York. Sixty-eight people linked to Andover, NJ nursing home have died in recent weeks, including two staff members.
“They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,” Eric C. Danielson, the town’s chief of police, told The New York Times.
New York sports teams unite for a message: ‘We’re in this together’
Sickness, death — then layoffs. Coronavirus forces cities to cut budgets and furlough staff.
From Detroit to New York, nearly every city in the country is facing lower revenues as a result of the coronavirus. That’s leading to painful cuts to city services, as well as layoffs and furloughs.
In Detroit, the outbreak has stolen an estimated $348 million from the city’s budget for the next 16 months — nearly a quarter of the money the city had been counting on.
“We expected a downturn, and we prepared for it,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said this week as he announced layoffs for all of the city’s 200 part-time or seasonal employees, as well as steep pay cuts or reduced hours for more than 2,200 full-time staffers. “We didn’t expect it to be this sudden or this dire.”
More Nigerians killed by security services than coronavirus, says human rights body
There have been 18 extra-judicial killings in Nigeria by security forces while the country has been under coronavirus lockdown, according to the country’s National Human Rights Commission, more than the number of people who have died from the virus so far.
The commission said the killings were a “display of impunity and reckless disregard for human life in law enforcement by security personnel.” Most of the deaths occurred in the northern Kaduna state.
The report, published late Wednesday, found 105 human rights complaints since the lockdown began on March 30, including excessive use of force, abuse of power and corruption by security forces — with Lagos State recording the highest number of incidents.
Biden: ‘False choice’ to decide between coronavirus safety measures and economy
Joe Biden said Thursday that the decision between protecting people’s health from coronavirus and reopening the U.S. economy is a “false choice” because you can’t do one without the other.
In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Willie Geist asked the former vice president what he would say to people who might favor a move by President Donald Trump to reopen the economy soon if it means they can get back to work and put food on the table.
“I say we should not send you back to work till it’s safe to send you back to work. This is a false choice,” said Biden, who was speaking from his home in Delaware, sitting next to his wife, Jill Biden.
“The way you revive the economy is you defeat the disease,” he said.
Facebook will start steering users who interact with coronavirus misinformation to WHO
Facebook will begin to alert users after they’ve been exposed to misinformation about the coronavirus, the company announced Thursday, the latest in a series of actions meant to curtail the spread of wrong or misleading claims related to the pandemic.
Users who have liked, commented on or reacted to coronavirus misinformation that has been flagged as “harmful” by Facebook and removed will now be directed to a website debunking coronavirus myths from the World Health Organization.
Amazon temporarily closes warehouses in France after clash with union workers
Amazon closed six of its warehouses in France on Thursday in one of the biggest fallouts yet from a growing stand-off with its workers over safety measures during the coronavirus pandemic.
This comes as a French court ruled Tuesday that Amazon had to carry out a more thorough assessment of the risk of coronavirus contagion at its warehouses and should restrict its deliveries in the meantime, or face a fine. It ordered the company to limit deliveries to essential goods, such as food and medical supplies.
The director-general of Amazon France, Frederic Duval, rejected the court’s order on Thursday, saying the company had spent “colossal investments” to ensure the safety of their employees in warehouses. The firm will appeal the decision, he said in a radio interview.
In a statement on Thursday, the union said it would continue to work for the recognition of the health and security of workers facing COVID-19.
Dutch new unemployment claims soar 42 percent amid pandemic
The number of people filing for unemployment benefits in the Netherlands soared 42 percent in March as many businesses were shut down in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
The Dutch federal employment agency on Thursday said it had paid benefits to 37,800 new unemployed in March, an increase of 11,200 from the month before.
The strongest increases were among people who used to work in restaurants and bars and among people under 25 years of age, the agency said.
The Dutch government on March 15 ordered all restaurants, bars, museums, sport facilities and other public places in the Netherlands to shut down in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Japan extends state of emergency to whole country
Japan will extend its current coronavirus state of emergency, in place in seven regions including Tokyo and Osaka, to cover the rest of the country, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday.
“We will expand the state of emergency issued on April 7th from the current 7 prefectures to all prefectures. This will be in effect until May 6th, as we have previously announced,” Abe said during an address.
Unlike other countries, the state of emergency in Japan remains non-compulsory and is a strong request from the government for people to stay at home in a bid to limit the spread of the virus — especially as the country prepares for its national golden week holiday beginning at the end of this month.
E.U. Commission president offers an apology to Italy
The president of the European Commission — the executive branch of the European Union — offered an apology to Italy on Thursday, saying the country did not receive adequate help at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Yes it is true that no one was really ready for this,” Ursula von der Leyen said in an address to the European Parliament. “It is also true that too many were not there on time when Italy needed a helping hand at the very beginning. And yes for that, it is right that Europe as a whole offers a heartfelt apology.”
Saying that while “there are no words that can do justice to Europe’s pain,” von der Leyen also looked ahead in her address. She discussed ways the E.U. planned to support and reshape industries, and invest in digital technologies, infrastructure and the European Green Deal.
While countries across Europe have suffered from the virus outbreak, Italy has been hit the hardest, particularly in the earlier weeks of the outbreak. More than 21,000 people have died in Italy as of Thursday, the highest death toll in Europe. The country has begun to ease some lockdown measures this week.
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