ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

April 25, 2020 (San Diego’s East County) - East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen on important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• House passes $484B coronavirus relief package  (The Hill)
• 8 in 10 American support COVID-19 shutdown, Kaiser Health poll finds (NPR)
• Tribal gaming operations eligible for payroll help (Indian Country Today)
• Trump to suspend U.S. immigration for 60 days, citing pandemic, jobs shortage (Washington Post)
• Trump to halt most green cards, with notable exceptions (Politico)
• These US citizens won't get coronavirus stimulus checks — because their spouses are immigrants (MSN)
• Governors team up to discuss reopening their states. Trump asserts “total” authority to overrule them. (New York Times)
• ‘They’re Death Pits’: Virus Claims at Least 7,000 Lives in U.S. Nursing Homes (New York Times)
• Trump calls to 'liberate' states where protesters have demanded easing coronavirus lockdowns (USA Today)
• The anti-quarantine protests seem spontaneous. But behind the scenes, a powerful network is helping (Washington Post)

WORLD

• China Imposes New Limits as Coronavirus Fears Return (New York Times)
• Imams Overrule Pakistan’s Coronavirus Lockdown as Ramadan Nears (New York Times)
• Limits on testing in Brazil are hiding the true dimensions of Latin America’s largest outbreak (Washington Post)
• Indonesia has the world's biggest Muslim population. It just banned holiday travel over Ramadan (CNN)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

U.S.

House passes $484B coronavirus relief package  (The Hill)

The House on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to pass legislation providing roughly $484 billion in coronavirus relief for small businesses, hospitals and expanded medical testing, capping weeks of contentious negotiations that had stalled Washington’s latest round of emergency aid (The Hill)

8 in 10 American support COVID-19 shutdown, Kaiser Health poll finds (NPR)

A majority of Americans — 8 in 10 — say strict shelter-in-place guidelines are worth it, to keep people safe from COVID-19 and control the spread of the virus, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll. The same percentage, of around 80% of Americans, also say they can follow the restrictions for at least one more month.

Tribal gaming operations eligible for payroll help (Indian Country Today)

An interim federal rule that prevented tribal casinos from getting loans through a relief fund created by Congress to help small businesses through the coronavirus crisis has been updated to allow them to apply.

Trump to suspend U.S. immigration for 60 days, citing pandemic, jobs shortage (Washington Post)

The president provided a rationale for the unprecedented decision that was primarily economic, arguing that he wants Americans to have access to work as millions of people have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus crisis.

Trump to halt most green cards, with notable exceptions (Politico)

Trump's proclaimed immigration ban will exempt temporary foreign workers, the biggest source of immigration at the moment.

These US citizens won't get coronavirus stimulus checks — because their spouses are immigrants (MSN)

She works as a film producer and her small business has ground to a halt, forcing her and her husband to eat red beans and rice most nights, scramble to find small-business loans and apply for medical assistance for their two children…As a U.S. citizen whose children are also U.S. citizens, she is excluded from the government’s $2 trillion coronavirus financial relief package because she files her taxes jointly with her husband, a Mexican citizen from Guadalajara.

Governors team up to discuss reopening their states. Trump asserts “total” authority to overrule them. (New York Times)

Hours after two groups of governors announced that they were forming regional working groups to help plan when it would be safe to ease restrictions and reopen their economies, President Trump asserted in a White House news briefing that the authority to make such decisions rested with him.

‘They’re Death Pits’: Virus Claims at Least 7,000 Lives in U.S. Nursing Homes (New York Times)

More than six weeks after the first coronavirus deaths in a nursing home, outbreaks unfold across the country. About a fifth of U.S. virus deaths are linked to nursing facilities.

Trump calls to 'liberate' states where protesters have demanded easing coronavirus lockdowns (USA Today)

President Donald Trump called on supporters Friday to "liberate" states that have experienced protests over coronavirus lockdowns, a day after he unveiled guidelines aimed at reopening the nation's economy…Critics said the president appeared to be encouraging protests in the states, all three of which are also important for the presidential election.   "He's encouraging them to attack state authorities in the midst of a health crisis," Joanne Freeman, a Yale history professor who has studied anti-government violence, posted on Twitter.

The anti-quarantine protests seem spontaneous. But behind the scenes, a powerful network is helping (Washington Post)

 A network of right-leaning individuals and groups, aided by nimble online outfits, has helped incubate the fervor erupting in state capitals across the country. The activism is often organic and the frustration deeply felt, but it is also being amplified, and in some cases coordinated, by longtime conservative activists, whose robust operations were initially set up with help from Republican megadonors.

WORLD

China Imposes New Limits as Coronavirus Fears Return (New York Times)

Chinese officials have imposed new limits on movement in some northern parts of the country following a spate of new coronavirus infections, in a sign of how difficult it will be to fully recover from an outbreak that virtually paralyzed the country.

Imams Overrule Pakistan’s Coronavirus Lockdown as Ramadan Nears (New York Times)

The government gave in to clerics’ demands that mosques be allowed to stay open during the Islamic holy month. Now critics are asking who’s in charge.

Limits on testing in Brazil are hiding the true dimensions of Latin America’s largest outbreak (Washington Post)

Atop a shaded hill at the edge of São Paulo, the gravedigger thinks he knows the truth. No matter how bad it appears in Brazil — the country hit hardest by the coronavirus in the Southern Hemisphere — the reality is significantly worse.

Indonesia has the world's biggest Muslim population. It just banned holiday travel over Ramadan (CNN)

Indonesia has temporarily banned domestic road, air and sea travel starting Friday to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as millions of Muslims mark the start of the holy month of Ramadan.