Coronavirus, 2020 Debate, Tigers: Your Weekend Briefing
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Version 0 of 1. (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Here are the week’s top stories, and a look ahead. 1. The coronavirus outbreak has now spread to 49 states. The virus has been reported in more than 2,700 people, and at least 58 patients have died. The only state not reporting cases is West Virginia. Here’s a full map of U.S. cases. The House passed a sweeping relief package on Friday to assist people affected by the outbreak, and it now goes to the Senate. Free coronavirus testing for all is among the provisions, as well as two weeks of paid sick leave, though millions could be left uncovered. For centuries, the U.S. has resisted a centralized public health policy. This week, as protective measures against the coronavirus varied county to county, Americans saw the cost. A lack of investment in public health has left local and state health departments particularly ill-equipped to face the swelling crisis ahead. 2. As the outbreak forces the cancellation of trips, nights out and large gatherings, economic damage is mounting across the country. Above, an empty downtown Seattle. For weeks, forecasters have warned of the coronavirus’s potential to disrupt the American economy. But there was little hard evidence beyond delayed shipments of goods from China and stomach-churning volatility in financial markets. Not since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has a crisis hit much of the economy so quickly. Here’s what you need to know about your money and the outbreak. 3. Life for people around the world is beginning to look very different. Italians remain essentially under house arrest. That hasn’t stopped them from a cacophony of music — sung and played from their balconies, from the southern islands to the Alps to Milan, above. Spain and France also announced severe restrictions on public life. The U.S. extended its travel ban to the United Kingdom and Ireland. In sports — a constant part of the background noise of American culture — athletes and fans wonder if this is really goodbye. In New York, commuters are dusting off their bicycles to avoid subway germs. And in Tennessee, two brothers bought thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer ahead of the outbreak. Now they have nowhere to sell them. Toilet paper has become a hot commodity. (This Opinion video might even make you laugh.) 4. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Bernie Sanders will be auditioning for the presidency on Sunday night, trying to convey leadership, against the backdrop of a pandemic. Mr. Biden, the former vice president, and Mr. Sanders, the senator from Vermont, will face off in a one-on-one debate in Washington (without a studio audience). The debate will be hosted by CNN and Univision beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern time. We’ll have live coverage and analysis at nytimes.com. So, how do they actually compare on policy? Here is where the two candidates stand on some of the issues each may raise, including the new coronavirus, health care, student debt and climate change. Despite their differences, the amicable relationship the two have maintained could become an important factor in the Democrats’ ability to unite quickly against President Trump. 5. President Trump has tilted the appellate courts rightward with conservative judges who are young, white, male and uncompromising, our analysis shows. Working with his Republican allies in the Senate, above, he installed 51 judges in just three years — appointing more than a quarter of the appellate bench at a record pace. At least seven had previous jobs with Mr. Trump’s campaign or his administration, and all but eight had ties to the Federalist Society, a legal group with views once considered on “the fringe.” Here are five takeaways from our examination and a full list of the 51 judges. 6. A year has passed since the terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand. For one family who survived, it’s been a year of pain, anguish and stubborn love. The attack that claimed 51 lives at two mosques made Zulfirman Syah a hero and a victim — he dove over his 3-year-old son to take bullets in his back and groin, nearly dying to save his only child’s life. Our reporter and photographer visited his family over the past 12 months. Their searing experience points to forces the world has yet to contain: guns, technology and white supremacy. 7. Scientists knew saber-toothed tigers were big — and then they found this skull. Discovered in Uruguay, the skull suggests that the largest saber-toothed tigers might have been able to take down giant plant-eaters, as heavy as pickup trucks, that researchers had thought were untouchable. The skull belonged to Smilodon populator, extinct for 10,000 or so years and probably tipped the scales at around 960 pounds. And in case you missed it, researchers made another important skull discovery — that of the smallest known bird, and therefore, dinosaur, ever found. 8. The question on dairy farmers’ minds these days is not whether anyone’s got milk. It’s how to sell it. Since 1975, milk consumption per capita has dipped roughly 40 percent, according to data from Nielsen, and between 2010 and 2018, sales of milk dropped by 13 percent. Dairy farmers are now pivoting to nondairy products (hemp, oat and plant-based milks), opening their farms to tourism (Chaney’s Dairy Barn in Kentucky, above, grosses over a million dollars a year) and finding new ways to market (think colorful packaging) in the hopes of bringing back the milk mustache. 9. “We’re alive! As long as we’re alive, we have to keep moving.” When Marion Sheppard began to go blind, she cycled through many emotions — pity, rage, fear. She spent months wrestling with those emotions, until she realized she could surrender to the darkness, or she could dance. In an essay for Opinion, our columnist Frank Bruni, who has had his own brush with blindness, dropped in on Ms. Sheppard’s dance class at a community center for blind people. “When you go blind, you lose your confidence,” Ms. Sheppard said. “What I want them to do is to have confidence.” 10. And finally, dig into one our Best Weekend Reads. The list is back in its old format this weekend, with stories about a former teenage Riverdancer, essential Indian recipes and The Times Magazine’s list of 25 songs that matter right now. For more ideas on what to read, watch and listen to, may we suggest these 11 new books our editors liked, a glance at the latest small-screen recommendations from Watching and our music critics’ latest playlist. Have you been keeping up with the headlines? Test your knowledge with our news quiz. And here’s the front page of our Sunday paper, the Sunday Review from Opinion and our crossword puzzles. Have a safe and healthy week. Don’t forget to wash your hands. Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern. You can sign up here to get our Morning Briefings by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning, or here to receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights. Browse our full range of Times newsletters here. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com. |