#WhereIsJoe: Biden campaign tries to stay relevant amid coronavirus

The Democratic frontrunner faces an unprecedented political challenge as he seeks traction while working from home

Video conferences from a basement, glitchy internet and bouts of restlessness. Joe Biden, like the rest of America, is working from home.

The former vice-president’s confinement began abruptly on 10 March, when he touched down in Cleveland for a primary-night campaign event only to learn that the state’s governor had called for all major indoor events to be canceled as the nation slowly grasped the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Donald Trump: the first thing Boris Johnson said to me is ‘we need ventilators’ – video

Donald Trump said on Friday that he had a conversation with Boris Johnson, who has tested positive for coronavirus, and 'the first thing he said to me is: "We need ventilators"'. Trump mentioned Johnson 'asking for ventilators today' twice during the Coronavirus Task Force briefing 

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Coronavirus US live: House passes $2.2tn economic stimulus package

Donald Trump will be signing the stimulus package at 4pm this afternoon.

Will be signing the CARE Act in the Oval Office today at 4:00 P.M. Eastern! https://t.co/0WnTNFZPZD

Donald Trump just released an ad called “Hope” that uses sound bytes from various public figures that make it appear they are praising the president for his efforts combating Covid-19.

Reposting - the president, who has accused Democrats of politicizing the coronavirus, is out with an ad using various public statements in misleading ways to highlight his response https://t.co/QwrG5AivMY

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Trump: ‘You don’t know what the coronavirus numbers are in China’ – video

US president Donald Trump has played down figures that revealed the country now has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, insisting 'you don't know what the numbers in China are'. Trump added he is due to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while explaining why he continues to call Covid-19 the 'China virus' despite his plea earlier this week to protect Asian-Americans from racism. 


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Coronavirus US live: US now has more cases than any other country – as it happened

The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports:

California’s homeless census was already troubled. Covid-19 is making it impossible.

Related: California's homeless census was already troubled. Covid-19 is making it impossible

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Will the coronavirus crisis spell triumph or disaster for Donald Trump?

The president was slow to address the pandemic that is plunging the US into recession but could an economic bounceback come in time to aid his re-election hopes

On the day of Donald Trump’s election, economists predicted calamity.

Related: Record 3.3m Americans file for unemployment as the US tries to contain Covid-19

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Trump’s deluge of Facebook ads have a curious absence: coronavirus

Campaign ads continue to focus on the southern border even as pandemic has killed hundreds of Americans

As the reality of the coronavirus crisis took hold in the US, Donald Trump’s Facebook campaign remained focused on a different “crisis” – the supposed threat of immigrants entering the US through the southern border.

Related: Facebook to remove misleading Trump 'census' ads

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Kanye West likens backlash over support for Trump to racial profiling

Rapper says anger over his views reminds him of racial assumptions he once faced: ‘You’re black, so you’re a Democrat’

Kanye West has reaffirmed his support for Donald Trump, whom he has previously called “his brother”, in a new interview with the Wall Street Journal.

West says people make assumptions about his political views because of his race, automatically assuming he would disagree with Trump’s views.

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Coronavirus US live: California governor says 1m people filed for unemployment in state

Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards updated reporters on a major spike in the Covid-19 death toll and contraction rate in the state, which remains a major coronavirus hotspot.

There are now 1,975 confirmed cases, a day-on-day increase of 407, and 65 deaths, a day-on-day increase of 19.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a briefing on Wednesday that 1 million people have filed for unemployment in the state since March 13th.

Gov @GavinNewsom says 1 million Californians have filed for unemployment since March 13. For context, CA usually gets 2500 claims a day, or about 22,500 in the 9 business days since 3/13. Instead: *one million.*#coronavirus #COVID19

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Coronavirus in America: why the US has struggled to tackle a growing crisis

A lack of preparation, deep-rooted dysfunction and a reckless president – now the US faces being the center of the pandemic

Exactly a month after Donald Trump tweeted that the US had the coronavirus outbreak “very much under control”, the World Health Organization delivered a stark and jarring reality check: America faces being the centre of a pandemic that has paralysed much of the world.

Related: Trump's staff cuts have undermined Covid-19 containment efforts, watchdog finds

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Trump flounders in the pandemic – but goes from Nero to hero in a week | Arwa Mahdawi

The president’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has been feeble. But that’s the beauty of setting an incredibly low bar for yourself – you can fail up

Just a few weeks ago, I was confident that Donald Trump’s days in the White House were numbered. The economy was tanking; coronavirus cases were soaring. And what was the president doing? Calling the coronavirus a “hoax” and mindlessly tweeting. On the same day, the Dow Jones plunged more than 2,000 points and Trump cheerfully retweeted a doctored photo of him playing a violin, remarking: “Who knows what this means, but it sounds good to me!” “Nero” immediately started trending.

Trump may be fiddling while the world burns, but, over the past week, he has sharply changed his tune. The guy who recently assured us that Covid-19 would “like a miracle … disappear” now insists that, actually, he knew it was “a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic”. Having realised he can’t just bluster coronavirus away, Trump has rewritten the past, adopted a newly sombre tone and reinvented himself as a “wartime” president. Last Monday, Trump finally admitted the gravity of the situation and announced a 15-day plan to “slow the spread” of the virus.

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Coronavirus news: US could be next Covid-19 hotspot amid ‘large acceleration’ of cases, says WHO – live updates

Deaths jump in Spain; France tightens lockdown; Afghanistan appeals for help amid new cases; South Africa prepares for lockdown. Follow the latest updates

Thailand’s leader said on Tuesday he would invoke sweeping emergency powers in the face of surging coronavirus infections, Reuters reports.

In a sign of toughening official action a man was arrested over allegations of creating panic on social media.

Thailand and neighbouring Cambodia were among Southeast Asian countries accused by New York-based Human Rights Watch of using the pandemic to crack down on criticism. Both countries reject the accusations and say their measures are needed to keep order and combat disinformation.

The UK’s supreme court has adapted to physical distancing by holding its first remote, live hearing on Tuesday morning, reports my colleague Owen Bowcott.

The building in Westminster is closed but the case is being conducted via video links and can be watched online. The judges are determined that justice should be transparent even in times of pandemic.

The first appeal using the technology is the case of Fowler v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, dealing with the intricacies of the UK-South Africa Double Taxation Treaty.

Related: Coronavirus UK live news: calls for urgent help for self-employed as tighter lockdown could come in future

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Delay is deadly: what Covid-19 tells us about tackling the climate crisis | Jonathan Watts

Rightwing governments have denied the problem and been slow to act. With coronavirus and the climate, this costs lives

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The coronavirus pandemic has brought urgency to the defining political question of our age: how to distribute risk. As with the climate crisis, neoliberal capitalism is proving particularly ill-suited to this.

Like global warming, but in close-up and fast-forward, the Covid-19 outbreak shows how lives are lost or saved depending on a government’s propensity to acknowledge risk, act rapidly to contain it, and share the consequences.

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Trump jokes with health official who mentions ‘low grade fever’ during coronavirus briefing — video

The US President, Donald Trump, jokingly moved away from the White House's coronavirus task force response coordinator, Dr Deborah Birx, after she mentioned her 'low grade fever'. Birx revealed she was tested for Covid-19, emphasising the need for personal responsibility to battle the coronavirus outbreak

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Can Trump be trusted not to abuse his coronavirus emergency powers?

Even the president’s critics have urged him to use the full power of the federal government to tackle the pandemic but experts warn of potential dangers

Standing in the Brady briefing room at the White House last week Donald Trump said that despite new restrictions on the number of journalists allowed in the room, there were still too many reporters around.

“You’re actually sitting too close,” the president told the journalists. “We should probably get rid of about another 75, 80% of you. I have just two or three that I like in this room.”

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Trump’s push to shorten the coronavirus shutdown proves the captain is flying blind | David Smith

To watch Trump is to witness the awesome and terrifying power of the American president over life and death – a burden he is unqualified to bear

Due to social distancing, there were only two dozen or so reporters in the White House press briefing room on Monday, making it feel like a flight with numerous empty seats and lots of legroom.

But when Donald Trump let rip for nearly two hours, it was as if the captain had announced a sudden whim to land the plane on water while wearing a blindfold. We sat tight for an unnerving journey.

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Donald Trump dismisses coronavirus as a ‘purely medical problem’ – video

Despite a rising death toll, US president Donald Trump vows to 'open up our country' in a matter of weeks, not months, as the coronavirus crisis hits the economy. Trump raised concerns the 'cure' to the pandemic could be 'worse than the problem itself' as cities across the US go into lockdown. "It started out as a purely medical problem and it's not going to go beyond that,' he said. He also urged people not to blame Asian Americans for the outbreak, saying 'they are working closely with us to get rid of it'


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Coronavirus US live: stimulus bill fails in Senate as experts urge Trump not to roll back social restrictions

The death toll in New York City is now approaching 100. The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the city on Monday was 12,339 with 99 deaths. There are just over 20,000 confirmed cases in New York state as a whole and 157 deaths. For context, there are around 41,200 confirmed cases in the entire United States.

The State Department says it is trying to help around 13,500 US citizens who wish to return home from abroad during the Covid-19 pandemic. An official told reporters on Monday that the department is looking at chartering planes to repatriate Americans abroad, and priority would be given to those in need. “If we have somebody who is 70 years old with an underlying condition, such as diabetes or heart disease, that person is going to get a higher priority on one of those flights, than the hale and hearty 20 year old,” the official said.

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‘Invisible enemy’: Trump says he is ‘wartime president’ in coronavirus battle – video

US president says the country is at war with coronavirus, while accusing China of not asking for help at the beginning of the crisis 'out of pride'. Trump also said the US economy will 'skyrocket' once the coronavirus outbreak is contained

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US coronavirus: Trump says national guard to be sent to New York, California and Washington – live

The vice-president, Mike Pence, is speaking now. He says there is a “bipartisan” spirit to the fight against Covid-19 and it is a great credit to America. He says testing is becoming more widely available every day.

Peter Gaynor, the Fema administrator, speaks and emphasizes that the deployment of the National Guard does not mean martial law has been imposed in the three states where they will serve.

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