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Stranger Than Fiction
A brief daily note of things you might find interesting or useful
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TOP NEWS
Some U.S. states begin easing lockdowns. Alaska, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina have started to allow some businesses to welcome customers this weekend. A touchless thermometer will be used on customers entering a beauty salon in Bixby, Oklahoma.
Some social distancing will last months, coordinator for the White House COVID-19 response said. Yesterday, on “Meet the Press” Deborah Birx said “social distancing will be with us through the summer to really ensure that we protect one another as we move through these phases.”
Italy, which has been under the longest lockdown, will begin to ease restrictions. People will begin to be allowed to move within their regions but not among other regions of the country. Bars and restaurants will begin to allow takeaway service starting May 4th. Hairdressers, beauty salons, bars and restaurants will reopen on June 1.
Global markets rise on anticipation of easing of lockdown measures. The kickstart of economic activity has investors optimistic about a rebound. Japan’s Nikkei ended the day up 2.7%, The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 1.8%, and U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 1% as of this writing.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has been out of sight for over two weeks. There’s little information about where he might be or what might have happened, and speculation ranges from nothing at all to that he had died from a heart surgery gone wrong.
WHAT I’M READING + WATCHING + LISTENING TO
THE COMMENT
“Mr. Trump has ended up with an opponent who is so much more in the mold of the presidential fraternity. Mr. Biden would not hesitate to call a predecessor or a former political rival during a crisis. Mr. Biden’s dozens of years in the Senate and two terms as vice president included many friendships with Republicans, and at least one with a former member of Mr. Trump’s cabinet.
Mr. Biden told me that at the beginning of the Trump presidency he had been in touch with Mike Pence, who, Mr. Biden said, is “a guy you can talk with, you can deal with, in a traditional sense. Like Clinton could talk to [Newt] Gingrich.” Mr. Biden has no trouble working with people with whom he does not always agree: He would fit in the mold of the Presidents Club perfectly.” - Kate Andersen Brower, author of forthcoming “Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump”
THE STRANGEST
THE AV ROOM