Stranger Than Fiction

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TOP NEWS

• COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. surpassed 10,000 on Monday. Confirmed infections in the U.S. are more than double any other country, at 357,000. The U.S. death count has been nearly flat the past four days.

• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit. Foreign secretary Dominic Raab was deputized to run the government. 

• Black residents represent nearly half of the coronavirus-related deaths in Wisconsin, a state that is 6 percent black. Black communities in Detroit, Chicago and New Orleans are seeing similar patterns. A civil rights group and hundreds of doctors are asking the U.S. government to release data on COVID-19 deaths by race and ethnicity.

• Wisconsin’s supreme court blocked an executive order to suspend in-person voting in today’s primary. The executive order was immediately challenged by Republican lawmakers who argued that postponing the election would sow confusion. The state court offered no explanation for their 4 to 2 ruling.

• New York City parks may become temporary burial grounds as morgues in New York City are nearly full. The chair of the city’s health council committee said if it comes to that point “trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in a dignified, orderly--and temporary--manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take.”

WHAT I’M READING + WATCHING + LISTENING TO

• “Tiger King” breaks record for most consecutive days as most watched show

• John Oliver goes long on Trump’s favorite new network, OANN

• Scammers caught running fake COVID-19 testing site in Kentucky

THE COMMENT

“Certainly those of us in the media who cite dire (but very much mainstream) predictions are accused of being Debbie Downers, alarmists or ghouls cheering on catastrophe. This is flatly, offensively false. We and our loved ones are among the sick and dying; we, our friends, colleagues and neighbors are also losing jobs. I will be extraordinarily relieved if the projections cited above turn out in a year to have been too pessimistic. I am wholeheartedly rooting for better outcomes.” - Catherine Rampell

THE STRANGEST

• Radiation levels near the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster have spiked as firefighters battle to contain two forest fires in the area.

THE AV ROOM