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On Tuesday, November 5, Democracy Now! will air a 4-hour election night special broadcast from 8 pm to midnight ET. We will also air an expanded 2-hour election show for our daily broadcast from 8 to 10 am on Wednesday, November 6. Because Democracy Now! does not accept corporate advertising or sponsorship revenue, we rely on viewers like you to feature voices and analysis you won’t get anywhere else. Can you donate $15 to Democracy Now! today to support our election and post-election coverage? Right now, a generous donor will DOUBLE your gift, which means your $15 donation is worth $30. Please help us air in-depth, substantive coverage of the election and what it means for our collective future. Thank you so much! Every dollar makes a difference.
-Amy Goodman
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Some states are taking their own measures to stop new cases of the coronavirus from traveling across state lines. Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo said Sunday it will require all out-of-state visitors to self-quarantine when entering Rhode Island. On Friday, she initially applied the order to just New Yorkers.
Florida recently unveiled new measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus — after coming under criticism for not shutting down beaches during spring break — including an interstate highway checkpoint and requirements that travelers from New York and New Orleans self-quarantine for two weeks. Florida said it is deploying National Guard members to intercept travelers from the New York City area at airports. Governor Ron DeSantis also said the state would suspend vacation rentals for two weeks.
In other news from Florida, a reporter for the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times says DeSantis blocked her from entering a press briefing, after she requested the office allow for social distancing and video press briefings to protect journalists.
In Washington state, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine condemned the removal of a Bellingham ER doctor who publicly called out his hospital’s lack of protection for workers. Earlier this month, Dr. Ming Lin posted on Facebook that PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center was not following appropriate testing protocols and was exposing healthcare workers and patients to unnecessary risks.
New York remains the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States with more than 1,000 deaths and over 60,000 cases statewide — over half of those in New York City. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday residents who do not adhere to strict social distancing rules can be fined up to $500 as the city scrambles to stem a surge in new cases. Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday New York will build eight temporary hospitals. Tents started going up in Central Park over the weekend, and an emergency field hospital is expected to be open on Tuesday to start caring for overflow patients from nearby Mount Sinai West Hospital.
Nurses from Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx held a demonstration to protest the lack of personal protective equipment as they face a spike in coronavirus cases. This is emergency room nurse Kelley Cabrera.
Kelley Cabrera: “This moment is for all of us right now on the frontlines to come together to show the world that we are real people taking care of real people. We’re here to show the federal government that we exist. And yes, we are here in protest of the fact that they have the capabilities and the resources to help us, and they sadly have chosen not to do so.”
Click here to see our interview with Kelley Cabrera and pediatric emergency nurse Sean Petty. Nurses across the country, including in Georgia, Illinois and California, have staged similar protests in recent days. On Sunday, Trump accused hospitals of “hoarding” ventilators and questioned why masks were “disappearing” from hospitals.
In more news from New York, Governor Cuomo released an executive order Saturday saying hospitals could not force pregnant people to give birth without a chosen support person. The order comes in response to a move by the NewYork-Presbyterian and the Mount Sinai hospital systems to bar partners from labor and delivery rooms, causing widespread outrage.
New York became the latest state to postpone its presidential primary, originally scheduled for next month, to June 23, the same date as state legislative and congressional elections.
In California, Governor Gavin Newsom says his state received 170 broken ventilators from a national stockpile but that a Silicon Valley company was working to fix them. California cases have topped 6,000 with over 130 deaths.
In more news from California, the mayor of Lancaster has said that a teenager who is believed to have died from COVID-19 last week was turned away from an urgent care clinic because he did not have health insurance.
In labor news, workers for grocery delivery app Instacart are going on strike today to demand the company implement appropriate safety measures and give them hazard pay.
Amazon employees in Staten Island, New York, are walking off the job today, accusing the retail giant of continuing to work out of the warehouse despite multiple coworkers testing positive for COVID-19. Workers are demanding Amazon close and sanitize the fulfillment warehouse before they return to work.
On Tuesday, Whole Foods workers are calling for a “sick out” to demand hazard pay, guaranteed paid time off for workers who self-quarantine, and healthcare coverage for part-time and seasonal workers.
In Japan, the popular comedian Ken Shimura has died after contracting COVID-19 at the age of 70. Known for his slapstick style, he was a regular fixture on Japanese variety shows. His death comes as the Japanese government has resisted imposing a lockdown or social distancing measures, citing concerns for the economy. Japan recorded over 170 new cases on Sunday, 68 of those in Tokyo. Testing has remained extremely limited.
In the Philippines, law enforcement officers have reportedly been subjecting people who violate the national lockdown to violent punishment, including locking them in crowded dog cages.
In Brazil, as President Jair Bolsonaro continues to downplay the coronavirus pandemic, governors across the country have decided to promote social distancing and other measures among their constituents. Meanwhile, press freedom groups are denouncing Boslonaro’s recent approval of a provisional regulation restricting access to public records, including information about how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting Brazil.
In Central America, Guatemalan officials have confirmed a man who was deported from the U.S. last week has tested positive for COVID-19.
In Panama, at least four people died and two others have tested positive for COVID-19 aboard a Dutch-owned cruise ship anchored near Panama City.
In Iraq, U.S. coalition forces withdrew Sunday from a third base as the military continues to consolidate its troops following attacks earlier this month. The K1 military base is the site of a December rocket attack that killed an American contractor and triggered a series of retaliatory attacks between U.S. forces and Iranian-backed militias, and the Trump-ordered assassination of Iran’s top military commander, Qassem Soleimani.
Reverend Joseph E. Lowery, civil rights pioneer and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, died Friday at the age of 98. He died of natural causes. Reverend Lowery worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. until King’s assassination in 1968. He organized the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. He delivered protesters’ demands to George Wallace, the state’s segregationist governor, at the 1965 march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery. In 2006, at the funeral for Coretta Scott King, Reverend Lowery blasted President George W. Bush over the Iraq War and his conservative agenda — even as Bush sat in the front row. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 by President Barack Obama.
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