TOP STORIES

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Wednesday, May 20

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BIDEN BLASTS TRUMP'S HYDROXY: 'C'MON MAN!' Joe Biden, speaking publicly for the first time about President Donald Trump’s controversial announcement that he was taking hydroxychloroquine, reacted, as many Americans did, with bafflement: “It’s like saying maybe if you inject Clorox into your blood it may cure you,” Biden said at a Yahoo News town hall on COVID-19 and food insecurity. “C’mon, man! What is he doing?” Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, said he's not taking the malaria drug, but "wouldn't begrudge" anyone who is. There's no proof it treats or prevents coronavirus infection, but it can have potentially fatal side effects. [HuffPost]

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JANE ROE'S DEATHBED CONFESSION: ANTI-ABORTION TURN WAS A PAID SHAM Norma McCorvey, the woman whose fight for abortion rights manifested in Roe v. Wade, makes a shocking admission in an upcoming documentary about her late-in-life conversion into an anti-abortion crusader. In the “deathbed confession,” McCorvey, who died in 2017, revealed to the makers of the FX documentary “AKA Jane Roe” that leaders of the evangelical religious movement paid her to switch sides on the issue. The moment reportedly occurs in the final minutes of the film, which airs Friday. [HuffPost]

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CHURCH THAT REOPENED AMID VIRUS CLOSES AGAIN AFTER PRIEST DIES A Roman Catholic church in Texas has indefinitely suspended public Masses after the death of a priest and the COVID-19 diagnoses of five others. The Rev. Donnell Kirchner, a 79-year-old priest from Houston’s Holy Ghost Church, died on May 13 after being diagnosed with pneumonia, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston said. Holy Ghost Church’s website says there is a possibility that the priest contracted the coronavirus before he died. [HuffPost]

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• "Hero" Costco worker praised after showdown with shopper over mask policy.
• Seven warning signs you're not being the best lockdown partner.
• New York politician's coronavirus briefing takes a NSFW turn.
• Why video calls mess with your mind.

Get the latest coronavirus updates on our dedicated page

THOUSANDS EVACUATED IN MICHIGAN AFTER DAMS BREACH 

Rapidly rising water overtook dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people in central Michigan, where the governor said one downtown could be “under approximately 9 feet of water” by Wednesday. For the second time in less than 24 hours, families living along the Tittabawassee River and connected lakes in Midland County were ordered to leave home. The National Weather Service urged anyone near the river to seek higher ground following “catastrophic dam failures.” [AP]

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CATHOLIC SCHOOLS SLAMMED BY VIRUS MAY NOT REOPEN At least 100 Catholic schools across the country are expected not to reopen in the fall. “There simply isn’t money,” Kathy Mears, interim president and CEO of the National Catholic Education Association, told HuffPost. Families who have lost jobs are unenrolling, for fear that they won’t be able to afford tuition; schools have had to cancel spring fundraisers that help keep the institutions afloat; and without in-person services, churches’ offertory collections — which typically provide a major source of education funding — have taken a hit. [HuffPost]

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STUDY: CLIMATE CHANGE IS FUELING STRONGER HURRICANES A new federal study concludes that human-caused climate change is supercharging hurricanes, making them larger and more intense. The study, published by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, analyzed satellite data over the last 40 years and found that planetary warming during that period increased the likelihood of a tropical cyclone become a major hurricane ― Category 3 strength or higher ― by approximately 8% per decade. [HuffPost]

WHAT'S BREWING

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FORD BACKS DOWN AFTER INSISTING TRUMP WEAR A MASK Trump is scheduled to visit Ford's Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, even though the visit technically violates an executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that prohibits “nonessential” plant tours. The governor’s office signaled it will not stand in the way of the visit, but Ford -- after initially insisting that Trump and his entourage wear face masks -- said it will allow the White House to follow whatever policy it wants. [HuffPost]

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NEW YORK'S PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY IS BACK ON The New York Democratic presidential primary will proceed on June 23, according to a second ruling in federal court on Tuesday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling that earlier this month reinstated the election. Democratic officials on the New York State Board of Elections announced in late April that they were canceling the presidential primary on the grounds that Joe Biden’s bid for the nomination is uncontested. [HuffPost]

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INFLUENCING BIDEN ON FOREIGN POLICY IS AN UPHILL BATTLE Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has one central pitch in the 2020 election: Unlike Trump, he will be a steady hand and a stable force in the world. Biden's long experience makes it tough for people outside his circle to influence him, but progressives argue that changing views among American voters and international conditions demand a fresh approach to national security from Democrats. Biden can’t afford to appear dated, particularly after years of public soul-searching on foreign policy among many Democrats, including himself. [HuffPost]

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DEMONIZING CHINA DOMINATES GOP POLITICAL ADS China is now at the top of the list of issues in political ads these days, right up there with the intertwined issues of the coronavirus and health care. Republicans spending far more than Democrats on presidential campaign ads that mention China, in what appears to be an attempt to deflect attention from the White House. From April 1-May 15, Republicans spent $8.3 million on TV ads (excluding cable) referencing China, compared to the $1.7 million spent by Democrats, according to data compiled by Kantar/CMAG for HuffPost. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP HOPES YOU FORGET HOW HE PRAISED CHINA AND WHO Before Trump turned to scapegoating China and the World Health Organization for the coronavirus pandemic, he praised both repeatedly. His ploy is obvious, political analysts say. He wants to blame outsiders for his administration's failures to contain the virus. But doing that requires rewriting the history of his lavish praise. [HuffPost]

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OUSTED DESIGNER OF FLORIDA'S CORONAVIRUS DASHBOARD WAS ASKED TO CENSOR DATA The Florida official in charge of designing and managing the state’s online dashboard of COVID-19 data says she was fired after refusing to censor and “manually change data” in order to present a picture justifying the state’s process of reopening and loosening COVID-19 restrictions. Rebekah Jones, who led a group of data scientists and public health experts at Florida’s Department of Health, announced her departure in an email to colleagues late Friday. [HuffPost]

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RADICALIZED INFLUENCERS ARE MAINSTREAMING COVID-19 CONSPIRACY THEORIES A growing group of Instagram models, influencers and so-called mommy bloggers have outed themselves as coronavirus skeptics or deniers. Akin to celebrities in the eyes of their audiences — with whom they’ve built up trust over time through streams of intimate, relatable content — these women are uniquely well-positioned to open people’s minds to dubious and false information. It’s a sobering sign of far-right ideologies creeping in from the fringes of social media amid a colossal “infodemic” that’s causing real-life harm. [HuffPost]

• "It feels like we got the city back for ourselves."
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• A brief chat with a guy who drinks 25 cups of coffee a day. 
• Isolating on a desert island: Polish YouTube star skips lockdown.

Illustrated PSA

The world is trying to cope with the coronavirus, from the serious to the mundane. We’re dealing with jamming full lives into one apartment or house, and trying to stay calm about a world full of an invisible virus. We’re trying to learn how to homeschool our kids, or to make bread for ourselves. It’s a whole new world, and HuffPost is launching a new illustrated series about how to live in it.

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Each week, we’ll feature an artist offering their vision for how to handle the world as it is today. We hope they make you think, make you smile, or just offer something to do other than staring wistfully out the windows.

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Click on the image to see a full-size version. See previous entries in the series here.

Illustration by Erik Carter

BEFORE YOU GO

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