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important | 1 | | With more than 53,000 fatalities around the world, COVID-19 continues to claim victims at an alarming rate in countries like Italy, Spain and the United States. “It’s surreal,” said the owner of a New York funeral home that’s seen a threefold increase in deaths. The White House is expected to urge Americans — a record 6.6 million of whom made new unemployment claims last week — to wear masks in high-risk areas. How are Europeans faring? Though they’ve been hit hard by the pandemic, job losses there are estimated at around 1 million over the past several weeks, thanks to widespread social safety nets across the EU. Don’t miss OZY’s continuing coverage of the COVID-19 crisis. | |
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| 2 | | Was he the weakest link in the chain of command? Two days after his emotional appeal urging the U.S. Navy’s top brass to quickly address the coronavirus outbreak on his aircraft carrier, Capt. Brett Crozier was stripped of his command. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said he’d “lost confidence” in the officer after his letter was leaked to the press. “We are not at war,” Crozier wrote. “Sailors do not need to die.” Was he heard? Modly said more than half of the 4,865 sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt — including 114 who tested positive for COVID-19 — would disembark this week. | |
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| 3 | | The Hermit Kingdom’s top infectious disease expert says “not one single person” there has COVID-19, a claim many doubt given the communist country’s propensity for secrecy. Yet while U.S. military intelligence indicates that’s “impossible,” North Korea experts believe it may not be far from the truth. After all, they say, it’s an extraordinarily closed country with the capacity to wage a powerful propaganda campaign to fight the virus. What are defectors saying? A doctor who fled in 2012 reported that he’d heard about “many deaths,” but said North Korean authorities — always averse to bad news — aren’t connecting them to coronavirus. | |
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| 4 | | It wasn’t the slickest move. Stocks in Europe and Asia slipped Friday, ending a brief rally partly fueled by President Donald Trump’s announcement yesterday that Saudi Arabia and Russia might cut oil production. Brent crude was trading above $32 per barrel this morning, following its record single-day jump yesterday, but Thursday’s dismal U.S. unemployment numbers did little to soothe investors. What’s next? Analysts say that while negotiations between major oil producers might be on-again, off-again, there’s still a sustained shock to oil demand. Read OZY’s warning about how Russia is coming for America’s shale. | |
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| | intriguing | 1 | | The tech giant is tracking you and recording your movements — but for the public good. It announced today that it’s collected and shared “aggregated, anonymized data” with officials in 131 nations to show how well people are social distancing. That means flagging which places are crowded and possibly spreading COVID-19. But such mapping only shows users who opted to let Google track their location data. Who can see it? All users can select a region, such as individual states, provinces or counties, and Google will generate a report. OZY reveals how secret apps violate privacy. | |
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| 2 | | He’s a breath of fresh air. Once the relatively unknown CEO of a small company outside Bologna, Gianluca Preziosa took an urgent call last month from Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte asking for help. Now Preziosa’s family-owned ventilator firm is churning out 125 units per week, with plans to accelerate production with help from major manufacturers like Fiat Chrysler and Ferrari. Before coronavirus hit, 90 percent of the company’s products went abroad, OZY reports, but now they’re all destined for the homefront. Are new ventilators enough? Experts say the next step is training more specialists, currently in shortage, to operate them. | |
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| 3 | | For the second time this week, the Central European country has drawn international anger — most recently over a draft law that effectively prevents people from legally changing their gender. Yesterday EU lawmakers argued the move “seeks to erase” Hungary’s transgender community. It’s not immediately clear when Parliament, which recently ruffled EU feathers by allowing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to rule by decree, will vote on the measure. How exactly does it hurt transgender people? Critics say any situation that calls for official documentation would instantly become “fraught with potential for violence and humiliation.” | |
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| 4 | | After thousands of rave reviews, Spanish novel Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor is among the six books nominated for the prestigious international award. Translated by Sophie Hughes, the story — told over eight single-paragraph chapters and “littered with profanities,” according to one reviewer — centers on the reasons, rather than the culprits, behind the murder of a witch in a small Mexican village. What’s the bigger picture? All but one of the nominees for the $62,000 prize, which will be announced May 19, are women. Read OZY’s profile of the author rewriting Western fairy tales for Muslim kids. | |
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| 5 | | Who needs No. 12 when you’ve got N95? In this showdown, though, the key number for the New England Patriots is actually 1.2 million — the number of medical-grade N95 masks their jetliner brought to Beantown Thursday. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker enlisted the help of Jonathan Kraft, the team’s president, to pick up the desperately needed supplies from Shenzhen, China. How did they navigate restrictions? To sidestep a 14-day quarantine in China, the Boeing 767’s crew couldn’t leave the plane, which also needed an avionics upgrade for international travel. OZY explores other innovative ways to acquire masks. | |
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| caught up? now vault ahead ... | To get more fresh stories and bold ideas in your inbox, check out The Daily Dose. | | Around the World Gianluca Preziosa, the CEO of the only company in Italy that makes ventilators, has been pressed into service to arm the war against coronavirus. | READ NOW |
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