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Speaking during a press briefing on Thursday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany strongly endorsed the “prophylactic” use of hydroxychloroquine: that is, to prevent contracting the coronavirus.

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The CDC says that it may be possible to contract COVID-19 by coming in contact with a surface or object that has the virus on it, but you're much more likely to get the coronavirus through person-to-person transmission.

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Rocketry is hard.

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With U.S. stores shuttered and many Americans stuck at home, U.S. consumer spending plunged by a record 13.6% in April. That's the biggest drop since the government began tracking that data in 1959, and that decline was even deeper than economists had forecast.

Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, and that plunge supports expectations that the economy could shrink in the second quarter at its steepest pace since the Great Depression.

Spending on healthcare dropped as dental offices closed and hospitals put off elective surgeries. Americans spent less less at restaurants and on hotels.

The drop comes despite a surge in personal income. Stimulus checks that the government issued lifted incomes 10.5% last month, rebounding from a drop of over 2% in March when people began to stay at home.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak in a public webcast Friday, and Wall Street is watching closely to see if he have the Fed restart large-scale purchases of bonds to boost the economy.

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Pharmaceutical company executives said Thursday that one or several COVID-19 vaccines could begin rolling out before 2021, but warned the challenges would be "daunting" as it was estimated that 15 billion doses would be needed to halt the pandemic. Well over 100 labs around the world are scrambling to come up with a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, including 10 that have made it to the clinical trial stage. "The hope of many people is that we will have a vaccine, hopefully several, by the end of this year," Pascal Soriot, head of AstraZeneca, told a virtual briefing.

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U.S. health officials removed some coronavirus reopening tips for religious organizations only hours after posting them late last week, deleting guidance that discouraged choir gatherings and the use of shared communion cups. A federal health official on Friday said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted a version of the guidance on May 22 that had not been cleared by White House officials. The initial guidance posted last week contained most of the same advice that was in a draft drawn up by the CDC more than a month ago and then shelved for weeks by administration officials.

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Award-winning photographer Niraj Gera takes on stigma surrounding menstruation in India.

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Despite the growing number of coronavirus cases and deaths in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has refused to impose a lockdown.

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In recent weeks, Sen. Amy Klobuchar has positioned herself as a leading contender in the race to join former Vice President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket. But growing civil unrest in her home state of Minnesota in response to the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of a white police officer—and renewed scrutiny of her record as the top prosecutor in the state’s largest county—appears to have severely hampered her ambition to be the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee.“Vertiginous,” a campaign adviser said in a one-word text, describing Klobuchar’s fall in the rankings of potential running mates.The three-term senator’s drop has been so swift that a planned Minnesota digital event with Dr. Jill Biden and coronavirus first-responders scheduled for Friday was pulled, according to a source familiar with the campaign’s deliberations, “partly because we need to avoid her.” According to a Biden campaign official, all of Dr. Biden’s virtual events on Friday were canceled “because of George Floyd’s tragic killing and the events that followed” and the “decision had nothing to do with the fundraiser Dr. Biden was scheduled to participate in with Sen. Klobuchar.” Still, top figures in Bidenworld couldn’t help but remark on the convergence of events in Minnesota at a pivotal moment for Klobuchar. “This is very tough timing for Amy Klobuchar, who I respect so much,” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who was instrumental to Biden’s victory in the first-in-the-South primary, said in a phone call with reporters on Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported. “The timing is tough.”The death of George Floyd—a 46-year-old black man who appeared to suffocate as now-former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck for at least eight minutes—has ignited days of protests in the Twin Cities, as demonstrators have called for Chauvin and three other since-fired police officers to be charged with Floyd’s death. On Thursday night, protesters set a police station on fire while chanting “I can’t breathe,” the same words Floyd spoke repeatedly as Chauvin kneeled on his neck as a bystander recorded the episode on their phone. On Friday, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter for his role in Floyd’s death.As Minnesota’s governor has called in the National Guard to quell the uprising and President Donald Trump has called for the “shooting” of looters who have damaged private property during the protests, criminal justice advocates have pointed to Klobuchar’s seven-year tenure as Hennepin County attorney, when she declined to bring charges against numerous police officers who had been accused of police brutality. Instead, she preferred the use of grand juries to weigh charges, a process that usually obscured proceedings and tended to favor police.Recent anger at Klobuchar has focused on a shooting of a civilian involving Chauvin in October 2006, months before Klobuchar would leave the Hennepin County Attorney’s office for the U.S. Senate. On social media Thursday night, progressives seized on reports that Klobuchar declined to prosecute Chauvin in the case. Her successor, Mike Freeman, issued a statement Friday saying he, not Klobuchar, was responsible for Chauvin’s prosecution, which resulted in a grand jury declining to charge the officer. Klobuchar’s Prosecutor Past Could Haunt Her Presidential BidAppearing on MSNBC Friday, Klobuchar hit back against those reports, saying “this idea that I somehow declined a case, which has been reported on some news blogs and then sent out on the Internet, against this officer is absolutely false.” She also bristled at questions from Andrea Mitchell about whether she should drop out of contention for the VP nod. “This is Joe Biden’s decision,” Klobuchar said. “He will make that decision. He’ll decide who he’s considering.”Klobuchar has been under consideration for the running-mate role practically since she dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Biden in early March. That endorsement kickstarted a coalescing behind the former vice president of nearly all of his former rivals for the nomination, helping Biden regain frontrunner status after a series of blistering losses in early-voting states; he openly credited Klobuchar with his surprise win in Minnesota’s primary. Klobuchar has since been a visible surrogate for Biden’s campaign, hosting million-dollar fundraisers and appearing with other campaign surrogates regularly. Those anxiously waiting on Biden’s decision—particularly Democrats of color—see the unrest in Minnesota clearly impacting Klobuchar’s case to be the strongest possible companion for the former vice president. “I do think the past couple of days adds several more layers of complications for a potential Amy Klobuchar pick,” said Antjuan Seawright, a South Carolina-based Democratic strategist. “The events that are happening around us also tend to fertilize the soil more for an African-American woman to be planted and nurtured as the VP pick.”“I don’t think we can afford to have really any division or confusion, anger or frustration, within the party,” said Seawright.Rashad Robinson, executive director for the civil rights advocacy group Color of Change, has been critical of Klobuchar’s record when she was running. He didn’t say Klobuchar should not be considered as a nominee but told The Daily Beast her explanations this week of her record prosecuting police brutality cases have been “far too cute” and “have seemed to avoid responsibility at a time when we know DAs were not doing their jobs.” “To look us in the eyes and pretend we don’t know what’s happening,” said Robinson, “is a disappointment.”Meanwhile, at a “Women for Biden” fundraiser on Friday afternoon, Jill Biden appeared alongside Rep. Val Demings of Florida, a former Orlando police chief and another contender for the vice presidential slot. Demings, a favorite of Jill Biden’s who has been increasingly mentioned as a potential running mate, said during the event that the nation’s police officers must “take a serious look at ourselves as law enforcement agencies, not just Minnesota but throughout the nation.”Perhaps Klobuchar’s greatest weakness as a presidential candidate—and as a vice presidential candidate—stems from her inability to reach and win over voters of color.The senator’s years as a big-city prosecutor in the tough-on-crime 1990s and 2000s heavily influenced that struggle, as scrutiny on her record revealed very little to like for a Democratic primary electorate more attuned than ever to issues of race and criminal justice.Those issues ended up literally punctuating Klobuchar’s presidential bid: the day before she dropped out of the race, on March 1, protesters overtook a Twin Cities rally for her campaign as they chanted for justice for a man named Myron Burrell. In 2003, Burrell—a teenager accused of murder—was aggressively prosecuted by Klobuchar’s office, and was sentenced to life in prison. A February investigation by the Associated Press, however, revealed that the case against Burrell was built on shaky evidence. After the story broke, the Hennepin County Attorney’s office began a review process—which Klobuchar supported—but the revelation outraged criminal justice reform advocates, some of whom called on the senator to drop out of the presidential race.Over her yearlong presidential candidacy, Klobuchar frequently found herself explaining these aspects of her record and trying to persuade Democratic voters that she’d approach things differently now. But that didn’t translate into increased support from black voters: a January Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that 62 percent of black Democratic primary voters didn’t know who Klobuchar was or had no opinion of her. The amount of support she got from black voters was represented by an asterisk—unmeasurable. In South Carolina, the primary’s barometer for black support, Klobuchar notched 3.2 percent of the overall vote, lagging behind leading candidates. Exit polls found that just 1 percent of black voters—who made up more than half of the primary electorate—backed Klobuchar.In responding to the unrest in Minnesota, a low point even in her home state’s long history of racial tension, Klobuchar has appeared animated by criticisms of her record and of her past outreach to voters of color.  The senator’s response to the Floyd killing was quick: She called for an investigation into it and declared “Justice must be served for this man, justice must be served for our community, and justice must be served for our country.” But she took criticism from activists for the statement’s phrasing; for example, it didn’t state explicitly that he had been killed by a police officer.On MSNBC Friday from Minneapolis, Klobuchar was more direct. “Anyone that watched that video of George Floyd’s life literally evaporating in front of our eyes as he’s trying to breathe while that police officer had a knee on his neck, is something that’s etched in the minds of everyone in our state and everyone in our country,” she said. In that interview, Klobuchar also took pains to note that she was busy on the ground meeting with civil rights leaders in Minneapolis, mentioning in particular the Rev. Al Sharpton, in a show of stepped-up outreach to the black community. The New York Times reported that the head of the Minneapolis NAACP—which had called for Klobuchar to exit the presidential race over the Burrell news—received a surprise call from the senator to talk about Floyd’s death. Biden, of course, has faced pressure from progressive and minority groups to select a person of color as his running mate, reflecting how essential voters of color—a core constituency of the Democratic Party—are to Biden’s chances to defeat Trump in November. Biden, said Color of Change’s Robinson, will “have to explain to the public why he thought, in this moment, that Sen. Klobuchar was the best candidate” to run with him, if he continues to consider her.In livestreamed remarks on Friday, the person whom Klobuchar has said will make the ultimate decision about her future on the ticket told viewers that the unrest in Minneapolis “will require those of us who sit in positions of influence to finally deal with the abuse of power.”“With our complacency, with our silence, we are complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence,” Biden said. “Nothing about this will be easy or comfortable. But if we simply allow this wound to scab over once more, without treating the underlying injury, we will never truly heal.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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The manhunt for the 23-year-old college senior had spanned Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

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Yokohama-based Nissan’s chief executive, Makoto Uchida, said Thursday that its European production will be centered at its British plant in Sunderland. Manufacturing now based in Indonesia will move to Thailand, as the Japanese automaker cuts global production by 20%. Nissan Motor Co. reported a 671.2 billion yen, or $6.2 billion, loss for the fiscal year that ended in March, its first annual loss since 2009, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

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President Donald Trump on Friday ordered his administration to begin the process of eliminating special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong to punish China, but stopped short of calling an immediate end to privileges that have helped the territory remain a global financial center. In making the announcement, Trump used some of his toughest rhetoric yet against China, saying Beijing had broken its word over Hong Kong's autonomy by moving to impose new national security legislation and the territory no longer warranted U.S. economic privileges. At a White House news conference, Trump called this a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, China and the world, having already attacked Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China.

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The Russian government has consistently denied directly intervening in the Libyan conflict. The photos show otherwise.

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The origin of the new coronavirus still isn't known. But according to the Chinese CDC, it isn't the wet market in Wuhan.

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A coronavirus testing project in San Francisco has provided yet another example of how COVID-19 is overwhelmingly affecting people of color.Diane Havlir, the director of the HIV/AIDS division at the University of California, San Francisco, noticed early in the pandemic that young Latino men were arriving at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital with coronavirus symptoms more often than any other demographic. So she conducted a research project that involved testing 4,160 residents of San Francisco's Mission District — and found that not a single white person tested positive, Stat News reports.Havlir's project focused on a single, 16-square-block census tract in the Mission district, "one of the city's most densely populated and heavily Latinx neighborhoods," Stat News writes. A third of the tract's residents are white, while 58 percent are Hispanic, the U.S. Census estimates. But 95 percent of those who tested positive were Latinx, while no white person in the tract tested positive.Just like testing and death rates are revealing across the country, "what really comes out of these data is that low-wage essential workers are victims of this disease," Havlir told Stat News. And with 53 percent of those who tested positive showing no symptoms of coronavirus, it's even more clear that allowing workers to stay home only if they feel sick may not be enough to stop the spread. Read more at Stat News.More stories from theweek.com Amy Klobuchar declined to prosecute officer at center of George Floyd's death after previous conduct complaints Minneapolis official calls for naming 'disease' of racism a public health issue after George Floyd death Trump retweets video declaring 'the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat'

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Conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter told Yahoo News she may cast a write-in vote for former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rather than vote to reelect Trump.

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"Please, Minneapolis, we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy," Mayor Jacob Frey said after a night that left shops looted and on fire.

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A cruise ship crew member died last week of self-inflicted harm, the US Coast Guard said Wednesday as it confirmed the latest in a series of apparent suicides among such workers trapped at sea because of the coronavirus pandemic. A 32-year-old Filipino worker on a ship called Scarlet Lady, the only cruise ship owned by Virgin Voyages, died of "apparent self-harm," the Coast Guard told AFP. The Florida-based company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson expressed its condolences over the death of its employee but gave no details of what happened.

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Analysis from the Financial Times has shown that the number of excess deaths correlates to when a country decided to lock down.

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Human Rights Watch is calling on the U.N.’s top human rights body to launch an independent investigation into the Philippine government’s drug war that has left thousands dead, pointing in particular to its harmful effects on children. The advocacy group made the call alongside Wednesday's launch of a report timed for the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council session next month. The 48-page report is based on nearly 50 interviews and examines the impact of about two dozen killings under President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.

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George Floyd's death in police custody is renewing criticism of Sen. Amy Klobuchar's (D-Minn.) prosecutorial record.Before she became a senator and a top contender for former Vice President Joe Biden's vice presidential spot, Klobuchar spent eight years as the Hennepin County attorney, in charge of prosecution for Minneapolis. And while in that position, Klobuchar declined to prosecute multiple police officers cited for excessive force, including the officer who kneeled on Floyd's neck as he protested, The Guardian reports.Ex-Minneapolis police officer Derick Chauvin saw at least 10 conduct complaints during his 19-year tenure before he was fired Tuesday, according to a database that documents complaints against police. In particular, he was involved in the shooting death of a man who had stabbed other people before attacking police, as well as some other undisclosed complaints. Klobuchar did not prosecute Chauvin for the first death, and he was later placed on leave when he and other officers shot and wounded a Native American man in 2011.As The Washington Post noted in March, Klobuchar "declined to bring charges in more than two dozen cases in which people were killed in encounters with police" as Hennepin County attorney. Instead, she "aggressively prosecuted smaller offenses" that "have been criticized for their disproportionate effect on poor and minority communities," the Post continues. And as Klobuchar undergoes vetting to become a possible vice presidential candidate, that track record is being scrutinized and criticized once again.More stories from theweek.com Minneapolis official calls for naming 'disease' of racism a public health issue after George Floyd death Trump retweets video declaring 'the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat' Trump signs executive order seeking regulations on social media

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Huawei Technologies Co's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was dealt a setback by a Canadian court on Wednesday as she tries to avoid extradition to the United States to face bank fraud charges, dashing hopes for an end to her 18-month house arrest in Vancouver. The ruling, which could further deteriorate relations between Ottawa and Beijing, elicited immediate strong reaction from China's embassy in Canada, which said Canada is "accomplice to United States efforts to bring down Huawei and Chinese high-tech companies."

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Six British citizens including two former Royal Marine commandos have been accused of taking part in a botched mercenary mission to Libya to fight on behalf of renegade general Khalifa Haftar. The five men and one woman are named in a confidential report by the United Nations panel of experts on Libya into a botched mission that ended with the mercenaries making a remarkable sea-borne escape after falling out with their hosts. The men, including former Royal Marines Sean Callaghan Louw and Andrew Scott Ritchie, were among around 20 mercenaries who travelled to Benghazi in eastern Libya in June 2019 in a contract organised by a UAE based company called Opus, according to the report seen by the Daily Telegraph. Amanda Perry, a United Arab Emirate based businesswoman, is identified and is alleged to have been a "facilitator" of the project. She is the managing director of Opus Capital Asset FZE, the company that hired two boats used by the group. She is also company secretary of Lancaster 6, a business owned by Christiaan Durrant, a former Australian fighter pilot and Malta resident who is also named - and accused of being a facilitator in the report.

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Award-winning photographer Niraj Gera takes on stigma surrounding menstruation in India.

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“Never Trumper” Mitt Romney stepped in to defend his friend and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough on Wednesday after the president renewed his Twitter feud against the MSNBC host.The Utah senator called the accusations vile and baseless after Donald Trump escalated his campaign against “psycho Joe” over the death of a former staffer Lori Klausutis, who died in Mr Scarborough’s office when he was a Florida congressman, also empathising with Klausutis’ husband.

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Russia said on Thursday the United States was acting in a dngerous and unpredictable way, after Washington withdrew from a key military treaty and moved to ramp up pressure on Iran. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made the comments after Washington announced it would end sanctions waivers for nations that remain in a nuclear accord signed with Iran.

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