Headlines on 2020-04-02

Reuters On Thursday, Spanish officials announced that a further 950 people had died of the coronavirus.  That's the largest daily increase of any country, including Italy, which has do far had the world's deadliest outbreak. Italy's deaths peaked at 919 on March 27, and have since started to decline. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Spain has just set a grim record in the coronavirus pandemic, recording more deaths in a single day than any nation so far. On Thursday,...

A genuine national emergency has broken out in a presidential election year. The Trump administration’s handling of that emergency has been disastrous, beginning with its glaring failure to track and contain the coronavirus before it spread across the entire nation and continuing to the present, with the president routinely making wildly inaccurate and irresponsible claims on national television, including one that directly led to the death of an American by drug overdose. Among the current...

On Tuesday, Dior announced that it had reopened at least one of its ateliers in France to make face masks, becoming the latest luxury brand to help out with the medical supply shortage amid the coronavirus pandemic. The luxury and fashion sectors are bracing for a major revenue hit due to the pandemic. Vogue Business' Annachiara Biondi reported that the fashion and luxury sector as a whole could see a $600 billion decline in sales this year.  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more...

I know a lot of people who think we are teetering on the edge of an apocalypse. This possibility feels so close, in fact, that many of the jokes about it have already worn thin from overuse. When is the meteor coming? people say. Or, The season finale of America is really wild. The one I keep telling is about moving to California. I came here, I said, because when the Big One hits, I want to fall into the sea right away. I have no interest in being around for the Cormac McCarthy portion of the...

As President Donald Trump resists pressure to issue stronger national coronavirus lockdown directives, stark figures are showing the urgency of the pandemic facing the US. A series of charts by the Financial Times show the number of new cases in the US continuing to rise sharply as the number is beginning to level out in Italy. The US now has more people infected with the illness than anywhere else in the world, with more than 216,000 recorded cases. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more...

The Wellness Matrix Group has offered customers an "at-home kit" for coronavirus testing that is "FDA Approved." But the agency has not approved any such tests, and customers say they feel scammed.

NPR reached out to the public health departments serving some of the largest cities in the U.S. Most did not have their most current pandemic response plan posted publicly and many were out of date.

The Atlantic, a magazine for which I once worked, recently teamed up with the National Constitution Center for a series entitled “The Battle for the Constitution.” The project draws upon a wide range of American legal scholars to discuss the Constitution’s fate in the Trump era. Past contributors range from Michael Gerhardt, Sanford Levinson, and Leah Litman to Richard Epstein, the University of Chicago law professor and erstwhile coronavirus expert who was vaporized from orbit by The New...

The request from FEMA to the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency for cadaver pouches follows warnings at the White House of coronavirus death tolls surpassing 100,000.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images Several key factors make the novel coronavirus pandemic a new and distinct challenge from an influenza outbreak. During flu season — even a severe one — much of the population is already immune. That's not the case with the COVID-19 virus. A botched rollout of testing for COVID-19 has left the US less prepared for the disease than for a flu pandemic. For the latest global case totals, death tolls, and travel information, see Business Insider's live updates here. Visit...

The coronavirus crisis has paused much of the presidential campaign. President Trump has been a daily presence on television, but his likely Democratic opponent Joe Biden has struggled for attention.

Mayor Bill De Blasio has endorsed a rental relief plan that would provide immediate aid to those struggling to pay their April rent. The plan, which still needs to be approved by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would allow tenants to use already-paid security deposits in place of their April rent payments. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. New York City officials are urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to pass a stimulus that would provide immediate relief to tenants struggling to pay their April...