LANDSLIDE: Trump will lose in a landslide because of the economy, new election model predicts

Donald Trump

By Matt Egan, CNN Business  Updated 2:12 PM ET, Wed May 20, 2020

New York (CNN Business)The economy has gone from President Donald Trump's greatest political asset to perhaps his biggest weakness.

Unemployment is spiking at an unprecedented rate. Consumer spending is vanishing. And GDP is collapsing. History shows that dreadful economic trends like these spell doom for sitting presidents seeking reelection. The model, which uses unemployment, disposable income and inflation to forecast election results, predicts that Trump will lose in a landslide, capturing just 35% of the popular vote. That's a sharp reversal from the model's pre-crisis prediction that Trump would win about 55% of the vote. And it would be the worst performance for an incumbent in a century.

The coronavirus recession will cause Trump to suffer a "historic defeat" in November, a national election model released Wednesday by Oxford Economics predicted. "It would take nothing short of an economic miracle for pocketbooks to favor Trump," Oxford Economics wrote in the report, adding that the economy will be a "nearly insurmountable obstacle for Trump come November." more

BONKERS: PREZ SEZ HE’S TAKING DRUG FDA WARNED AGAINST! Trump Claims He’s Been Taking Hydroxychloroquine For Weeks Trump has been touting the anti-malaria drug as a coronavirus cure despite no evidence that it’s effective.

President Donald Trump claimed Monday that he’s been taking hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug he’s been touting as a potential coronavirus cure, for a couple of weeks in hopes of preventing COVID-19.

“You’d be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the frontline workers before you catch it. ... I happen to be taking it,” the president said at a roundtable with restaurant executives. “I’ve heard a lot of good stories,” Trump, who says he has not tested positive for the coronavirus, continued. “And if it is not good, I will tell you right. I’m not going to get hurt by it.”

That is not guaranteed. Not only is there is no known evidence that the drug works in COVID-19 cases, but it has potentially serious side effects, including the possibility that it may alter a patient’s heartbeat in a way that could lead to sudden death.

The Food and Drug Administration warned against its use in coronavirus cases except for in formal studies in late April, citing that serious heart risk, after Trump claimed it may be “one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine” and began mentioning it on a near-daily basis.

Since then, a study of 1,400 patients at Columbia University in New York found that hydroxychloroquine did not lower the risk of dying or needing a breathing tube. Likewise, there is also no proof that the drug can prevent infection. 

Trump has also bucked public health guidance by not wearing a mask at public gatherings despite two people who work in the White House falling ill with the virus in recent weeks. 

Jamaica's PM, Andrew Holness on CNN discussion about COVID-19 & Jamaica

Usain Bolt and his partner Kasi Bennett are celebrating the birth of a baby girl

Usain and Kasi

Sunday, May 17, 2020

KINGSTON, Jamaica – World record holder for the 100 and 200 metres Usain Bolt and his partner Kasi Bennett are celebrating tonight the birth of their first child – a daughter.

MORE TO FOLLOW!

Two men involved in fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery have been arrested, GBI says By Steve Almasy, CNN Updated 8:44 PM ET, Thu May 7, 2020

Ahmaud Arbery

(CNN)Two men involved in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick, Georgia, have been arrested and face murder and aggravated assault charges, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, were taken into custody and will be booked into the Glynn County Jail, the GBI said Thursday evening.

Arbery, 25, was jogging in a neighborhood outside Brunswick on February 23 when Gregory McMichael, a former police officer, and his son chased him down, authorities said.According to a Glynn County Police report, Gregory McMichael, 64, later told officers that he thought Arbery looked like a person suspected in a series of recent break-ins in the area.

After they chased down Arbery, McMichael told police, Arbery and Travis McMichael, 34, struggled over his son's shotgun. Gregory McMichael said two shots were fired before Arbery fell to the street, the report said. In a video of the incident, three shots can be heard before Arbery is seen stumbling and falling to the ground.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

CNN's Angela Barajas contributed to this report.

COVERED IN AMERICAN NEWSPAPER: As Latin America and Caribbean seek to reopen economies, Jamaica offers cautionary tale

Monday, May 4, 2020

© Jean Marc Herve Abelard/Zuma Press/TNS April 25, 2020, Puerto
PrÃcNcipe, HaitÃ: Inhabitants stock up on food at the street market
of Petion-Ville, in the main commercial area of Port-au-Prince,
Haiti, 25 April 2020. The market looks crowded this Saturday
 despite constant recommendations from the authorities to
 maintain social distance to prevent the spread of the
coronavirus, which is still incipient in Haiti.

As Jamaica recorded a double-digit spike in new coronavirus cases in less than 24 hours last month, the government told the nation that there were indications that all who had fallen ill were linked to a call center in the parish of St. Catherine. Alorica, a major employer in the country’s lucrative Business Process Outsourcing call-center sector, had been allowed to remain open even as the island closed its borders to cruise ships and airline passengers and enforced an island-wide curfew for its 2.7 million inhabitants. Health and Wellness Minister Christopher Tufton said during an April 16 press briefing on the pandemic that 52 of Jamaica’s then-143 cases could be linked back to the St. Catherine-based call center, making it the largest cluster of COVID-19 infections on the island.

“The Alorica situation is the dominant challenge for us now in the country as it relates to COVID-19 and the response,” Tufton said at the time. “It represents for us, if you will, the weak link in the arsenal and the work that we’ve been doing.”

Unlike many countries in the region, Jamaica never fully shut down its economy amid the global pandemic, even as it aggressively enforced social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The decision has come with a steep price, and serves as a cautionary tale for others in the region that are starting to ease lockdowns and reopen their economies as cases and fatalities continue to climb. more