Coronavirus COVID-19 global cases, 26 Mar 2020. Graphic: Center for Systems Science and Engineering CSSE at Johns Hopkins University

World passes 500,000 coronavirus cases – U.S. overtakes Italy and China with most cases globally

26 March 2020 (Desdemona Despair) – The world reached an unhappy milestone today, as the number of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2, aka novel coronavirus, exceeded a half-million. More than 23,000 deaths have been reported globally. As Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, observed three days ago, “It took 67 days from the […]

Aerial view of the eastern expressway in Mumbai after Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown on 24 March 2020 in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Photo: Atul Loke / The New York Times

More than 1 billion people in “total lockdown” in India after coronavirus cases spike – “To save India, to save its every citizen, you, your family, every street, every neighborhood is being put under lockdown”

25 March 2020 (BBC News) – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has imposed a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The restrictions came into force at midnight local time (18:30 GMT) and will be enforced for 21 days. “There will be a total ban on venturing out of your […]

A woman and a man stand in a cemetery in Colombia. Three people have died and there are 277 cases in Colombia on 23 March 2020, as the local authorities impose restrictions. Death squads in Colombia are taking advantage of coronavirus lockdowns to murder rural activists, local NGOs have warned. Photo: Luis Robayo / AFP / Getty Images

Colombian death squads exploiting coronavirus lockdown to kill activists – “We are being killed, like always”

By Joe Parkin Daniels 23 March 2020 BOGOTÁ (The Guardian) – Death squads in Colombia are taking advantage of coronavirus lockdowns to murder rural activists, local NGOs have warned. When cities across the country introduced local quarantine measures last week, three social leaders were killed, and as the country prepares to impose a national lockdown […]

Satellite view of airborne nitrogen dioxide pollution over Washington State in March 2020, compared with March 2019. Pollution is visibly reduced by the cessation of economic activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Data: Descartes Labs / Sentinel-5P satellite. Graphic: CNN

Satellite images show less pollution over the U.S. as coronavirus shuts down public places

By Madeline Holcombe and Sean O’Key 23 March 2020 (CNN) – As millions of Americans are kept from work, school and most public places as coronavirus is on the rise, satellite images show pollution on the decline.Images taken over the first three weeks of March show less nitrogen dioxide over parts of the United States than […]

An air tanker flies over PG&E power lines en route to drop fire retardant in the valley below during the firefighting operations to battle the Kincade Fire in Healdsburg, California on 26 October 2019. Photo: Philip Pacheco / AFP / Getty Images

PG&E to plead guilty to 84 involuntary manslaughter counts over 2018 wildfire in California

By Jonathan Stempel 23 March 2020 (Reuters) – Pacific Gas & Electric has agreed to plead guilty to 84 involuntary manslaughter counts in connection with the 2018 Camp Fire, the most destructive wildfire in California’s history. The plea by California’s largest utility was announced on Monday by its parent PG&E Corp, three days after the […]

Nations ranked by happiness, 2017-2019. Graphic: World Happiness Report 2020

World Happiness Report 2020: Rapid increase in negative affect over last decade continues, driven by sadness, worry, and anger

20 March 2020 (Sustainable Development Solutions Network) – […] We next examine the global pattern of positive and negative affect in the third and fourth panels of Figure 2.2. Each figure has the same structure for life evaluations as in the first panel. There is no striking trend in the evolution of positive affect, except […]

Trump (left) and Vice President Mike Pence (right) at a FEMA meeting on Thursday, 19 March 2020. Photo: Evan Vucci / AP Photo

Coronavirus, climate change could stretch FEMA past its limit – “All the other hazards we have in the U.S. will not go away and will only complicate the task of responding to the coronavirus”

By Leslie Kaufman and Brian K. Sullivan 22 March 2020 (Bloomberg) – It wasn’t until Wednesday, five days after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it was “leading the federal coordination” to the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S. While the disaster-response agency is better known for its work in the aftermath […]

Workers pick apples in a Wapato, Washington, orchard in October 2019. U.S. farms employ hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers, mostly from Mexico, who enter the country on H-2A visas. The potential impact of the coronavirus on seasonal workers has the food industry on edge. Photo: Elaine Thompson / AP

COVID-19 threatens food supply chain as farms worry about workers falling ill – “We’ve got enough disruption. We don’t need to disrupt our food supply, that would be really catastrophic.”

By Dan Charles 18 March 2020 (NPR) – As Americans scattered to the privacy of their homes this week to avoid spreading the coronavirus, the opposite scene was playing out in the Mexican city of Monterrey. A thousand or more young men arrived in the city, as they do most weeks of the year, filling […]

Weekly initial unemployment claims 2000 - 18 Mar 2020 for California, Ohio, Minnesota, and Rhode Island. Graphic: The New York Times

Graph of the Day: The staggering rise in U.S. jobless claims, 19 March 2020

By Quoctrung Bui and Justin Wolfers 19 March 2020 (The New York Times) – Numbers released on Thursday by the Labor Department — as well as a preliminary analysis of even more recent data — provide the first hard confirmation that the new coronavirus is bringing the United States economy to a shuddering halt. The […]

Coastal erosion encroaches on a house in Happisburgh, Norfolk, UK. Photo: Philip Bird, LRPS CPAGB / Shutterstock

15 towns being slowly swallowed by the sea – Coastal communities fighting a losing battle with the ocean

4 March 2020 (Love Property) – Positioned on the frontline of climate change, the world’s most vulnerable shoreline communities face an uncertain future. Plagued by ever-worsening coastal erosion and rising sea levels, their existence hangs precariously in the balance. As the tide continues to draw in, take a look at 15 towns being gradually reclaimed […]

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