10 things you need to know today: May 21, 2020

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1. Study: Earlier lockdowns could have prevented most COVID-19 deaths
2. WHO reports biggest 1-day increase in coronavirus cases yet
3. Supreme Court blocks House access to Mueller documents
4. Senate Republicans approve subpoena for Hunter Biden documents
5. Trump threatens to withhold Michigan, Nevada funds over mail-in voting
6. Whitmer: Michigan will 'hold people responsible' for dam failures
7. Former Green Beret and son arrested over Ghosn escape
8. Stock futures fall ahead of latest weekly jobless data
9. Ford temporarily closes 2 plants
10. Cyclone Amphan kills at least 24 in Bangladesh and India

published 21 May 2020

1. Study: Earlier lockdowns could have prevented most COVID-19 deaths

Thirty-six thousand fewer people would have died of COVID-19 in the United States by early May if the country had started social distancing one week earlier in March than it did, according to Columbia University disease modelers. If the policies had begun two weeks earlier, on March 1, another 18,000 deaths could have been prevented, reducing the death toll as of May 3 by 83 percent, according to the new research, which was released Wednesday. "That small moment in time, catching it in that growth phase, is incredibly critical," said Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia epidemiologist who led the research team. The first imported U.S. case of COVID-19 was reported on Jan. 20, followed by community transmission in February. Federal social distancing measures were enacted in mid-March.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday said it had received reports of 106,000 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, which WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said was "the most in a single day since the outbreak began." He said that two-thirds of the cases were in four countries, which he didn't name. The U.S., Russia, Brazil, and the United Kingdom are the nations with the highest number of total cases. "We still have a long way to go in this pandemic," Tedros said. The total number of coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed what another WHO official described as the "tragic milestone" of 5 million cases, reaching 5,011,467 early Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The worldwide death toll reached 328,368, with 93,439 deaths in the U.S.

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked the House Judiciary Committee from obtaining secret grand jury materials from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. The committee issued an emergency request for the undisclosed files last summer. The Washington, D.C., federal appeals court ruled in the committee's favor in March. But the Supreme Court ruled that the House panel could not access the material, including redacted portions of Mueller's report, until the White House and the Justice Department had time for a full appeal. The decision will likely prevent the materials from being released until after the 2020 election. The appeals court had said lawmakers had a "compelling need" to see the testimony, but the DOJ said the committee had no legitimate reason to request it.

The Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a subpoena for documents related to work done in Ukraine by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's son Hunter. The party-line vote came more than two months after the committee's chairman, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), said he would seek documents regarding Hunter Biden's work for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma while his father was vice president. Democrats strongly objected, calling the demands for documents an overtly partisan attempt to smear Biden as he prepares to challenge President Trump in the November election.

President Trump on Wednesday threatened to withhold federal funds from Michigan and Nevada if they follow through on plans to expand voting by mail. Trump falsely accused the two states of voter fraud. He accused Michigan of sending mail ballots to its residents, which his aides later acknowledged wasn't true. Michigan's secretary of state has sent registered voters ballot applications only, an increasingly common practice among state election officials. Trump later corrected his allegations against Michigan, but continued to accuse the secretary of state there of acting illegally, without supporting the claim. Nevada's Republican secretary of state has declared the state's primary to be a nearly all-mail election, so all registered voters in that state are getting ballots.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Wednesday that the state will "hold people responsible" for two dam failures Tuesday that caused severe flooding and forced 10,000 evacuations in areas along the Tittabawassee River. Whitmer said the dam failures were a known threat and Michigan will review "every legal recourse that we have" in its investigation into what caused the catastrophe. The governor promised to take aggressive action and procure aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal outlets. The Midland, Michigan, city manager said Wednesday evening's flooding was expected to be the peak. City officials said the river crested at about 35 feet, three feet lower than expected.

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged a former Green Beret and his son on suspicion that they helped former Nissan CEO and chairman Carlos Ghosn flee Japan to evade a Tokyo trial for alleged financial crimes. The suspects, Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, were arrested for allegedly helping Ghosn sneak out of Japan inside a musical equipment box. Ghosn disappeared from his court-monitored house in December, and later reappeared in Lebanon, where he holds citizenship. Ghosn said he didn't think he would get a fair trial in Japan. The Wall Street Journal reported that it sought comment from the Taylors' lawyers, but they did not immediately respond.

U.S. stock index futures fell early Thursday ahead of weekly unemployment figures that could show that up to 1 in 5 Americans are now out of work. Economists expect the Labor Department to report that about 2.4 million people made initial applications for unemployment benefits last week. That would bring the total number left jobless during the COVID-19 pandemic to nearly 40 million on a seasonally adjusted basis. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq were down by roughly 0.7 percent several hours before the opening bell. All three of the main U.S. indexes gained 1.5 percent or more on Wednesday in continued market volatility as all 50 states gradually reopened their economies despite concerns about a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday briefly closed two U.S. assembly plants due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns. A truck plant in Dearborn, Michigan, was closed for cleaning after a worker tested positive for COVID-19, and a Chicago auto-assembly plant was shut down because of a parts shortage. Ford had briefly closed the Chicago plant on Tuesday due to a positive coronavirus test. Ford did not provide specifics on the parts shortage, but a person familiar with the matter told Reuters that supplier Lear Corp. had closed an Indiana plant due to a positive coronavirus test. A Lear spokesman declined to comment on the report. The closures came after Ford, which is the No. 2 U.S. automaker, and other car companies reopened some factories on Monday in an attempt to resume operations after widespread shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cyclone Amphan, the first super cyclone to form over the Bay of Bengal since 1999, has left at least 24 people dead and destroyed thousands of homes in Bangladesh and India. The cyclone made landfall in eastern India on Wednesday afternoon. In Bangladesh, 2.4 million people in coastal areas were moved to 15,000 storm shelters. That included Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, who were living on an island in the Bay of Bengal. West Bengal is the hardest-hit Indian state, and its chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, told reporters the situation "is more worrying that the coronavirus pandemic. We don't know how to handle it. ... Area after area has been devastated. Communications are disrupted." Twelve of the storm-related deaths occurred in West Bengal.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.