A bipartisan group of senators is aiming to make it a felony for Americans to cooperate "with efforts by international organizers — including the U.N. — to boycott Israel," The Intercept reports. The bill has been condemned by the ACLU, which writes that the organization "takes no position for or against the effort to boycott Israel or any foreign country" but that it takes issue with the fact that the bill "would punish individuals for no reason other than their political beliefs." If passed, Americans who support international boycotts against Israel could face up to a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison.

The bill is primarily sponsored by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and boasts an additional 28 Republican and 13 Democratic supporters. Co-sponsors range from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). No senators have yet denounced the bill.

The Intercept is heavily critical of the bill, writing:

[T]he free speech debate in the U.S. is incredibly selective and warped. Pundits and political officials love to crusade as free speech champions — when doing so involves defending mainstream ideas or attacking marginalized, powerless groups such as minority college students. But when it comes to one of the most systemic, powerful, and dangerous assaults on free speech in the U.S. and the West generally — the growing attempt to literally criminalize speech and activism aimed at the Israeli government's occupation — these free speech warriors typically fall silent. [The Intercept]

Read the full report at The Intercept. Jeva Lange

"As coronavirus continues to sweep across America, leaders are trying to figure out the right balance between keeping people safe and keeping the economy moving," Trevor Noah said on Tuesday's Daily Social Distancing Show. And some governors are erring on the side of business, he said, comparing Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's (R) decision to reopen bowling alleys to urging "people to join a competitive sneezing league. But while some are opening up their states, President Trump has announced that he's shutting down the border."

Yes, "in a 10 p.m. tweet last night, Trump declared that due to coronavirus, he's going to sign an executive order suspending all immigration into the United States," Noah said. "This is a big step for Trump, because remember, two-thirds of his wives have been immigrants. So closing the immigration system is Trump's version of deleting Tinder." This executive action is "yet another policy he's pushing through during the corona pandemic," following other immigration freezes and gutting environmental enforcement, he said. "So don't forget, while you're finally getting around to watching Ozark and trying to bake bread for the first time, Donald Trump, he's also using coronavirus as an opportunity to do all the things he always wanted to do," only "Trump's hobbies are going to keep going for a very long time."

"I don't necessarily agree" with Trump's immigration "bombshell," Stephen Colbert said at A Late Show, "but it's probably the safest thing — for the immigrants. Because right now America is basically a petri dish on the floor of a bus station men's room. But this ban's not going to do anything to stop the spread of the virus or put Americans back to work," and "Trump's tweet is less about information and more about promoting today's press briefing, reality show style." He dissected some of the crazy things Trump said at Monday's press briefing.

Trump did tell "a pretty funny joke" at the briefing, about how he never lies, before promptly lying, Jimmy Kimmel noted. Trump claimed he hasn't left the White House "in months," but "he held rallies in February and March, and he let the White House four times in March, including a trip to Mar-a-Lago. Mar-a-Lago, by the way, laid off 153 workers today in addition to the 560 laid off at Trump's resort in Miami — maybe this is why he's so anxious to open for business again: He's getting hurt." Peter Weber

The U.S. death told from COVID-19 passed 45,000 late Tuesday, hitting 45,063 by early Wednesday, according to a count of recorded cases by Johns Hopkins University. Almost a third of those fatalities, 14,887, were in New York City, with hundreds of deaths in cities and counties throughout the U.S. Tuesday's deaths marked a single-day high in a separate tally by the COVID-19 Tracking Project, and for the first time the uptick wasn't fed by New York.

As White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx reminded America on Tuesday evening, deaths are a lagging indicator and don't reflect the current spread of the virus.

Worldwide, the number of reported COVID-19 cases topped 2.56 million and there were 177,466 deaths. After the U.S., Italy had the most recorded deaths, at 24,648, followed by Spain, France, and Britain. Peter Weber

Chipotle Mexican Grill on Tuesday agreed to pay a $25 million fine after being charged with two counts of violating federal food guidelines by "adulterating food while held for sale after shipment in interstate commerce," federal prosecutors said.

Officials said this was the "largest fine ever imposed in a food safety case." The charges stemmed from multiple norovirus outbreaks that occurred from 2015 to 2018, which left more than 1,100 customers sick, prosecutors said. One outbreak in July 2018 in Powell, Ohio, was caused by "critical violations of the local food regulations, including those specific to time and temperature controls for lettuce and beans," prosecutors said. Over the span of eight days, 657 people who ate at the Chipotle became ill.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said Chipotle "failed to ensure that its employees both understood and complied with its food safety protocols, resulting in hundreds of customers across the country getting sick." The company said it has improved safety measures since the incidents, including "reducing the number of employees who come into contact with ingredients" and enacting "safeguards to minimize the risk that an ingredient is undercooked." Catherine Garcia

California's Santa Clara County announced Tuesday that autopsies had uncovered three early deaths from the COVID-19 coronavirus, including a person who died at home on Feb. 6. Previously, the earliest recorded U.S. death from COVID-19 was Feb. 28 in Kirkland, Washington. Since deaths usually occur about month after exposure to the coronavirus, the implication is that COVID-19 was spreading in the Bay Area by early January. The coronavirus was first confirmed to have entered the U.S. on Jan. 21.

The autopsies also found the coronavirus in a second person who died at home on Feb. 17 and another resident who died March 6, three days earlier than the previously known first COVID-19 death in Santa Clara County. That March 9 death prompted the Silicon Valley area to ban public gatherings, and it was one of five Bay Area counties to institute the nation's first lockdown on March 16.

Santa Clara County said the county medical examiner-coroner's office conducted the autopsies as part of an effort "to carefully investigate deaths throughout the county" from a time when there was "very limited testing" through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the CDC's testing criteria included "only individuals with a known travel history and who sought medical care for specific symptoms." The medical examiner sent samples from the autopsies to the CDC, which confirmed the positive results for coronavirus on Tuesday. "We anticipate additional deaths from COVID-19 will be identified" as the autopsies continue, the county said.

The head of Santa Clara County's government, Dr. Jeff Smith, said earlier this month that data from the CDC and local health officials suggested the coronavirus had arrived in California a lot earlier than "we first believed," most likely "back in December." It wasn't caught, he told the Los Angels Times, "because we were having a severe flu season," and the "symptoms are very much like the flu," especially with more mild COVID-19 cases. Peter Weber

It was the moment all of Yanira Soriano's doctors and nurses had been waiting for — the first time the New York mom was able to hold her baby, born while she was in a medically induced coma.

Earlier this month, Soriano tested positive for COVID-19 and pneumonia, and was immediately admitted to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, New York. She was 34 weeks pregnant, and Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, chairman of the hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said because of the "critical nature" of her case, she had to be put into a medically induced coma and placed on a ventilator.

An emergency cesarean section was performed, and Soriano's son, Walter, was transferred to a children's hospital in New York City while his mother remained in the intensive care unit. After two weeks, Soriano recovered, and upon her discharge last Wednesday, she was finally able to meet Walter. Hospital workers cheered as Walter was put into Soriano's arms for the first time, and Schwartz said it was an "incredibly proud moment" for everyone who helped make it happen.

"It takes many, many people over many, many shifts to provide the level of care that this patient needed," Schwartz added. "Many patients that end up on a ventilator with a COVID-19 pneumonia do not survive, and the fact that this mom not only survived but was able to get out of her wheelchair and walk into her car and hold her baby gives us incredible hope for future patients and our existing patients that have COVID disease." Catherine Garcia

The National Rifle Association, like most organizations, has probably been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was in pretty bad financial shape before that, according to audio of CEO Wayne LaPierre obtained by NPR News. At a Jan. 11 NRA board meeting in Virginia, LaPierre said "the cost that we bore" from legal troubles in 2018 and 2019 "was probably about a $100 million hit in lost revenue and real cost," adding, "I mean, that's huge." In response, the NRA cut $80 million in costs and took the organization "down to the studs," he said.

The NRA laid off staff and announced pay cuts in March, blaming the coronavirus.

LaPierre did not say how much of the $100 million hit came from investigations into the NRA's finances by the attorneys general of New York and Washington, D.C., and how much was a result of a messy divorce with its former longtime public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen. But in an April 15 legal filing, NPR's Tim Mak notes, Ackerman McQueen said it believes the NRA paid outside lawyers "more $54 million" over the last two years. LaPierre seemed to blame New York and D.C., calling the investigations of misspending and self-dealing "the power of weaponized government" like you might find in Russia, Cuba, or Venezuela.

The NRA and its affiliates reported more than $412 million in earnings and more than $423 million in expenditures in 2018, with tens of thousands going to foreign fundraising efforts after multiple years of financial shortfalls. Internal tensions over LaPierre's lavish spending and alleged chicanery spilled into the open at the NRA's April 2019 meeting, where the group's president, Oliver North, quit and an attempt to oust LaPierre failed. LaPierre said at the Jan. 11 meeting that NRA membership remains strong at "right around 5 million." You can listen to his comments at NPR and Mak's report below. Peter Weber