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CORONAVIRUS

Meat industry struggles to return as more workers get sick

More than 11,000 virus cases are tied to three major processors and more than 60 people have died throughout the industry, illustrating the challenge of reopening the country even for essential businesses.
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President Trump participates in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. (Polaris/Bloomberg News)
President Trump participates in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. (Polaris/Bloomberg News)
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, prepare to lay a wreath Monday at a ceremony in New Castle, Del. (AP)
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, prepare to lay a wreath Monday at a ceremony in New Castle, Del. (AP)
Vietnam War veteran Bernie Klemanek, 73, of Mineral, Va., is seen at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington on Monday. (Matt McClain/The Post)
Vietnam War veteran Bernie Klemanek, 73, of Mineral, Va., is seen at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington on Monday. (Matt McClain/The Post)

Memorial Day offers an array of contrasts as Trump and Biden salute war dead — with and without masks

The disparate approaches played out as the country’s reported death toll approached 100,000.
Election 2020

Trump, saying governor is in ‘shutdown mood,’ threatens to pull GOP convention out of N.C.

The president, who has pressured other Democratic governors to reopen their states, singled out Gov. Roy Cooper (D) for a guarantee of full attendance in Charlotte in August.

Guide to the pandemic

There have been more than 5.4 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide. The virus has killed more than 340,000. Access to the following stories is free:
U.S. deaths reported per day
Video
(Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)
Trump officials defend coronavirus response as Americans go out on Memorial Day weekend
Mail-in voting can be thwarted by poorly designed ballots and undercounted votes
Play Video 4:25
Skin hunger: Why we’re craving touch and how to cope during the coronavirus pandemic
Play Video 7:29
Mail-in voting can be thwarted by poorly designed ballots and undercounted votes
Play Video 4:25
How Biden’s ‘you ain’t black’ comment unfolded
Play Video 2:00
Opinions
Nearly 100,000 Americans have died of covid-19. Here’s how we can honor them.
An indelible image of this pandemic: Trump, without a mask, on a golf course
Why failing to reopen Purdue University this fall would be a breach of duty
Republicans’ latest proposed tax cut could permanently hobble future presidents
Trump’s poor handling of the crisis may lose him the GOP’s most reliable voters
What the appeals court should — and shouldn’t — do in the Flynn case
  • By J. Michael Luttig
Stories You’ll Want to Hear

‘I'll be getting my degree in the mail, but that has me feeling hollow’

With her college graduation canceled, Rachel Leach had to process the significance of her achievement in solitude — revisiting memories of her journey out of poverty.
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In Florida, some older voters cast a skeptical eye toward Trump’s reelection

Those 65 and older in the swing state are moving toward Joe Biden amid the chaos of the Trump presidency and the coronavirus pandemic that has savaged the economy.

Bringing home a terminally ill mother to die, in the time of the coronavirus

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Danilo Rivera, a resident of Herndon, Va., shares living space with is wife, son and two other families. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Post)
Danilo Rivera, a resident of Herndon, Va., shares living space with is wife, son and two other families. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Post)

Crowded housing and essential jobs compound health risks for Latinos

Local governments have struggled to offer isolation options, testing and Spanish-language help to hard-hit Latino neighborhoods across the United States.
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Hearing that medical workers were sleeping in campers, this group organized free temporary condos

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  • 20 hours ago

Meet Doug and Bob, the hilarious (and kinda goofy) NASA astronauts about to make history

Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, on Monday. (Video: AP; photo: Reuters)

Biden places wreath at veterans memorial in Delaware

The visit marked the first time the presumptive Democratic nominee has left his neighborhood in two months.

On weekend dedicated to war dead, Trump tweets insults, promotes baseless claims and golfs

Democrats condemn federal plan for virus testing that puts much of the burden on states

In a joint letter, Democratic leaders said the plan “confirms that President Trump’s national testing strategy is to deny the truth that there aren’t enough tests and supplies, reject responsibility and dump the burden onto the states.”
  • By Associated Press
  • 10 hours ago

Syria’s Assad is confronting the toughest challenges of the 9-year war

A feud within President Bashar al-Assad’s family, a collapsing economy and strains with Russia expose his regime’s fragility.
  • By Liz Sly and Asser Khattab
  • 7 hours ago

Nightlife in Italy comes roaring back, alarming some politicians

The quick resumption of nightlife from Milan to Naples came as a reminder that even countries deeply scarred by the pandemic might struggle to put prolonged controls on crowds and carefree socializing.
Filiz Degidiben works as part of a contact-tracing team in Berlin. (Getty Images)
Filiz Degidiben works as part of a contact-tracing team in Berlin. (Getty Images)

While U.S. and Britain struggle to roll out contact tracing, Germany has been doing it from the start

In contrast to the tracing programs heralded in other countries, Germany’s effort is decidedly low-tech, relying heavily on phone calls.

In veterans’ home slammed by virus, chronic problems aided a disaster

Residential centers for the aged of all kinds have been hit hard by the virus, but the disaster at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, a state-run facility in western Massachusetts, has highlighted gaps in the patchwork oversight of state-run veterans’ homes.

Woman taken hostage by college student suspected of murder is found safe

The woman, whose boyfriend was found shot to death Sunday at a home in Derby, Conn., was located on Monday at a rest stop near Paterson, N.J. The suspect is at large.
  • By Associated Press
  • 12 hours ago
Customers sit at an outdoor table at a restaurant in downtown Indianapolis. (AP)
Customers sit at an outdoor table at a restaurant in downtown Indianapolis. (AP)

Cities closed streets to make way for recreation and restaurants. Could the closures last beyond the pandemic?

Following moves to close or repurpose streets from Oakland to Tampa, cities including Washington are considering ways for restaurants to space out tables by putting them on roads and for neighborhoods to close streets to traffic to make walking and biking safer.
Alex Walton hangs shower curtains between chairs in the Before & After Barbershop in Raleigh, N.C., in preparation to reopen on May 22. (AP)
Alex Walton hangs shower curtains between chairs in the Before & After Barbershop in Raleigh, N.C., in preparation to reopen on May 22. (AP)

Number of black business owners falls 40 percent, far more than other groups amid the pandemic

Minority-owned businesses have suffered disproportionately in a crisis that’s also killing nonwhite Americans at higher rates and eliminating more of their jobs.
Perspective

Even before coronavirus, Social Security was staring at a shortfall

Is Kramerbooks leaving Dupont Circle? Not yet, officials say, as advocates hope to keep it in the D.C. neighborhood.

Jennifer King was an assistant coach of the Arizona Hotshots in 2019. (Norm Hall/AAF/Getty Images)
Jennifer King was an assistant coach of the Arizona Hotshots in 2019. (Norm Hall/AAF/Getty Images)

Jennifer King has been a cop, a QB and a national champion. Next: Redskins assistant coach.

“I think the ultimate drive for me is to be successful and great at whatever I was doing,” said King, who is the first African American woman to hold a full-time NFL coaching job.

Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing is home after hospital stay for coronavirus

Nats’ Howie Kendrick reflects on his postseason home runs, takes a dig at the Astros

A mannequin displaying a face mask is seen outside a store in Ocean City, Md., during the Memorial Day holiday weekend. (Getty Images)
A mannequin displaying a face mask is seen outside a store in Ocean City, Md., during the Memorial Day holiday weekend. (Getty Images)

Gov. Hogan empowered local leaders to continue their shutdowns. They wish he hadn’t.

Maryland’s patchwork reopening left counties on the defensive and searching for resources, some Democrats said.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
How the capital region is being affected

Mayor Bowser says D.C. is ‘back on track’ for gradual reopening; Virginia reports record number of new cases

Most of the cases in the state were from the Washington suburbs, but leaders in Northern Virginia said they are planning for a transition to Phase 1 of reopening starting at the end of the week.

Amid shutdown, tennis coach’s stroke went undiscovered for days

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Perspective

They know their 24-year-old son should not have died

Marine Conor McDowell was killed in a military training accident, a cause that claims more lives than combat deaths.
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Not a crafter? Here’s why you should consider becoming one during the pandemic.

Knitting, sewing and woodworking can help keep you calm.
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Perspective

Why kids love building forts — and why experts say they might need them more than ever

  • By Susan C. Margolin
  • May 18

Go on safari at home with a twice-daily live-stream from South Africa

  • By Heather Djunga
  • May 4
Jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb performs with the Miles Davis Quintet in 1960. (Popperfoto/Getty Images)
Jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb performs with the Miles Davis Quintet in 1960. (Popperfoto/Getty Images)
Jimmy Cobb
1929–2020

Consummate jazz drummer for Miles Davis dies at 91

Jimmy Cobb helped drive Davis’s masterpiece “Kind of Blue,” an album of transcendent lyricism and spontaneity that became one of the top-selling jazz recordings of all time.
TV Review

Netflix’s Jeffrey Epstein docuseries honors his victims and their stories, but the creep still gets away

Book Review

Screaming Trees’ Mark Lanegan delivers a memoir full of drugs, alcohol and Kurt Cobain memories

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Cattle grazing at White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Ga. (White Oak Pastures)
Cattle grazing at White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Ga. (White Oak Pastures)

The meat industry’s supply chain is failing, but these smaller farms can still meet your needs

Supermarkets may have a limited supply of beef and chicken, but you can still get your meat at these online shops dedicated to sustainable agricultural practices.

Safety of sugar substitutes remains inconclusive after years of research

  • By Marlene Cimons
  • 15 hours ago

The little green pea reigns supreme in these springtime recipes

Krish Raghav, left, and Yan Cong in an elevator on our last day of quarantine April 10 in Beijing. (Yan Cong for The Post)
Krish Raghav, left, and Yan Cong in an elevator on our last day of quarantine April 10 in Beijing. (Yan Cong for The Post)

Room and bored

A couple returned from overseas and entered a 14-day quarantine in a Beijing hotel, but in separate rooms. This is their journey in photos, comics and words.
  • By Krish Raghav and Yan Cong

What you need to know about the reopening of Shenandoah National Park

People are wearing hazmat suits on planes. But should they?

Visual Stories
(Alfred T. Palmer/Library of Congress)In Sight
(Alfred T. Palmer/Library of Congress)
Lesser-seen color photos showing the U.S. military in the 1940s
(Charlie Riedel/AP)Chatbot
(Charlie Riedel/AP)
A deadly ‘checkerboard’: Covid-19’s new surge across rural America
(Matt McClain/The Washington Post)Graphic
(Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Amid the pandemic, public transit is highlighting inequalities in cities
(Cyril Zannettacci/Agence Vu for The Post)Visual Story
(Cyril Zannettacci/Agence Vu for The Post)
Scenes from the Paris metro, as France lifts its coronavirus lockdown
(Sandy Huffaker for The Post)Story
(Sandy Huffaker for The Post)
Hoovering the ocean
(David Goldman/AP)Photos
(David Goldman/AP)
This photographer found a unique way to help families remember the lost veterans in their lives
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