| Tuesday, April 14, 2020 | | | | We’re covering decisions about whether to start lifting lockdowns, a sexual assault accusation in China and new research about the cause of the Mekong River’s drought. | |  By Melina Delkic | | | London’s Camden Town neighborhood on Sunday, famous for its outdoor market that attracts over 100,000 people each weekend. Britain is likely to extend its lockdown into May. Andrew Testa for The New York Times | | | A handful of businesses are reopening in Italy this week, after signs of improvement in the bleak epicenter of Europe’s outbreak; Spain is starting to ease its restrictions, with some workers getting back to their jobs; and Britain, the U.S. and a host of other countries are now deciding how long to keep their rules in place. | | | Some countries that seemed to have overcome their outbreaks saw second waves: China, for example, saw its largest uptick in new cases in over a month on Monday, fueled by citizens who had returned from Russia. | | | ■ New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, said the “worst is over” in the state’s coronavirus outbreak — but only if residents continued to abide by restrictions on their movement. | | | ■ A U.S. Navy sailor assigned to the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, whose commanding officer criticized the military’s handling of the outbreak, became the vessel’s first crew member to die. At least 585 people from the ship have been infected. | | | Beijing’s central business district. Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images | | | The central government in Beijing said on Monday that it would investigate a rape allegation that has caused an uproar across the country, after an 18-year-old woman accused a prominent lawyer, Bao Yuming, of sexually abusing her for years. | | | The young woman, using the pseudonym Xingxing, took her story to the Chinese news media on Thursday, triggering a wave of anger about the country’s patriarchal culture and the authorities’ reluctance to intervene in cases of sexual abuse. Mr. Bao was quickly dismissed from his job at Jereh Group, a large oil company in eastern China, and resigned from his role as a board member at the telecom equipment firm ZTE. | | | Details: When she was 14, Xingxing was sent to Beijing by her mother to live with Mr. Bao, who she says presented himself as a father figure but then repeatedly raped her and held her against her will. She said she reported him to the police several times, only to be turned away. Mr. Bao has denied any wrongdoing. | | | Photo by Mickalene Thomas and Racquel Chevremont. Styled by Shiona Turini | | | They include a group of veteran black actresses who have overcome the odds to achieve long Hollywood careers. Above, clockwise from left: Taraji P. Henson, Mary J. 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It's beautiful email marketing done simply. | | | Learn More | | | | Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times | | | Cook: A starchy grain bowl that makes use of those sturdy vegetables filling up your fridge, giving you most of the benefits of a salad — even for when you’re out of lettuce. | | | Screaming children, worried employees and anxious grocery shoppers: On Monday’s episode of “The Daily,” our reporters asked people in Pittsburgh, Kansas City, New York and Seattle about their new realities. | | | Here’s an excerpt from one conversation between Campbell Robertson, our correspondent in Pittsburgh, and his neighbor, Tanying Dong, who works in public law and has been at home with her three sons while her husband works in a hospital. | | | Illustration by Joana Avillez | | | Want to show me where people are stationed at the moment? | | | Oh, well. All the kids are watching TV in the basement. And I don’t really want to deal with them right now. | | | It was a relatively calm morning. I had Yan do some homework. I had the other two just watch TV. I tried to get some work done midmorning, which I did. I finished one project. My oldest one had one major tantrum where he was just screaming because he couldn’t find his sweatshirt. | | | It’s like, his favorite sweatshirt. It turned out it was on one of the strollers outside. Like, why would you leave it in the stroller? | | | How are the 3- and 5-year-olds today? | | | I have been just generally letting them float along and whatever they want to do. Occasionally they’ll get sick of the TV and they’ll want to just come upstairs and do something non-TV-related, and it’s good and bad. It’s like, oh, that’s nice. You’re using your imagination. But on the other hand, it’s like, please just go watch TV and don’t destroy the house. | | | The little one just likes to kind of run laps around the house, which is great because that kind of wears him out a little bit. | | | I think generally we’re settling into a routine. I mean, that first two weeks was rough. | | | Just having a hard time accepting that, Oh, my God, all three of my kids are going to be home all the time and I’m going to be pretty much by myself with them the entire time. And oh, my God, how am I going to handle this? Because I’ve never had to do this. | | | Right now they’re used to being at home, they’re used to this, whatever this is. | | | Well, there’s not really a choice at this point. | | | Yep. We’re all condemned to be with each other, basically. | | | That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. | | Thank you
To Melissa Clark for the recipe, and to Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the rest of the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com. | | | Were you sent this briefing by a friend? Sign up here to get the Morning Briefing. | | |
