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| Good morning, Daily Briefing readers! Before we get to the news of the day, I'd like to inform you that scientists spotted a giant creature that looks like silly string hunting in 'galaxy-like spiral' off the coast of Australia. |
| The Schmidt Ocean Institute shared a stunning video of the Apolemia, a type of siphonophore, which researchers estimate was at least 154 feet long. The deep-sea predator is a gelatinous colony made up of thousands of individual, specialized clone bodies. |
 | | Siphonophore are deep-sea predators related to jellyfish and corals that catch prey in their curtain of stinging cells. | | Schmidt Ocean Institute | |
| Back on land, economists are awaiting new figures on unemployment claims, some Americans could begin receiving stimulus cash and severe weather is headed to the Midwest. |
| It's N'dea, and here's what you need to know today. |
Economists anxiously await jobless claims figure |
| More tough economic news is likely on tap Thursday when the Labor Department reports unemployment claims for the week ending April 4. A stunning 10 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits in the past two weeks, reflecting the damage caused by the coronavirus crisis. That figure exceeds the nearly 9 million who lost jobs from 2008 to 2010 amid the Great Recession. And more is still to come, experts say: Gregory Daco of Oxford Economics expects a total of 22 million job losses by May, pushing the historically low 3.5% unemployment rate to 12% before the outbreak eases. |
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Americans could start receiving stimulus checks today |
| Millions of taxpayers could begin receiving the much-awaited stimulus cash by direct deposit as early as Thursday. The first group — estimated to cover 50 million to 60 million Americans — would include people who have already given their bank account information to the IRS. The group also would include Social Security beneficiaries who filed federal tax returns that included direct deposit information, according to an alert from Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell. Her announcement said the expectation is that the first direct deposits would hit in mid-April, likely the week beginning April 13. |
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Want more coronavirus news? Here's the latest |
| The U.S. death toll was nearing 15,000 early Thursday, with more than 432,000 confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard. Worldwide, there are close to 1.5 million confirmed cases and more than 88,500 deaths. |
| I'll be rounding up the biggest updates related to coronavirus every day in the newsletter so you can stay informed. Want daily coronavirus updates in your inbox? Sign up here. |
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Astronauts blast off for ISS despite pandemic 🚀 |
| The coronavirus pandemic is forcing people to stay home, but three astronauts on Thursday will experience a different type of isolation and quarantine — in space. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and his fellow crewmates, Russia's Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, blasted off aboard the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft at 4:05 a.m. ET from Kazakhstan. They'll take a six-hour journey to the International Space Station, where they will join Expedition 62 crew members Oleg Skripochka, Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir, who will return to Earth on April 17. Russian space officials have taken extra precautions to protect the crew during training and pre-flight preparations. Speaking to journalists via video link Wednesday, Cassidy said the crew has been in "a very strict quarantine" for the past month and so in good health. "We all feel fantastic," he said. |
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Tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, high winds threaten midwestern US |
| More severe weather is in store for Thursday as thunderstorms and high winds are forecast across the midwestern United States from the Mississippi River Valley to the Ohio Valley. With cold and gusting winds from the Great Lakes and upper Midwest to the East Coast, Accuweather meteorologist Danielle Knittle told USA TODAY that there will be potential "tree damage [and] power outages," affecting cities including St. Louis. The National Weather Service, meanwhile, issued a tornado watch until 2 a.m. Thursday for a large swath of the Midwest as a cold front brought severe conditions to Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. |
Need a break from coronavirus news? We've got you covered |
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Fresh off brush with coronavirus, Charles, Camilla celebrate anniversary 👑 |
| Prince Charles and his second wife, Duchess Camilla of Cornwall, will celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary Thursday and the couple already released a picture to commemorate the occasion, showing little sign of their scrape with coronavirus. The picture of the Prince of Wales, 71, and Camilla, 72, was posted on the Clarence House Twitter account and shows them each holding one of the duchess' small dogs, Bluebell and Beth. The palace said the picture was taken earlier Wednesday at Birkhall, the prince's mansion in Scotland. Previously, Charles announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus. He went into self-isolation in one part of Birkhall while continuing to work. He came out of isolation on March 30 after seven days. Camilla tested negative but went into self-isolation in another part of the house. She emerged Monday after 14 days, and reunited with her husband. |
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In better news: 101-year-old mask maker offers help in a crisis 😷 |
| The Guinness Book people probably aren't doing much traveling these days, but if they were, we'd have a candidate for World's Oldest Maker of Quarantine Masks. Ruth Anderson, 101, is making masks at her apartment at The Arlington's independent living facility in Naples, Florida. |
| Anderson says her interest in sewing goes back to her childhood, when her mother would take her to the dressmaker. The masks she makes aren't hospital grade but, she noted, "They keep people from touching their face." |
| So far, she said, she's sewn about a dozen masks. She'll look to distribute them to whoever needs them, perhaps starting with her neighbors and staff at The Arlington. |
| "I'm going to be 102, but I still have all my marbles," she said. "Why not?" |
 | | Ruth Anderson, 101, makes quarantine masks from her apartment at The Arlington in Naples | | The Arlington | |
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