CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: April 16th

April 16, 2020

WRITER

Glenn gives the latest coronavirus numbers, updating YOU on everything needed to know as Americans and officials monitor China's new COVID-19 virus:

Daily Stats as of 5:30 AM CT (from John's Hopkins)

Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 2,094,897 (up from 2,014,006 yesterday)
Total Confirmed Deaths Worldwide: 135,569 (up from 127,594 yesterday)
Total Confirmed Recovered Worldwide: 520,946 (up from 491,824 yesterday)
US has 644,348 Confirmed Cases and 28,554 deaths, up from 614,246 cases and 26,064 deaths yesterday
Among Active Cases in the US, 2.3% of cases require ICU, compared to 4.7% of cases requiring ICU globally
ICU rate among African American victims in the US is more than double the overall average at 5.1% (CDC figures) [note not all states report race of victims]

Death Rate in France Rips Higher https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-15/france-reports-1-438-new-virus-deaths-highest-toll-to-date

While Americans lost another 2,300+ fellow citizens yesterday for the 2nd straight day in a row, the death rate in France is 300% higher.
France lost 1,438 people to COVID-19 yesterday, compared to 2,371 in the US, but has only a population of 67,000 compared to over 330,000,000 in the US.
France has lost 263 people for every 1 Million citizens, compared to only 87 deaths per 1 million in the US.
US is 14th in rate of death, with all 13 countries ahead of it having some form of European/Socialized medicine.
Some analysts have also pointed out that the rate of death in the US is also higher because the US CDC counts 'presumptive' cases (no positive COVID-19 test), whereas most EU countries require a positive COVID-19 test to put COVID-19 on death certificates, so death rates in the EU are likely higher than official numbers.

Amazon To Cease Operations in France https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/business/amazon-france-covid.html

Move comes as a French Court rules Amazon can only provide delivery services for "essential items" such as food & medicines.
Amazon indicated it cannot fully comply with the order as written, so will simply suspend operations entirely.
French court had also ruled that Amazon must provide for testing of facilities and packages to ensure they do not contain viral infections that threaten workers or customers.
Amazon has provided over 4.5 Million grocery deliveries in Franch since March 1st, the company said.
The Company is appealing the court decision to the French Supreme Court, which is officially in recess through May 15th due to COVID-19.

Sonny Perdue Reassures Americans: There is Plenty of Food https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/markets/agriculture-secretary-says-e2-80-98plenty-of-food-e2-80-99-despite-disruptions/ar-BB12GMJm

Despite numerous Meat Processing plants being closed, The US Ag Secretary assured Americans "There is plenty of food. No American will go hungry."
"The bare store shelves that you may see in some cities in the country are a demand issue and not a supply issue," Perdue said Wednesday at a White House briefing with President Donald Trump.
"It has taken us a few days" for food companies to address a "misalignment" in distribution as restaurants close and more food is sold through grocery stores.
Shoppers at times have already experienced shortages of staples such as eggs, milk and toilet paper.
Recent tweets from shoppers have also shown empty shelves in butcher and meat departments in US stores.
Perdue assured Americans "There is plenty of meat, plenty of it. If your local store doesn't have meat today, it will by tomorrow," he said.

Canadian Meat Industry Warns of "Immediate and Drastic Cut to Supply" https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/covid-19-to-have-immediate-and-drastic-impact-on-canadian-meat-supply-industry-group-1.4894557

Some of North America's largest meat producers have been forced to close their plants or reduce production amid the spread of the novel coronavirus, prompting industry leaders to warn of "immediate and drastic" effects on Canada's supply chain.
Beef processing capabilities have been reduced at a number of facilities in Canada and the U.S., including a temporary closure at a Cargill meat plant in High River, Alta., where dozens of employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
"This single facility represents just over one-third of Canada's total processing capability, so the impacts to the Canadian beef industry are expected to be immediate and drastic," Michelle McMullen, communications manager at the Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA), told CTVNews.ca by email.
Cargill also announced the temporary closure of its largest been processing plant in the US on Wednesday.
With North American beef production "severely limited," CCA president Bob Lowe is calling on the Canadian government to introduce measures to support Canadian farmers and protect the country's supply chain.
"The Canadian beef industry is facing a period of extraordinary uncertainty," Lowe said in an emailed statement to CTVNews.ca Monday.
"Existing programs do not address the particular threats we are facing and in fact fall quite short. These are challenging times for all Canadians; it is together that we can implement solutions to ensure healthy and affordable food continues to be readily available."
The CCA cited a survey this week noting that over 58% of its members are having issues placing cattle with meat processors for slaughter. "There are plenty of cattle, but no packing plants to send them to," said Lowe.

USDA to Directly Buy/Distribute to Food Banks

Sonny Perdue announces USDA will directly buy Milk, Eggs and Meat to donate to food banks.
"No farmers should be dumping milk down the drain, the USDA will buy any excess production," he said.
The announcement was made on Fox Business News this morning.
USDA also plans to make a lending program available to farmers and ranchers, he said, although no details were released this morning. "Help is coming," he said.
Perdue said the US would buy over $10 Billion in foods each week to donate to charitable organizations.

Operation Gridlock Spreading to Other Cities https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/674344

Thousands of motorists clogged streets in Michigan in protests to Governor Whitmer's seemingly arbitrary COVID-19 related orders.
Similar protests are planned for today and Friday in California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Colorado.
Meanwhile, Governors in several states warned that "Protesting" is not considered an essential activity, and threatened that similar protests may be met with citations or arrest, according to Fox News.
Collectively more than 1 Million people have signed up for various Facebook groups planning Drive By or Park In type protests around the US.

GLENN

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GLENN

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Why the White House restoration sent the left Into panic mode

Trump’s secret war in the Caribbean EXPOSED — It’s not about drugs

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The president’s moves in Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia aren’t about drugs. They’re about re-establishing America’s sovereignty across the Western Hemisphere.

For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.

The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.

While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.

Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.

Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

Beyond Venezuela

Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.

Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.

PEDRO MATTEY / Contributor | Getty Images

All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.

It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.

Trump’s Monroe Doctrine

Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.

Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Antifa isn’t “leaderless” — It’s an organized machine of violence

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty

Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images

The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.

This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.

The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.

The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.

Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?

One‑sided freedom

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.

Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.

Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?

If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.

Censored belief

I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.

I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.

I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.

And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.

Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.

Faith on trial

In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.

That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The real test

No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.

Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?

If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.

The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins Megyn Kelly LIVE — One night ONLY in Fort Worth!

Get ready for sparks to fly. For the first time in years, Glenn will come face-to-face with Megyn Kelly — and this time, he’s the one in the hot seat. On October 25, 2025, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Glenn joins Megyn on her “Megyn Kelly Live Tour” for a no-holds-barred conversation that promises laughs, surprises, and maybe even a few uncomfortable questions.

What will happen when two of America’s sharpest voices collide under the spotlight? Will Glenn finally reveal the major announcement he’s been teasing on the radio for weeks? You’ll have to be there to find out.

This promises to be more than just an interview — it’s a live showdown packed with wit, honesty, and the kind of energy you can only feel if you are in the room. Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss your chance to see Glenn like you’ve never seen him before.

Get your tickets NOW at www.MegynKelly.com before they’re gone!