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Trump's Coronavirus Crisis Management: Find The Scapegoats

Trump responding to reporters on April 7
Trump responding to reporters on April 7
Carl-Johan Karlsson

As the death toll in the U.S. marked a new global high, topping 1,900 dead on Wedneday alone, President Donald Trump is back on the hunt for someone to blame. Facing criticism for initially downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis, Trump continues to point fingers at supposed enemies, both foreign and domestic:​

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

In a White House press conference Tuesday evening, the president threatened to cut U.S. funds to the World Health Organization (WHO), claiming that the international body "missed the call" on the coronavirus pandemic.​

Trump has, for the moment, ceased calling COVID-19 "the Chinese virus," but his latest targeting of World Health officials was another chance to lash out at Beijing. Saying the WHO is in cahoots with Chinese officials, and failed to catch the spreading virus in Wuhan, China. Trump has previously blamed China for the spread, arguing that American officials could have acted faster if China's government had better shared information about the outbreak.

Another favorite target for Trump is Sweden, and Tuesday he claimed the country was "suffering very greatly" due to its herd-immunity approach. Sweden's state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell was quick to respond, telling Swedish Television on Wednesday that we should "pay little attention to Trump's bravados," and that New York is in a much more dire situation than Sweden.

HOME FRONT

Trump's decision to hold daily press briefings is also a chance to both bash the media (a favorite target) but also individual U.S. states for the shortages of medical equipment and other difficulties in responding to the crisis.



For the coming weeks, Worldcrunch will be delivering daily updates on the coronavirus pandemic from the best, most trusted international news sources — regardless of language or geography. To receive the daily Coronavirus global brief in your inbox, sign up here.

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Society

Mapping The Patriarchy: Where Nine Out Of 10 Streets Are Named After Men

The Mapping Diversity platform examined maps of 30 cities across 17 European countries, finding that women are severely underrepresented in the group of those who name streets and squares. The one (unsurprising) exception: The Virgin Mary.

Photo of Via della Madonna dei Monti in Rome, Italy.

Via della Madonna dei Monti in Rome, Italy.

Eugenia Nicolosi

ROME — The culture at the root of violence and discrimination against women is not taught in school, but is perpetuated day after day in the world around us: from commercial to cultural products, from advertising to toys. Even the public spaces we pass through every day, for example, are almost exclusively dedicated to men: war heroes, composers, scientists and poets are everywhere, a constant reminder of the value society gives them.

For the past few years, the study of urban planning has been intertwined with that of feminist toponymy — the study of the importance of names, and how and why we name things.

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