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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. “We want to go big.”
President Trump called on Congress to approve a sweeping economic stimulus package that would include sending checks directly to Americans within weeks, plus an additional $850 billion in stimulus to prop up the economy.
Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, has said that the direct payments could cover two weeks of paychecks and be issued by the end of April, with additional payments possible if the national emergency persists, according to people familiar with the discussion.
2. Hundreds of scientists are working at a breakneck pace to find a coronavirus treatment.
Researchers are racing to come up with a drug to fight the coronavirus, either by destroying it or by interfering with how it attacks the body. At least 50 possible drugs are being studied by an international consortium.
Scientists at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and the Pasteur Institute in Paris are already testing some drugs on coronavirus grown in their labs. Findings are expected at the end of the week.
The first human testing of an experimental vaccine began Monday in Seattle, with 45 healthy adult subjects aged 18 to 55. The trial is expected to take at least a year.
3. Meanwhile, the coronavirus is showing us how to live online.
Zoom, a videoconferencing platform, is where we work, go to school and celebrate our birthday parties these days.
In Italy, professional dancers quarantined at home have turned to social media and WhatsApp to share dance classes at home.
Laura Benanti, the Tony-winning actress, invited high school theater students to share songs from shows canceled by the coronavirus. And share they did.
And our tech columnist Kevin Roose expected his first week of social distancing to feel, well, distant. But he has been more connected than ever, he writes — a possible silver lining in this crisis.
4. Is an outbreak looming behind bars?
In jails and prisons across the U.S., employees and inmates alike are on edge, and no wonder: Social distancing is nearly impossible, medical care was already strained, and forget working from home.
More than a dozen federal prison employees told The Times that their facilities were ill prepared even for a quarantine.
“We can’t escort an inmate with a six-foot rule,” said Yamira Richardson, a federal correctional officer in Tallahassee, Fla., above.
5. Voting was rife with confusion in states holding presidential primaries today — Florida, above, Illinois and Arizona — with early turnout largely lower than expected.
Election officials in the three states hoped that any drop-off in turnout over the coronavirus would be partly offset, at least, by early voting and the vote-by-mail ballots that many Democrats filed in the weeks leading up to the primary.
Joe Biden, who is ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders in polling in all three states, could build an insurmountable lead in delegates from Tuesday’s contests. Here’s what to watch for.
The latest tit-for-tat comes at a moment when reporting on the coronavirus is a global, 24-hour operation for many news outlets. Last month China expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters from the country. President Trump responded this month by limiting the number of Chinese citizens who could work in the U.S. for five state-controlled Chinese news organizations.
7. Tom Brady is hanging up his Patriots jersey.
The star N.F.L. quarterback, 42, said he would leave New England, the team he led to six Super Bowl championships over 20 years, including, above, in 2015. Brady became an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career at the end of last season.
“It is time for me to open a new stage for my life and career,” he said in a statement.
One year in Brady’s career sticks out to our sports reporter: 2007, when he had one of the greatest seasons ever by a quarterback, and not coincidentally, the Patriots had one of the N.F.L.’s greatest seasons, too.
8. The Wing is a women’s utopia — unless you work there.
Amanda Hess, our critic at large, interviewed 26 current and former employees of the women’s club — from workers in cooking and cleaning to management. Most told a similar story: how excitement about their feminist workplace turned into anxiety and disgust because of the way they were treated.
“I was the connector, the friend, the therapist, the mother, the sister, the live-in coach,” one former employee says. “I was treated like a human kitty-litter box.”
9. “My dancers and I are dancing ourselves.”
Manuel Liñán’s “Viva!” represents something new to mainstream flamenco audiences: a frank and joyful expression of gay identity. This flamenco, born from the centuries-old music and dance that developed out of the collision of cultures in southern Spain, is performed entirely in drag.
“There is no question that ‘Viva!’ is a celebration of the art of flamenco,” our reporter writes, “an affirmation of its beauty and its ability to connect with a wide audience.”
10. And finally, a mammoth discovery.
About 300 miles south of Moscow, researchers found a 40-foot-wide, circular structure made from the remains of more than 60 woolly mammoths from 25,000 years ago. The ring of skulls, skeletons, tusks and other bones was too large for a roof, scientists say, so what was it for?
The team suggested the hunter-gatherers might have instead butchered massive mammoth carcasses at the site and then stored the meat and fat in nearby permafrost as if it were an ancient refrigerator, before tossing the bones into a massive fire pit. They also uncovered plant material similar to modern parsnips, carrots and potatoes nearby.
If you’re cooking from home this week, here are some more palatable recipes.
Have a scrumptious night.
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