- When and how to reopen the economy
policymakers debate as stay-at-home orders
expire in parts of the country.
US intelligence chiefs
confirm investigating
if the coronavirus emerged
from a lab accident in China.
Amazon's sales jump,
but its profit misses expectations,
while Apple shows resilience,
highlighting the strength of Big Tech.
I'm Shelby Holiday, and here's the latest
on the coronavirus pandemic
from the Wall Street Journal.
As tensions grow over lockdown measures,
protesters against stay-at-home orders,
some of them carrying rifles,
crowded inside Michigan's
State Capitol on Thursday.
With the stay-at-home orders expiring
in parts of the US,
officials are debating how and when
to ease lockdown restrictions.
Michigan's Republican-led legislature
declined to support the extension
of a state of emergency which expired
at the end of April.
Governor Whitmer, a Democrat,
has said the order will stay in place
by her executive authority.
Meanwhile, retailers in Texas and Alabama
are set to reopen with capacity
restrictions on Friday,
while Florida plans to
start reopening next week.
Some states, including
New York and California,
want to expand testing and contact tracing
capacities before starting
to reopen statewide.
In a rare public statement,
the Office of the Director
of National Intelligence
confirmed investigating
whether a lab accident
in Wuhan could be at the
origin of the pandemic.
US intelligence agencies
also said that they concur
with the broad scientific consensus
that the COVID-19 virus wasn't manmade
or genetically modified.
- There's a lot of theories,
but yeah, we have people looking at it
very, very strongly.
- [Shelby] Some US
officials have suggested
a lab accident could
have led to the pandemic,
though no concrete evidence has emerged
to support the theory,
and the Chinese government
has repeatedly denied it.
Many scientific experts
say it's more likely
that the pandemic was the result of humans
being infected from animals.
As homebound customers flood Amazon
with online orders,
the company reported its quarterly revenue
rose 26% from a year earlier,
but profit fell.
Amazon faces additional costs,
including higher shipping
costs, pay rises,
and COVID-19 tests for workers.
Apple says its revenue rose 1%,
even as the pandemic shut down factories
and dented sales in China,
with strong sales of
services and wearables.
