According to a new book on the Trump administration, former White House chief of staff said the most important advice he gave to the president was not to tweet."No. Don't tweet that. No," Kelly said in the book, according to Axios. "Don't change your policy on that. No, no, no."ABC chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl reportedly notes in his book that Kelly "agreed to allow me to quote this and other previously off-the-record remarks he made while he was chief of staff."Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is allowing the disclosure of some of the inner workings of the Trump administration in an upcoming book by ABC chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, including the "most important" action he took for President Donald Trump.

According to an Axios report, Karl's upcoming book, "Front Row at the Trump Show," details how Kelly directed the traffic for the White House staff and regulated the president's Twitter feed. Kelly recalled in the book that the most important piece of advice he gave to Trump was not to tweet.

"No. Don't tweet that. No," Kelly said in the book, according to Axios. "Don't change your policy on that. No, no, no."

Trump selected Kelly after then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was ousted in July 2017. As a former Marine Corps general, Kelly was long viewed as a choice to bring order to what had been a chaotic West Wing.

Upon his arrival, Kelly drastically limited the White House staff's unfettered access to Trump, a move that reportedly included members of the president's own family — his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and his daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump.

President Donald Trump talks to the media between Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly during a briefing with senior military leaders at the White House in Washington, D.C., October 5, 2017. Reuters

Karl notes in the book that Kelly "agreed to allow me to quote this and other previously off-the-record remarks he made while he was chief of staff," a move that other Marine Corps generals previously on Trump's staff, including former Defense Secretary James Mattis, declined to do out of respect for the office of the presidency.

Kelly attempted to regulate Trump's discussions, including phone calls with world leaders, to prevent broaching sensitive information, according to news reports. Trump frequently delivers his musings to the world via tweet, often before federal agencies can announce their own official statements.

Kelly was unceremoniously fired in December 2018, months after his relationship with the president reportedly grew sour. Trump went on to disparage Kelly's tenure after the former general publicly criticized the president's policies and demeanor.

"When I terminated John Kelly, which I couldn't do fast enough, he knew full well that he was way over his head," Trump tweeted in February. "Being Chief of Staff just wasn't for him. He came in with a bang, went out with a whimper, but like so many X's, he misses the action & just can't keep his mouth shut."

Karl's book is available on March 31.

Original author: David Choi

Amazon is keeping a warehouse in Edison, New Jersey, open after a worker tested positive for COVID-19, first reported by Buzzfeed and confirmed to Business Insider.Workers in at least 11 Amazon warehouses across the US and Europe have tested positive for the virus.Amazon has faced pressure from employees and labor groups who say the company isn't doing enough to protect employees, with workers in Italy striking to protest its response."We are following guidelines from local officials and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site," an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider.Amazon has resisted calls to close facilities, saying it will hire an additional 100,000 workers as it tries to balance the safety of its employees against skyrocketing demand for its services.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

An Amazon warehouse in Edison, New Jersey, remains open after an employee there tested positive for COVID-19, as first reported by Buzzfeed and confirmed to Business Insider.

The employee had last reported to work on March 19, a spokesperson told Business Insider. The spokesperson also noted that Amazon is taking measures to reduce the risk of infection at the facility and has told anyone in close contact with the employee to self-quarantine for 14 days with pay.

"We are supporting the individual who is recovering. We are following guidelines from local officials and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site," an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider in an emailed statement.

This is at least the eleventh Amazon warehouse with a confirmed case of COVID-19. Seven cases have been reported across the US at facilities in New York, Kentucky, Florida, Texas, Michigan, Connecticut, and Oklahoma. Another three facilities across Spain and Italy have confirmed cases.

Amazon has faced criticism from employees as well as labor groups who say the company isn't doing enough to protect workers. At least two thousand Amazon employees globally have signed a petition asking for expanded paid sick leave, childcare benefits, hazard pay, halting of penalties for not meeting productivity quotas, and temporary closures for facilities where workers test positive.

Last week, at a facility in Queens, New York, employees said they were expected to come into work after a co-worker had tested positive for the virus, which Amazon denied, according to The Atlantic. In Europe, Amazon has refused to close warehouses with COVID-19 cases, prompting workers to strike in protest of the company's response.

Amazon has implemented additional cleaning and social distancing measures, the spokesperson said. However, critics have argued that the company has done far less to protect warehouse workers compared with its white-collar office employees, whom it has instructed to work remotely.

Amazon has been simultaneously trying to balance the safety of workers with increased demand for its services as coronavirus lockdowns worldwide fuel a surge in online shopping. The company has said it will hire as many as 100,000 workers in an attempt to keep up with that demand.

Original author: Tyler Sonnemaker

On Wednesday, a group of Amazon employees called We Won't Build It sent an internal letter denouncing the company's work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and calling on the company to better protect its workers at data centers, fulfillment centers, and Whole Foods amid the coronavirus pandemic.Employees have already tested positive for coronavirus at Whole Foods and some warehouses, and the letter says Amazon should offer them unconditional paid sick leave."Local and national governments, as well as international authorities, have been taking extraordinary measures to attempt to minimize the harm of this modern plague. And all the while, Amazon is taking steps to ensure that many of those measures are futile," the letter said. Another point of protest: Palantir, which builds software that helps ICE track down undocumented immigrants, is a customer of the Amazon Web Services cloud.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A group of Amazon employees sent an internal letter on Wednesday calling out their company's work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and asking it to better protect its warehouse workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The letter was written by a group called We Won't Build It, which is also calling on the company to better protect its fulfillment center and data center workers, as well as Whole Foods employees. 

"Local and national governments, as well as international authorities, have been taking extraordinary measures to attempt to minimize the harm of this modern plague. And all the while, Amazon is taking steps to ensure that many of those measures are futile," the letter said. You can read the full letter below.

While many Amazon employees like software engineers have been able to work from home, the letter denounced how Amazon kept its Whole Food stores and warehouses running even though employees there tested positive for coronavirus. While Amazon now offers two weeks of paid sick leave for these employees, the letter says they should receive unconditional paid leave.

The letter was sent to Amazon's We Won't Build It internal mailing list, which has over 600 members. The group is not asking for signatures, but instead asking employees to discuss these issues with these colleagues, share their support for the letter, and donate to a GoFundMe to support workers who have contracted COVID-19, the coronavirus disease.

The letter also took a stand against Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), denouncing how it has been arresting people at hospitals amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

"The demands of the We Won't Build It campaign have not changed," the letter said. "They have always been life or death for many people. Now they are life and death for all of us. Amazon must discontinue providing services to the people and agencies that are threatening the lives and health of this country and the entire world, and ensure the health and safety of all of our co-workers and colleagues, regardless of job role."

We Won't Build It has previously demanded that the company turn away the business of Palantir, which hosts its data analytics software in the Amazon Web Services cloud. Palantir has over $150 million in contracts with ICE, which reports indicate entails providing software to gather data on undocumented immigrants and to plan immigration raids.

Recently, a group of Microsoft workers also backed a campaign led by the immigrant advocacy group Mijente to encourage ICE to stop hunting down undocumented immigrants during the coronavirus crisis. 

You can read the full letter below:

We are in the grip of a global pandemic. As of March 22nd, over 340,000 cases of COVID-19 have been identified globally, and that number is growing rapidly. Local and national governments, as well as international authorities, have been taking extraordinary measures to attempt to minimize the harm of this modern plague. And all the while, Amazon is taking steps to ensure that many of those measures are futile.

ICE, the violent enforcement arm of the US border regime, is creating an escalating situation putting immigrants, their own agents, and the general public at risk. In the past week, ICE has continued their policy of violating national and international standards and law by posing as doctors and arresting people in hospitals in the midst of a pandemic, which will frighten our most vulnerable neighbors away from getting testing and care, and further community transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In response to strong community outrage, ICE claimed they were scaling back enforcement, but quickly walked that statement back. Detainees in 3 ICE facilities so far are on hunger strike, calling on ICE to take steps to prevent the spread of the virus, which it has repeatedly failed to do in the past. ICE is actively exacerbating the COVID-19 pandemic, and by continuing to provide support to the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, ICE and strategic partners of ICE like Palantir, Amazon is actively exacerbating the pandemic as well.

Meanwhile, even as office workers are asked to work from home, Amazon's measures to protect FC (fulfillment center) and DC (data center) workers, as well as shop floor workers at Whole Foods, have ranged from inadequate to openly negligent. Whole Foods workers and shoppers and warehouse workers in New York have both been openly exposed to SARS-CoV-2, yet Amazon has kept both facilities running. Amazon has offered two weeks paid sick leave for workers who have tested positive for COVID-19, but since tests are hard to come by the only acceptable solution for Amazon workers is to offer unconditional paid sick leave for all workers.

The demands of the We Won't Build It campaign have not changed. They have always been life or death for many people. Now they are life and death for all of us. Amazon must discontinue providing services to the people and agencies that are threatening the lives and health of this country and the entire world, and ensure the health and safety of all of our co-workers and colleagues, regardless of job role. If the company will not do the right thing, then it is up to us as workers to stand together to protect ourselves and each other.

Next Steps

Join us in reaching out to our co-workers, our neighbors, and our community with the following steps:

First, speak with your co-workers and colleagues about this! We'd recommend everyone who reads this reach out to five other Amazonians to talk about these issues and about this statement. We need each other, now more than ever!In the midst of this pandemic, it is important to reaffirm the principles we are fighting for. We are asking you to tell us through this survey why you have decided to sign the We Won't Build It letter.Our fulfillment center co-workers have started a GoFundMe to support workers who have contracted COVID-19. Many of us are struggling at this time but if you have some extra funds, please send some their way.

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Signal at 646.376.6106, Telegram at @rosaliechan, or Twitter DM at @rosaliechan17. (PR pitches by email only, please.) Other types of secure messaging available upon request. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Original author: Rosalie Chan

Amazon told sellers in a note that it's pausing requirements on loan repayments for a month.The move could provide relief to sellers who borrowed money from Amazon and whose sales have taken a hit amid the coronavirus outbreak.Amazon also appears to have scaled back its loan offers in recent weeks.Some sellers are complaining about Amazon's unresponsiveness to lending inquiries.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon is temporarily suspending requirements on loan repayments from its sellers, a move that could help merchants who borrowed money from Amazon as they deal with unpredictable sales amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a note to sellers on Wednesday, obtained by Business Insider, Amazon said it will pause repayments and interests on seller loans for a month. Loan repayments will restart on May 1, it said.

"Effective March 26 through April 30, 2020, we will be pausing repayments on your outstanding loan with Amazon Lending," the note said. 

The note said that the loans will not accrue interest during this period and sellers will have the same number of remaining payments once repayment resumes in May. Amazon's representative confirmed the note in an email to Business Insider. Reuters earlier reported on the change in policy on Wednesday. 

The one month reprieve will offer relief to some sellers who borrowed money from Amazon's lending program, as their sales have taken a hit in recent months following the coronavirus outbreak. Amazon lent money to more than 20,000 third-party sellers since the launch of the lending program in 2017 and has $863 million in outstanding loans, according to its filing.

Amazon loans range between $1,000 to $750,000, and come with lower-than-average interest rates. Amazon has previously said the goal is to help sellers gain easier access to cash and to buy inventory.

Meanwhile, Amazon appears to be scaling back its lending offers as well. 

A group of sellers told Business Insider in recent weeks that the loan offer that typically shows up in the company's seller platform has disappeared. Amazon loans are invite-only, as the company determines the size and terms of the loan based on the seller's performance on Amazon's marketplace. 

One seller, who had a loan invitation worth $180,000, told Business Insider that the offer is no longer available. This person said the offer disappeared this week as he was considering taking it to prevent a cash shortfall amid the coronavirus. Amazon didn't respond to this person's request for an explanation.

The Amazon lending team's unresponsiveness seems to be a wider, more general problem. In Amazon's seller forum, a group of sellers have written about difficulties getting an answer from the lending team over technical glitches and confusing loan terms.

"Has anyone gotten responses from Amazon lending? I tried to reach out to ask about lending flexibility during this time and haven't heard back for a week," one person wrote in the forum.

Original author: Eugene Kim

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company's New York Gigafactory will reopen "as soon as humanly possible" to begin ventilator production.Musk made the remarks on Twitter after previously tweeting that his company would help make ventilators if there were to be a shortage.New York has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, with 285 deaths and more than 30,000 cases.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the electric car maker's Gigafactory facility in New York will soon be reopening to begin producing ventilators.

"Giga New York will reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible," Musk tweeted on Wednesday. "We will do anything in our power to help the citizens of New York."

The tweet comes after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio asked for Musk's help sourcing ventilators last week, which came after the Tesla CEO had tweeted that the company would make ventilators if there were a shortage.

 

New York has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with 285 deaths and more than 30,000 infections. That's more reported coronavirus cases than any other state in the country.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an order on March 20 requiring all non-essential businesses to close in an effort to curb the spread. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus task force coordinator, also said that anyone who has been in New York recently should self-quarantine for 14 days to prevent the virus from spreading.

Tesla is one of several tech companies providing medical supplies to the US amidst shortages. Apple is donating 10 million N95 protective face masks to the medical community in the US, as CEO Tim Cook announced on Wednesday. Facebook will also be donating the 720,000 masks it had purchased during the California wildfires and plans to source millions more. 

Several tech firms, including Microsoft, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook, are also contributing resources toward a hackathon being held to encourage developers to create tech solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Original author: Lisa Eadicicco

An Uber driver who tested positive for coronavirus says the company didn't pay him the sick pay it had promised until he took to Twitter to tell his story, CNET reported Wednesday.Uber said earlier in March that it would compensate drivers and delivery workers diagnosed with COVID-19
or placed in mandatory quarantine.However, three drivers told CNET that they've had difficulty getting the company to approve their compensation requests.Gig workers, most of whom are independent contractors, have said companies aren't doing enough to protect their financial or physical health as the coronavirus pandemic upends business as usual.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

An Uber driver in San Francisco who tested positive for COVID-19 couldn't get the company to cover his sick pay as it had promised until he called out the company's CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, on Twitter, according to CNET.

The driver told CNET he came in contact with two passengers who he believed might have had the coronavirus: one who had recently traveled to Taiwan and told the driver they had the coronavirus, and another who was coughing up blood on the way to the hospital.

So, he stopped accepting trips and went to get tested himself. He got a doctor's note ordering him to self-quarantine — and eventually tested positive for the new coronavirus. The driver also asked Uber to compensate him while he was forced off the road due to his sickness, according to CNET.

Uber announced earlier in March that it would pay drivers and delivery workers who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or are placed in mandatory quarantine by public health officials. Uber said the payments would cover up to 14 days off and the amount per day would be calculated based on how much drivers had earned in the past six months.

However, the driver told CNET that in order to upload his doctor's note, he had to agree to "onerous conditions" like letting Uber collect personal information and acknowledging that the payments wouldn't change his status as an independent contractor.

That prompted the driver to take his request to Twitter, where he described his experiences and mentioned Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and chief legal officer Tony West in a 24-tweet thread — and finally received a payment of $2,108 eight days later, CNET reported.

Another driver, Jon Hoheisel, shared a similar experience, telling CNET that Uber didn't respond until he tweeted at Andrew Macdonald, Uber's senior vice president of rides. Even then, he said, the company initially shorted him $1,000.

"There's overwhelming demand for compensation," said Sergio Avedian, senior contributor at The Rideshare Guy, an industry news site for Uber and Lyft drivers. "It's hit and miss at best, but Uber's system seems to be handling requests a little better [than competitors]," he added.

The stories told to CNET echo criticism Uber has faced in the UK, where a labor group told Business Insider that, due to a lack of access to testing, the company's policy had made it practically impossible for drivers to claim funds.

"We are always working to help keep everyone who uses Uber safe. We have a dedicated global team, guided by the advice of a consulting public health expert, working to respond in every market where we operate around the world. We remain in close contact with local public health authorities and will continue to follow their guidance to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus," Uber said in a statement to Business Insider.

Gig workers transporting passengers and food for platforms like Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and others have been at an especially high risk of exposure to the coronavirus given their increased exposure to recent travelers, medical workers or passengers going to the hospital, and people in general.

But many are staying on the road despite the health risks because they need the money and, as independent contractors, most don't have access to the same sick pay benefits that full-time employees at companies like Uber typically enjoy. Still, with Uber ridership tanking — as much as 50% in cities like Seattle that have been hard by the virus — drivers are struggling.

"Drivers are between a hard place and a rock: be broke and be sick or be broke and healthy," Avedian said.

Original author: Tyler Sonnemaker

Former Apple CEO John Sculley thinks that once the coronavirus pandemic is over, the US economy will enter a new age of innovation. Industries like telehealth and remote work are on the cusp of a breakthrough, Sculley observed. And startup founders looking to innovate could look to a saying from his old colleague Steve Jobs for guidance. "Steve used to say, 'you always have to zoom out beyond the boundaries of the industry as it's known,'" Sculley said, "'What would that be in terms of changing how everybody thought about an industry?'" Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As dire as the coronavirus pandemic has become, it will eventually pass — and when it does, the US economy will enter a new age of innovation.

So says John Sculley, a former CEO of Apple who points to the recent increase in telehealth and remote work as the foundation for some big breakthroughs.

Sculley, who now works in the healthtech industry, says this view is informed by a saying from his old colleague, Steve Jobs. "Steve used to say, 'You always have to zoom out beyond the boundaries of the industry as it's known,'" Sculley told Business Insider. "'What would that be in terms of changing how everybody thought about an industry?'" 

He offered an example of how that applied to the computer industry's early days. "The first product to actually use Moore's law was Microsoft, with personal computers," he said, an innovation that had everyone in Silicon Valley thinking that personal computers were going to be a game-changer for businesses, scientists and engineers. 

Steve Jobs thought differently and broadened the target market to consumers. He wondered how non-technical people could benefit from the power of a personal computer — that's how the earliest Macintosh came to be, Sculley said.

It's been close to 27 years since John Sculley left Apple but he still holds that lesson close to his heart. 

"I think that a leader has to be able to have the curiosity to have a different frame of mind," Sculley said. "So when you go through a major event like the coronavirus, I say the advice of Steve Jobs- zoom out, think beyond," and find a way to make an even bigger impact on the world. 

Sculley, who now works in the health-tech sector as the Chairman of the cloud-based platform RxAdvance, observes that one great sector for startup founders to enter right now is the telehealth industry. 

"Well I think when the coronavirus pandemic is over, telehealth isn't going away. In fact, this is really a breakthrough for telehealth because people are starting to realize, 'Wow, you can really do things with it,'" Sculey said. 

Telehealth and remote-monitoring startups raised a total of $684.6 million across 30 funding rounds last year, according to PitchBook Data. And more than a quarter of US physicians had adopted telehealth tools in 2019, according to a February report from the American Medical Association. 

But a global crisis has already legitimized and sped up the adoption of the telehealth sector, a move that could make it even more valuable in the years to come. 

As the coronavirus pandemic has taken hold of health systems across the world, causing patients to steer clear of hospitals and clinics, telehealth companies like Teladoc Health have seen their virtual patient traffic spike in recent weeks. 

Last week, the government announced that it would begin allowing Americans enrolled in Medicare to use telehealth services for no additional cost, to save citizens the risk of visiting a hospital or medical facility. And under a new economic stimulus headed for a Senate vote on Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission would receive $200 million to support telehealth services. 

Original author: Bani Sapra

The global fatality rate of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus has doubled over the past 2 months.New York City is now an epicenter of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, with more than 17,000 confirmed cases of at least 450,000 worldwide.A licensed funeral director and embalmer, who works for a company that removes bodies, said hospital morgues are seemingly full of COVID-19 bodies while the city — the backup option for hospitals — seeks additional temporary storage.FEMA told Business Insider the city has requested emergency mortuary assistance through a disaster response program.Politico reported Wednesday that, according to an unnamed Department of Homeland Security official, the city expects to exceed its own capacity next week. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

New York City is running out of room to store the bodies of those who've died from COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus that emerged less than 3 months ago.

The city has become an epicenter for the spread of the novel coronavirus due its role as a global hub of travel, tourism, and commerce.

On Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a press conference that the state has more than 30,000 confirmed cases — in part due to dramatically expanded testing — of which about 17,000 are from NYC.

"We're not slowing it, and it is accelerating on its own," Cuomo previously said, in another press conference on Tuesday. He added that the state's projection for hospital beds it will need at the peak of the outbreak will be around 140,000 — though it currently has only 53,000.

COVID-19's global death rate from January through March has doubled. Out of 300 known deaths in New York, the virus is confirmed to have killed 199 people in the city. Cuomo said cases, and deaths, are going to increase in the coming weeks.

Patients with the coronavirus are overwhelming hospitals

Hospitals around the city are beginning to find themselves overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases, many of which require intense and long-term critical care to treat respiratory failure.

As increasing numbers of people die from the illness, relatively small hospital morgues around the area are filling up. That's according to a licensed funeral director, embalmer, and body removal expert who works for a company handling transport of most COVID-19 bodies in the city. 

"On Sunday the morgues already seemed full," said the mortuary professional, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of their work, adding that there are typically only one or two corpses on Sundays. (Business Insider confirmed the person's identity.)

"You have to wait for the tests to come back before making the removal for our safety," they said, and due to a sometimes days-long lag in that testing "the death toll from COVID currently is much higher than it is in the news."

As a result of the uptick in COVID-19 deaths, relatively small hospital morgues are reaching or exceeding their capacity. When that happens, the person said, excess bodies are sent to the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) temporary storage facilities.

Yet even the city is now looking to the private industry to handle a possible overflow of the deceased, though that has not yet happened, the person said.

'We have the ability to expand dramatically'

Workers construct what is believed to be a makeshift morgue behind a hospital during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Manhattan borough of New York City on march 25, 2020. Carlo Allegri/Reuters

The situation has grown serious enough that the Department of Homeland Security has been briefed on the matter by New York City officials, who said the city may run out of capacity to store bodies next week, according to reporting by Politico published on Wednesday.

Politico, citing unnamed officials, said New York state more broadly has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for "emergency mortuary assistance."

Aspokesperson for FEMA independently confirmed the information with Business Insider.

"FEMA's National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) has received requests for HHS Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams (DMORT) from the States of Hawaii, New York, and North Carolina," the spokesperson said in an email. "These requests are currently in the review and approval process."

Aja Worthy-Davis, a spokesperson for OCME, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. Politico reported that Worthy-Davis said the city has "the ability to expand pretty dramatically" its mortuary services.

"If you look back at what we did during 9/11, we have the ability to create mobile stations that allow us to house bodies if we run out of space," she reportedly said.

That expanded capacity may be appearing as refrigerated tent facilities that resemble makeshift morgues, the New York Post reported Tuesday. The tents, refrigeration units, and an OCME vehicle were spotted by the outlet adjacent to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan (though OCME is located next door to the hospital).

The mortuary services professional told Business Insider that the city definitely needs additional temporary storage to handle the increasing numbers of the dead.

"I watch these Cuomo press conferences, and he said they're opening up the Javits Center for medical care. I think that's great, but they need to open up temporary morgues to hold all of these bodies," the person said. "I don't think we need another Javits Center-size building, but some other storage facility with additional capacity."

Jake Lahut contributed reporting to this post.

Original author: Dave Mosher

A man in San Francisco delivered a roll of toilet paper to his friend via drone.A video posted to Twitter shows the drone with a toilet paper roll dangling feet below zooming toward the recipient on his apartment patio.The interaction is a lighthearted example of how hunkered-down residents are keeping essential supplies stocked under lockdown and after retailers have experienced toilet paper stock shortages.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

San Franciscans are getting creative with how they stay stocked up on supplies amid a regionwide shelter-in-place order to contain the coronavirus disease.

A video that Twitter user Ian Chan posted Wednesday shows a drone ferrying a single toilet paper roll dangling feet below toward his apartment patio. The video shows him plucking the roll and the drone zooming off. 

Chan, an ex-Twitter employee according to his Twitter account, told Business Insider that the friend who flew the roll to him is a skilled drone pilot and surprised him with the delivery, only instructing him to go to his patio. Chan also said that the two of them merely needed a break from life under lockdown in San Francisco.

The interaction is a lighthearted example of how people are keeping essential supplies stocked while living under a three-week shelter-in-place order, which directs residents to remain inside as much as possible to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 62,000 people and killed at least 888 in the United States, including 58 deaths in California.

Toilet paper stock in the US from suppliers like Amazon and Costco have dwindled or ran out in recent weeks as the coronavirus pandemic has caused people to hurriedly buy rolls out of panic.  Though you can order toilet paper online from retailers like Target and Staples.

The San Francisco Bay Area is currently in week two of the three-week shelter-in-place order. It ends on April 7, but as Mayor London Breed told Business Insider's Troy Wolverton, that deadline could get extended. Residents can leave their homes for essential needs, like to go shopping for groceries or toilet paper, but officials ask that people limit the number of unnecessary trips.

Original author: Katie Canales

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The Cooking Channel Go app is available on mobile, Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV devices. Apple Like its sister channel, Food Network, the Cooking Channel is home to a growing lineup of food-related shows focused on meals, recipes, and competitions.The channel is available as part of many traditional cable and satellite TV packages, as well as several live TV streaming services, including Sling TV , Hulu + Live TV, Philo TV, and more.If you have an authenticated pay-TV subscription, you can also watch the Cooking Channel through the network's website or via the Cooking Channel Go app on several streaming sticks and boxes.Here's how to stream all your favorite Cooking Channel series with a variety of digital services.

Serving as a spin-off of the popular Food Network, the Cooking Channel offers even more shows dedicated to meals, recipes, and cooking. Filled with a mixture of original programming and older episodes of Food Network favorites, the channel is a perfect fit for home cooks looking for new meal ideas to prepare in their kitchen.

The varied lineup of live and on-demand shows includes instructional programs, like "Good Eats," and popular reality shows, like "Man v. Food," ensuring that there's something to watch for all tastes. Like the Food Network, the Cooking Channel is part of the Discovery Network family of TV stations, and its programming is available through several cable, satellite, and streaming TV subscriptions.

If you'd like to watch the Cooking Channel but don't know where to start, we've detailed all of the different platforms that carry the network below.  

How do I watch the Cooking Channel?

The Cooking Channel is available as part of various cable and satellite TV packages. Live and on-demand streaming are also available with an authenticated pay-TV subscription via the channel's website or the Cooking Channel Go app. The app is supported on iPhone, Android, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, and Fire TV devices.

The Cooking Channel features several popular shows, including new episodes of "Man v. Food." Cooking Channel

Like Food Network, the Cooking Channel is also available through several live streaming services, making it easy for cord-cutters to tune in. Unlike Food Network, however, the channel is typically only included with step-up subscription plans or extra add-on packages for many platforms, including Hulu + Live TV, Fubo TV, Sling TV , Youtube TV, and AT&T TV. 

The one exception is Philo TV, which includes Cooking Channel as part of its basic $20 per month plan. If you're signing up for a live TV streaming service primarily to watch the Cooking Channel, Philo TV offers the most affordable method to gain access to the network. 

What shows can I watch on the Cooking Channel?

The Cooking Channel features a growing lineup of live and on-demand programs related to food and cooking, including several series that you won't find on the channel's sister station, Food Network. 

This collection of on-demand exclusives includes programs like "The Best Thing I Ever Ate," "Man Fire Food," "Food: Fact or Fiction," "Cheap Eats," "Bizarre Foods America," "Fire Masters," and more. In addition, "Man v. Food" recently switched from Food Network to the Cooking Channel for its currently airing eighth season. This makes the Cooking Channel the only place you can watch new episodes of the show.

There is some overlap between the Food Network and the Cooking Channel when it comes to some series, however, so you will find a few shows on both networks. For instance, a few seasons of "Good Eats," "Bizarre Foods Delicious Destinations," and "Carnival Eats" can be watched through both apps. 

 

Original author: Steven Cohen

The San Francisco Bay Area's estimated 6.7 million residents have been ordered to remain at home as much as possible until April 7 to contain the coronavirus disease.Known as a shelter-in-place order, the directive has shuttered businesses, offices, and has caused the city's daily rhythm to come to a screeching halt.I live in San Francisco and am in the middle of the three-week order.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

I had a routine prior to March 9. 

I woke up at 6 a.m. for a brisk walk to work through the still-sleeping city into the office near the Financial District of San Francisco. I had my route nailed down perfectly, up one street and down another to spot the cats in the bay windows of their owners' apartments. One had flattened ears, the other would meow at me. I was always glum when I walked by and they weren't there.

That came to halt, as it needed to, in early March, as the coronavirus disease began to pose a bigger threat to San Francisco. On March 5, the first two confirmed cases were found, with authorities warning that the disease was likely already being transmitted in the city. Now there are 178.

The coronavirus pandemic has perforated the lives of millions, either directly or indirectly, as it has spread across the globe. The number of confirmed cases sits at 458,000. Some know people who have it, or have a friend of a friend who does. Regardless, we all feel the effects of the measures being taken to quell the spread of the virus.

On February 25, Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in San Francisco, my home of two years. Since then, offices have steadily shuttered one by one. The big names of the tech city — Twitter, Google, LinkedIn — began implementing work-from-home orders. Employees increasingly began adapting to carving out workspaces in their homes. Then the city took it a step further.

The estimated 6.7 million residents in the San Francisco Bay Area were ordered to shelter in place, or to stay at home, in an effort to create space amongst the region's occupants and decrease the risk of spreading the virus, which is transmissible by respiratory droplets.

The order lasts until April 7 but could get extended, San Francisco Mayor London Breed told my colleague, Troy Wolverton, last Thursday.

It's Wednesday, and we are on Day 9. Here's what my first week was like.

Original author: Katie Canales

The best battery packs help us get through the busiest of days, providing portable power for our smartphones, tablets, and even laptops.With a large capacity, fast charging capability, and a reasonable price, the Elecjet PowerPie is our pick for the best battery pack you can buy in 2020.

As wonderful and multi-functional as our smartphones are, they often run out of power at inconvenient moments. The last thing you want when you're trying to call a car at the end of the night is a dead phone. The best battery packs are the perfect back up. They come in all shapes and sizes, with different features and capabilities, and many of them can charge up tablets and even laptops now, as well as phones. 

Stick a battery pack in your bag or pocket, and you can rest assured a dead battery won't leave you high and dry. But, how do you pick the right battery pack for you? There's a bewildering array of options on the market. I've tested more than 100 of the best battery packs — and the worst — over the last few years, so I can recommend the right pick for different scenarios. 

The best battery pack for you depends on the device you want to charge, how much you want to spend, and what kind of capacity you need. We're about to outline the cream of the crop, but we've also listed what else we considered and would still recommend. Before we dig into the list, let's look at some important considerations to help you choose.

How to choose a battery pack 

The last few years has seen some major advances in battery pack technology. Capacities have grown, charging speeds have increased, and battery packs are more portable than ever. But, there are still a few questions to ask before you shop for a new battery pack.

What device or devices do you want to charge?

You can get battery packs now that will happily charge a smartphone, tablet, or even a laptop, but you need to check compatibility before you buy.

What kind of charging cable do you need?

Some battery packs have USB-C ports, some have USB-A, and some have built-in cables. They don't always come with cables in the box. If you want to charge an iPhone, you may need a USB-C to Lightning cable or a USB-A to Lightning cable. Most Android phones, and many tablets and laptops now, will require a USB-C cable. Think about what type of cable you need, and make sure any cable you buy is capable of the charging speed you're looking for.

What is the top speed your device can charge at?

Manufacturers are constantly figuring out ways to increase the top charging speed for phones and other devices. At the time of writing, the top wired charging rate for iPhones, for example, is 18W. Some manufacturers, such as OnePlus or Huawei, offer much faster charging rates, but require the use of proprietary charging technology. Many battery packs are capable of fast charging now, but check to make sure they are capable of fast charging your particular device before you buy.

What capacity do you need?

Battery packs are more portable than ever, but they will generally be larger as the charging capacity inside increases. It's also important to note that you will never get the full stated capacity when you use a battery pack. Most manufacturers offer an estimate on how many times a battery pack will charge up a specific device, like an iPhone. 

How long does the battery pack take to charge up?

It's not unusual for battery packs, even battery packs that are capable of fast charging other devices, to take a long time to charge up themselves. The best battery packs will recharge quickly, but you will likely need to use a fast charger and the right cable to get the top speeds.

Here are the best battery packs:

Original author: Simon Hill

Some of Amazon's customer support call centers are dealing with temporary closures to comply with work-from-home restrictions around the world amid the coronavirus outbreak.That's leading to unusually long hold times and a rise in customer complaints.Amazon's spokesperson told Business Insider that there have been "temporary adjustments to our support options" due to the changes caused by the coronavirus.The coronavirus is prompting more companies to adopt automated customer service software.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A number of Amazon call centers around the world have experienced some form of shutdowns in recent weeks as governments around the world put restrictions on coming into work to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Business Insider has learned. 

The change has caused unusually long hold times for Amazon customers looking to speak with a service agent, and a growing chorus of complaints as they couldn't get problems solved by automated solutions.

Most closures are temporary, and changing by the day, as rules around work restrictions are shifting constantly depending on the region. Some of the call center agents are working from home now, but they haven't been able to meet the surge in call volume, as Amazon is seeing a huge increase in orders during the pandemic.

In an email to Business Insider, Amazon's representative said there have been "temporary adjustments to our support options" because of the government-mandated work restrictions related to the coronavirus. The person said customers can go to Amazon's help page to get more support.

"We are working hard to provide support to customers while also helping to ensure the safety of Customer Service Associates, including complying with government regulations and social distancing requirements related to COVID-19," the statement said. "This has resulted in temporary adjustments to our support options."

The change comes at a time when the work-from-home mandate is issued in a growing number of US states and countries around the world following the coronavirus outbreak. Just this week, Amazon's home state of Washington issued a strict "stay-at-home" order, while India, where a large customer service workforce is based, has started a nationwide three-week coronavirus lockdown.

But it also shows how Amazon was caught off-guard by the pandemic and unprepared for the potential work disruptions. Besides the customer service issues, Amazon is also dealing with a supply chain lockdown, long shipment delays, and a variety of worker safety issues as coronavirus spreads across the country.

Amazon customers are not happy about the lack of response. On social media, it's easy to spot complaints by Amazon shoppers saying there's effectively "zero" customer support in some parts of the world.

"Amazon the company I have relied upon for years cannot handle a crisis," one person wrote on Twitter. "I understand a slowdown, but ZERO customer service is unacceptable."

Another person tweeted, "Wow, Amazon isn't taking customer service calls right now. No work-at-home call center agents? Really?"

Some customers said they were able to reach the customer agent by phone, but wasn't too happy about the experience.

Amazon isn't the only company experiencing this problem. Companies most affected by the coronavirus, like airlines, are also dealing with long hold times, driving more of them to adopt automated customer service solutions, according to a report by VentureBeat. 

For example, LivePerson, a software company that makes an automated messaging platform for customers like Virgin Atlantic, saw its overall conversation volume increase 20% over the past month. Airlines and hotels saw the biggest jumps, with an uptick of 96% and 130%, respectively, the report said.

The adoption of automated customer service is only expected to increase, according to research firm Gartner. It says up to 25% of online transactions will be supported by virtual assistants in 2022, up from the current 2% level.

"A competitive landscape of virtual assistant (VA) providers has emerged, offering platforms that target different VA use cases, applications and industry verticals," Gartner said in a report.

Still, for Amazon customers that need more hands-on support, the choice seems limited for now. Amazon's help account on Twitter apologized to some customers for not being available by phone. Instead, it recommended customers to use social media channels or find answers at Amazon's FAQ page.

Original author: Eugene Kim

On Tuesday, O'Reilly Media, which is known for its software conferences and learning content, laid off 75 employees.O'Reilly Media announced publicly that it's canceling all its future in-person conferences and shutting down its events business.Employees outside the events business, including editors, engineers, and vice presidents, were also laid off, and they were left with a week of health insurance amid the coronavirus pandemic.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

O'Reilly Media, which is known for its software conferences and how-to manuals for computer programming, laid off 75 people on Tuesday. 

O'Reilly Media hosts conferences such as the Open Source Software Conference and the Strata Data and AI Conference. It also publishes online courses and books on programming skills like Python and Linux. These books each feature a woodcut animal on the cover. It has over 5,000 companies and 2.5 million users on its learning platform.

In a blog post on Tuesday, O'Reilly Media announced it was cancelling all its future in-person conferences and shutting down that portion of its business. It also said that employees who ran its in-person events business would be leaving the company.

In addition to employees in its events business, O'Reilly Media also laid off other employees across the company, including editors and engineers, as well as four vice presidents and one senior vice president, Business Insider has learned. Prior to layoffs, the company had about 500 employees.

"This week O'Reilly made the incredibly difficult decision to permanently close our in-person conference business," O'Reilly Media president Laura Baldwin said in a statement to Business Insider. "The ongoing disruption caused by COVID-19 has forced us to make tough choices about our event business. This means we had to lay off 75 employees, primarily from the conferences team."

While its Strata California and Strata London events were canceled due to concerns about coronavirus, former employees said that O'Reilly's events business had already been struggling prior to the outbreak. They also said the company didn't make targets last year. 

"They were on a desperate race to keep conferences a viable thing," a former employee said. "A lot of our work over the last four months or six months was to completely support conferences."

Baldwin said that its conference plans for this year were "full steam ahead" before coronavirus hit, and it had launched a new conference called Infrastructure and Ops that was originally planned for June.

"Without understanding when this global health emergency may come to an end, we can't plan for or execute on a business that will be forever changed as a result of this crisis," Baldwin said in a statement.

Former employees said they were notified of the layoffs via email, followed by conference calls. They said they're left with one week of health insurance and two months of COBRA, and most of them received two months of severance.

"It seems a little cruel to be let go with one week of health coverage in the middle of a pandemic," another former employee said. 

Last November, O'Reilly Media acquired the interactive learning software company Katacoda, and a former employee said that the company has "hired aggressively" in the past year. Baldwin said that the company's primary focus is now in online learning.

"These recent changes are not a reflection of where the company was prior to the COVID019 outbreak but a response to the economic uncertainty we are now facing as a global community that is limiting in-person gatherings," Baldwin said in a statement.

Below is Baldwin's full statement:

"This week O'Reilly made the incredibly difficult decision to permanently close our in-person conference business. The ongoing disruption caused by COVID-19 has forced us to make tough choices about our event business. This means we had to lay off 75 employees, primarily from the conferences team. While we cannot disclose the conditions of severance, all impacted employees are receiving a financial package and extended healthcare benefits as well as other considerations. These layoffs do not affect O'Reilly's Publishing or Content Marketing businesses or our Online Learning Platform business where our users will continue to have access to our interactive live online training, expert written and video content, as well as other technology and business resources."

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Original author: Rosalie Chan

JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and US Bank will issue a 90-day waiver on residential mortgage payments in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday.About 200 state charter banks and credit unions will also issue the waivers. Bank of America will do so for 30 days, the governor said. Newsom said he was working with the banks on accounting for ATM fees and overdraft charges and hoped to announce a solution soon. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Homeowners in California who pay mortgages to JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, or US Bank will receive a 90-day waiver on mortgage payments, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday at a press conference. 

About 200 of the state's charter banks and credit unions will also issue waivers for 90 days, Newsom said.

Newsom said "unfortunately Bank of America did not publicly commit" to 90 days but that it would give a 30-day waiver. 

"I hope they will reconsider and join those other banks that are willing to do the right thing," Newsom said. 

A Bank of America spokesperson told Business Insider that "Bank of America is deferring mortgage payments on a monthly basis until the crisis is over." 

Newsom said California lacked outright regulatory power over the four banks and thanked them for "recognizing the sensitivity to their customers" and the impact on their credit ratings that a missed mortgage payment could have. 

The governor also said he was working with the banks to negotiate solutions for people paying bank charges like ATM and overdraft fees because of the economic fallout from the coronavirus. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last week that he would suspend mortgage payments for people for 90 days, according to Politico, though it is unclear when or how the deferrals will go into effect. Cuomo also said credit-card and ATM fees and overdraft charges would be waived. 

Original author: Bryan Pietsch

The coronavirus outbreak that originated in China has killed more than 19,000 people worldwide and infected more than 441,000, according to recent totals.The US is now the third-hardest-hit country, and people are staying home and isolating, many under shelter-in-place orders.For people stuck inside, Amazon Prime Video has a surprisingly large catalog of workout videos.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Getting your daily steps in is harder than ever while stuck inside social distancing due to the spread of coronavirus. Luckily, Amazon Prime has workout videos of just about every type to get you through it.

COVID-19, the coronavirus disease, originated in China, but now the majority of cases are in Europe and the US, and the US has become the third-hardest-hit country. One-third of the world is officially under some kind of lockdown now, and places across the US have ordered nonessential businesses to close. The virus also has been hard on shipping and infrastructure, with some Amazon Prime deliveries delayed up to a month, but the $119 per year subscription has some other hidden perks that might come in handy right now. 

Whether exercise is a stress-reliever, or just a distraction from the news, here's a look at the kind of workouts included with Amazon Prime.

Original author: Mary Meisenzahl

Apple is donating 10 million protective face masks to COVID-19 relief efforts in the US, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Twitter on Wednesday.The company is also donating millions of masks to regions in Europe that have been deeply impacted by the pandemic.Cook's comments come after US Vice President Mike Pence said Apple would donate 9 million masks on Tuesday.Cook is one of several tech CEOs that has pledged to donate face masks, along with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple is donating 10 million protective face masks to help combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the United States, CEO Tim Cook said in a video posted to Twitter on Wednesday.

"These people deserve our debt of gratitude for all of the work that they're doing on the front lines," Cook said of the medical community in his video. 

Along with the announcement about Apple's contribution, Cook also urged the general public to follow the advice from health experts and stay home as much as possible. The Apple chief executive also said he's currently working from home.

 

Cook's remarks come after Vice President Mike Pence said during a press briefing on Tuesday that the tech giant would donate 9 million N95 face maks to US relief efforts.

"And I spoke today, and the president spoke last week, with Tim Cook of Apple," Pence said. "And at this moment in time Apple went to their store houses and is donating 9 million N95 masks to healthcare facilities all across the country and to the national stockpile. "

Apple is one of several technology giants donating masks as the US grapples with supply shortages as the coronavirus spreads.

Doctors in at least two hospitals in New York City, which has been a hotspot for COVID-19 infections, have been told to reuse their masks to preserve their supply, Business Insider's Jacob Shamsian reported earlier in March. In Los Angeles, some doctors are turning to seamstresses in the city's garment district for new masks.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also recently said the company will be donating the 720,000 masks it had purchased as a protective measure against the California wildfires and plans to source millions more. 

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also recently said in an email to CleanTechnica that he'll be donating at least 250,000 N95 masks. 

N95 respirators are different than surgical face masks in that they're able to form a tight enough seal to filter out at least 95% of particles in the air, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Surgical masks, comparatively, are loose-fitting and protects the wearer from large droplets and splashes. 

Original author: Lisa Eadicicco