US COVID toll passes 75K; DoD braces for 2nd wave; SecNav nom cites ‘tarnished culture’; Counter-Iran buildup ends; And a bit more.

More than 75,000 Americans have now died from complications related to the novel coronavirus, and today the country is officially experiencing its highest unemployment in recorded history (AP, Reuters, Wall Street Journal), with more than 20 million new jobless claims filed in the month of April. 

America’s military chief left Washington for the first time since March. Defense Secretary Mark Esper dropped by U.S. Northern Command headquarters in Colorado Springs on Thursday. AP’s Bob Burns tagged along to help spread Esper’s message. 

“We are preparing for a second wave [of coronavirus infections] and maybe more,” Esper said. “We don’t know what the trajectory of this virus will be." But, he added, ”We are preparing for the long haul.”

Update: We now know a bit more about the military’s recruiting policy change teased Wednesday by CNN's Barbara Starr. Military Times reported more fully on Thursday that “prospective recruits who have tested positive for coronavirus can join up, as long as they weren't hospitalized.” 

Outside New York City, the number of new daily COVID cases is still rising, New York Times graphics reporter Nathaniel Lash found in a visualization published Wednesday, here. 

For the record: 30 states have started to reopen, or are planning to reopen their economies soon, the New York Times reported Thursday in a robust tracker you can find here. The Wall Street Journal has a useful tracker of its own, sorted alphabetically, here.

Warning from that NYTs reopening tracker: “The White House said states should have a ‘downward trajectory’ of cases over a 14-day period before reopening. But most of the states reopening have actually had an increase of daily average cases in the past two weeks.” Among them is Colorado, where... 

SecDef Esper wore a mask at NORTHCOM when social distancing wasn’t possible, AP’s Bob Burns reported from Colorado Springs. Here’s a bit more scene-setting from that visit: 

• “No one lined up for the customary plane-side greeting when Esper arrived. And there were head nods and elbow bumps, no hand shakes or shoulder slaps. His travel party was smaller than usual and they were all equipped with face coverings…During meetings, tablet computers provided for Esper’s use were handled with surgical gloves. And smiles were hidden and voices muffled behind masks as all were careful to keep their distance.” Continue reading, here.

President Trump’s valet just tested positive for COVID-19. And in case you were wondering, valets (this one is a member of the military) do not wear masks, a White House official told NBC News’s Peter Alexander on Thursday.

President Trump won’t yet allow himself to be photographed in a face mask, telling those close to him “he fears he would look ridiculous in a mask and the image would appear in negative ads,” AP reported separately Thursday. But his campaign manager is hawking “Make America Great” face masks, which he premiered on social media Thursday evening, to allegations of illegal campaign fundraising.

A man who didn’t wear a mask at a nightclub in South Korea is causing the country to close nightclubs for a month and could delay the reopening of schools. AP has more from South Korea, which is experiencing an alarming spike in new cases, here.

In treatment updates, another study published Thursday found that “hydroxychloroquine administration was not associated with either a greatly lowered or an increased risk of the composite end point of intubation or death.” Read more about the study’s findings and impact via a Thursday editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, here.

A new kind of terrorism? A McDonald’s customer shot an employee when she fired three rounds at workers after being asked to leave because of coronavirus restrictions, the Oklahoma City Police announced Thursday. The Washington Post described it as “the latest in a growing trend of violence directed at employees of businesses trying to enforce social distancing measures. Last week, a Family Dollar security guard was fatally shot in Flint, Mich., after telling a customer that her child had to wear a face mask to enter the store.”

ICYMI, the pandemic keeps unleashing “a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned today from UN HQs in NYC. “With older persons among the most vulnerable, contemptible memes have emerged suggesting they are also the most expendable,” he said. “And journalists, whistleblowers, health professionals, aid workers and human rights defenders are being targeted simply for doing their jobs.”

We all could benefit from a bit of “digital literacy” and sharing “models of mutual respect,” Guterres said, since “extremists are seeking to prey on captive and potentially despairing audiences” and social media companies are seemingly unable to keep up with the pace of mis- and disinformation related to the pandemic. AP has more from Guterres, here.

From Defense One

COVID-19 Is Accelerating Trends in the US-China Relationship // Patrick Tucker: Economic analysts see a closing window for U.S. policymakers to engage with Chinese counterparts on areas of mutual interest and benefit.

Prospective Navy Secretary Vows to 'Restore the Appropriate Culture' // Katie Bo Williams: Kenneth Braithwaite answered pointed questions from senators, but he and fellow nominees from DoD and the Air Force appear set for confirmation.

Global Business Brief // Marcus Weisgerber: Price break on export fees; New missile interceptor project; COVID, oil & international arms sales, and more.

Time to Rethink Security Aid to Egypt // William D. Hartung: More than $40 billion over three decades has bought only dubious benefits to U.S. security.

What’s Behind South Korea’s COVID-19 Exceptionalism? // Derek Thompson, The Atlantic: Seven weeks ago, South Korea and the U.S. had the same number of virus deaths. Today, South Korea has fewer than 300, and the U.S. has more than 70,000.

Welcome to this Friday edition of The D Brief from Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. Send us tips from your community right here. And if you’re not already subscribed to The D Brief, you can do that here. On this day in 1945, the Nazi regime formally came to an end with the signing of the “German Instrument of Surrender.”

America’s counter-Iran military buildup has come to an end, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday off word that “The U.S. is removing Patriot antimissile systems from Saudi Arabia and is considering reductions to other military capabilities.” 
The gist: “The U.S. is removing two Patriot missile batteries from Saudi Arabia and two others from the Middle East, along with dozens of military personnel who were deployed to the region following a series of attacks on the Saudi oil facilities last year, according to several U.S. officials.”
But that’s just a fraction of America’s total air-defense package for the Mideast, Bloomberg reported Thursday. That’s because “More than 12 Patriot batteries and one THAAD battery, which can intercept ballistic missiles at higher altitudes, remain in the region.” 

The U.S. Air Force quietly abandoned its readiness goals for F-16s, F-22s and F-35s, Defense News reported Thursday. “data obtained exclusively by Air Force Times and Defense News revealed the mission-capable rates for those three aircraft over the whole of FY19 — while, in some cases, an improvement over the previous year — fell well short of the 80 percent goal mandated by then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in October 2018.”
What's more, "the overall rates for the year were lower — in some cases, much lower — than the high-water marks cited by" Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown ahead of his May 7 confirmation hearing. Continue reading, here.

Ex-national security adviser who confessed to lying to feds may go free. Attorney General William Barr told a federal judge on Thursday that the Justice Department will no longer pursue the criminal case against Michael Flynn, the former DIA director-turned Turkey lobbyist who lied about his contacts with Russia and was subsequently fired as Trump’s first national security adviser.
What’s next? Judge Emmett Sullivan, who “is known for an independent streak, often delivering strong rebukes of conduct he views as unjust...could stop Flynn from withdrawing his guilty plea and impose sentence. In that case, Trump could pardon Flynn,” Reuters reports.

And finally this week, the Ex-Green Beret behind that failed Venezuela raid allegedly provided security for the president in late 2018. The UK’s Telegraph shared an alleged photo of Jordan Goudreau with an earpiece at a Trump rally in November of that year, and notes that “The website for his Florida-based private security firm Silvercorp claims it has planned and led international security teams for the president as well as the secretary of defense, including at another rally in Houston four days earlier.” More on that, here.
BTW: Goudreau’s firm is also suspected of...plagiarism. “The website for Jordan Goudreau’s Silvercorp USA appears to have lifted entire passages from the website of the Department of Homeland Security, as well as one run by a crisis management firm,” and more, AP reports. 

Have a safe weekend, everyone. And we’ll see you again on Monday!