coronavirus

Helping yourself to free refills at your local fast-food joint could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the coronavirus. As it begins to reopen some 15,000 Burger King, Popeye’s and Tim Hortons locations across North America, fast-food giant Restaurant Brands International said Tuesday it’s zeroing in on areas vulnerable to infection — …

Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg is blaming the coronavirus for Quibi’s bumpy start. The short-form mobile video app, whose name is short for “quick bites,” gained 1.7 million views in its first week after an April 6 launch. But it quickly fell off the Apple Store’s 50 most downloaded free iPhone apps after and is currently …

Popeyes plans to open its first restaurant in China this week despite the coronavirus pandemic hammering the industry. The Cajun-inspired chain’s Shanghai chicken joint will open Friday as parent company Restaurant Brands International embarks on an expansion strategy that will see 1,500 Popeyes stores open in China over 10 years. The effort is in partnership …

Priyanka Chopra isn’t giving up her stilettos just because she’s stuck at home. The 37-year-old movie star, who’s been quarantining in Los Angeles with husband Nick Jonas, told InStyle that she’s been wearing her beloved Christian Louboutin heels with all her casual outfits. “They look good with sweatpants!” she exclaimed. “If you want to feel …

Even Meghan McCain is missing hair salons. The “View” host, 35, showed off her gray roots on Instagram Monday, revealing that the two months she’s been social distancing at home is the longest she’s ever gone without dyeing her platinum blond hair. “No lies about ‘lighting,’ ‘dry shampoo’ or at home treatments here,” she wrote. …

Americans have just one more day to speed up delivery of their coronavirus stimulus checks. The Internal Revenue Service set a deadline of noon Wednesday for taxpayers to submit direct-deposit information online to have the money dropped straight into their bank accounts. Those who don’t use the IRS’s “Get My Payment” tool to do so …

Amanda Kloots said that her husband, Broadway star Nick Cordero, is “starting to follow commands” amid his ongoing recovery from COVID-19. “He is very, very, very weak still so it is very slow progress when they ask him to do things, but that you can see he is trying, which is awesome,” Kloots said on …

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden pledged to probe the Trump administration’s coronavirus loan programs if he’s elected this year. The former vice president said he would tap an inspector general on his first day in office to review “every stimulus loan given to any big company or political insider.” He was apparently referring to efforts …

The nation’s biggest mall owner plans to reopen roughly half of its shopping centers within a week, according to its CEO. Simon Property Group had already reopened 77 US retail properties as of Monday with coronavirus safeguards in place such as social distancing, increased sanitizing and health screenings for employees, David Simon said. The company …

Fear is a powerful driver of public policy. Ordinarily, that is not greatly troubling.  We have speed limits, food sanitation laws, and many other regulations based on rational fear of harm. Sometimes in extreme circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, fear is so pronounced that it leads government officials to declare an emergency, which under …