U.S./World category, Page 1011
South Dakota Smithfield pork plant will reopen Monday, according to union
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A South Dakota pork processing plant will partially reopen Monday after shuttering for more than two weeks because of a coronavirus outbreak that infected hundreds of employees, a union that represents plant workers said Friday. Smithfield Foods asked about 250 employees to report to the plant...
Decline in critical coronavirus patients in Italy continues
ROME — The number of patients in Italy’s intensive care beds is continuing to decline. That’s allowing hospitals to better deal with the covid-19 outbreak, which when it began weeks ago had overwhelmed the national health care system, especially in heavily stricken northern regions. According to health ministry figures released...
New York schools staying closed through spring, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s schools and colleges will remain shut through the end of the academic year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday. The order, which applies to 4.2 million students statewide, continues a shutdown that had been set to expire May 15. The Democratic...
California county defies governor’s coronavirus shutdown order
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A rural California county allowed nonessential businesses to reopen and diners to eat in restaurants on Friday, becoming the first to defy Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide orders barring such moves during the coronavirus pandemic. Modoc County is “moving forward with our reopening plan,” Modoc County Deputy Director...
Judge orders release of migrants in Florida as coronavirus measure
MIAMI — A federal judge ordered authorities to release hundreds of immigrants from three Florida detention centers to prevent a wider spread of the coronavirus and protect detainees with underlying conditions. U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Cooke issued an order late Thursday for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin...
Canada bans assault-style weapons after mass shootingVideo
TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that Canada is banning the use and trade of assault-style weapons immediately. Trudeau cited numerous mass shootings in the country, including the killing of 22 people in Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19. He announced the ban of over 1,500 models...
New White House press secretary McEnany to hold 1st briefing
WASHiNGTON — President Donald Trump’s new spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, is to face reporters for the first time in the White House Briefing Room on Friday, something her predecessor never did during a nine-month stint as press secretary. During past administrations, a White House press secretary holding a formal briefing would...
Kim Jong Un appears in public amid health rumors
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in 20 days as he celebrated the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang, state media said Saturday, ending an absence that had triggered global rumors that he was seriously ill. The North’s official Korean...
‘Unconscionable’ body overflow at Brooklyn funeral home prompts probeVideo
NEW YORK — It started with reports of a strange stench in Brooklyn. Police who investigated found another example of how the cornavirus has overwhelmed the city: A funeral home had resorted to storing dozens of bodies on ice in rented trucks. Now state officials say the funeral home could...
Alabama high school student names NASA’s first Mars helicopterVideo
NORTHPORT, Ala. — An Alabama high school student named NASA’s first Mars helicopter that will be deployed to the red planet later this summer. Ingenuity, the name submitted by Vaneeza Rupani, was selected for the 4-pound solar-powered helicopter, NASA said in a statement on Wednesday. The name coined by the...
California governor orders Orange County beaches to close
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom closed beaches in Orange County on Thursday, overriding some local officials who had rejected his pleas to limit access as the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the state. A memo to the state’s police chiefs on Wednesday indicated Newsom was preparing to close...
Police: South Carolina woman drove car with her 5-year-old child on hood
Rock Hill, S.C. — A woman who allegedly recorded a video of herself driving a car while her 5-year-old child was sitting on the hood of the vehicle was arrested in South Carolina. Thrista Miquisha Johnson turned herself in Tuesday when Rock Hill police learned about the video and issued...
Protesters, some armed, enter Michigan Capitol as House blocks extension of coronavirus emergency measuresVideo
Throngs of protesters, several of them armed, marched Thursday inside the Michigan Capitol as the House voted to block the state’s coronavirus emergency measures and authorized a lawsuit challenging Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s actions to fight the pandemic. The governor wanted lawmakers to extend her emergency declaration by 28 days....
West Virginia lifting stay-home order under eased benchmark
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on Thursday said he is lifting the statewide stay-home order next week as part of his plan to ease coronavirus restrictions. The Republican said a new rule will go into effect Monday encouraging people to stay home but not requiring them to...
Army defends decision to have West Point graduation
WASHINGTON — The Army’s top leaders on Thursday defended their decision to bring 1,000 cadets back to the Military Academy at West Point for graduation, where President Donald Trump is slated to speak, saying that despite the coronovirus risk students would have had to return anyway to prepare for their...
Police: Shooting at Cuban Embassy is ‘suspected hate crime’
WASHINGTON — A man armed with an assault rifle was arrested after opening fire outside the Cuban Embassy in Washington early Thursday, his bullets tearing holes into the walls and pillars near the front entrance in what authorities suspect was a hate crime. The gunfire broke out around 2 a.m....
Few new restrictions as Georgia’s shelter-at-home order ends
ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will allow his statewide shelter-in-place order to expire at midnight Thursday but is extending his emergency powers to June 12 and telling the elderly and medically fragile to stay at home until then. The first-term Republican governor had already carved sizable loopholes in his...
You can skip mortgage payments for 6 months. But many fear what comes after that
In March, like millions of others, Thomas Taylor saw his income plummet. The global pandemic left the 42-year old furloughed from his two bartending jobs and staring down a $2,600 monthly mortgage payment on his condo in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Taylor reached out to his mortgage company for help but...
Russian prime minister says he tested positive for coronavirus
MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Thursday that he has tested positive for the new coronavirus, becoming the highest-ranking Russian official known to have gotten infected. Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin during a video call that he would self-isolate but planned to stay in touch on key policy...
Pelosi: $1 trillion needed to avert state, city layoffs from coronavirus
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday up to $1 trillion is needed to shore up state and local governments for coronavirus costs, a stunning benchmark for the next aid package that’s certain to run into opposition from Senate Republicans. Pelosi said the “heroes” fund would help prevent layoffs...
Surf’s down in California: Governor set to close beachesVideo
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed starting Friday after people thronged the seashore last weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Eric Nuñez, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said a...
Navy secretary orders deeper investigation on ousted carrier captain
WASHINGTON — Acting Navy Secretary James McPherson said he’s delayed a decision on whether to return the ousted captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the aircraft carrier where the coronavirus swept through the crew. Putting aside a recommendation by the Navy’s top uniformed officer to restore Capt. Brett Crozier to...
Smallest businesses get a few hours at head of relief loan line
NEW YORK — The smallest companies seeking coronavirus relief loans were moving to the head of the line Wednesday after the Small Business Administration said that for eight hours ending at midnight Eastern time it would accept loans only from small lenders. The step was being taken to ensure that...
Many field hospitals went largely unused, will be shut down
NEW YORK — Gleaming new tent hospitals sit empty on two suburban New York college campuses, never having treated a single coronavirus patient. Convention centers that were turned into temporary hospitals in other cities went mostly unused. And a Navy hospital ship that offered help in Manhattan is soon to...
Russia slams U.S. arguments for low-yield nukes
MOSCOW — The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday rejected U.S. arguments for fielding low-yield nuclear warheads, warning that an attempt to use such weapons against Russia would trigger an all-out nuclear retaliation. The U.S. State Department argued in a paper released last week that fitting the low-yield nuclear warheads to...
