Category: Aktualności

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus is expected to reach 100,000 in a few days.  To mark the solemn landmark, the front page of the print version of the Sunday New York Times is a simple list of names of dead victims of the disease and brief personal details about them scoured from media around the country.   Sunday’s headline is “U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An incalculable Loss.” The U.S. death toll early Sunday was more than 97,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The global total of COVID-19 infections has risen to more than 5.3 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 342,000 deaths. A medical worker in protective suit conducts tests for residents in Wuhan, the Chinese city hit hardest by the coronavirus disease, Hubei province, China, May 15, 2020.China, the country where the coronavirus outbreak began, reported no new infections Saturday, the first time since it started reporting cases in January.  The pandemic has countries struggling to keep people safe while simultaneously reopening their economies, and has disrupted collective celebrations by Muslims throughout the world observing the end of Ramadan, as well as the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the U.S., when millions traditionally head to beaches and national parks. The U.S. continues to be the epicenter of the contagion with 1.6 million cases, nearly one-third of all cases worldwide.   Gravediggers bury an alleged COVID-19 victim at the Vila Formosa Cemetery, in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 22, 2020.Brazil comes in second with more than 347,000 infections, followed by Russia with almost 336,000 cases.  “In a sense South America has become the new epicenter of the disease,” said Michael Ryan, director of the WHO emergency program. “The most affected is clearly Brazil at this point,” he added. Brazil’s Health Secretary Wanderson de Oliveira announced Sunday that he would resign the following day. De Oliveira attempted to resign last month but stayed on at the request of then-health minister Luiz Mandetta, who was shortly thereafter fired by Brazil’s president. The country’s Health Ministry has been at odds with President Jair Bolsanaro, who has rejected recommendations by health experts in favor of protecting the economy. Brazil and Mexico reported record numbers of cases and fatalities almost every day this week, reinforcing criticism that their presidents failed to impose more stringent lockdowns measures. However, in Chile, Ecuador and Peru, which put in place early and aggressive containment measures, infections also continued to climb, overwhelming intensive care units in those countries. Beaches are beginning to open in a few places to domestic tourists in Europe. On Sunday, beaches at La Grande Motte in southern France opened with a two-day wait list, but parks in Paris remained closed. Municipal police officers wearing face masks talk to a woman, at the Promenade des Anglais, as they check that safety restrictions are being practiced, after France reopened its beaches to the public in Nice.Germans will be allowed to visit the Baltic Sea coast beginning Monday. A few dozen people gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on Sunday to receive the traditional blessing for the first time in nearly three months.Pope Francis waves to people at St. Peter’s Square after the Regina Coeli prayer, which was held without public participation due to the COVID-19 outbreak, at the Vatican, May 24, 2020.The pope has been delivering a virtual message streamed on the internet from his library for the past few months, moving on to bless an empty square. European Union countries are planning to reopen their borders especially to migrant workers in the coming weeks, though it is unclear when they may allow intercontinental travel. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump is rekindling one of his long-running conspiracy theories, that a Republican congressman turned television critic of his played a nefarious role in the death of a young woman in 2001.
 
Trump tweeted twice over the weekend about the death of aide Lori Klausutis in the Florida congressional office of Joe Scarborough shortly before Scarborough left Congress and later became an MSNBC television talk show host.Scarborough often interviewed candidate Trump on his “Morning Joe” show as he ran for the presidency in 2016, but more recently, along with his wife and show co-host Mika Brzezinski, has become a thorn in Trump’s side as he faces a re-election contest in November.Earlier in May, Trump tweeted, ““When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so.”Then, on Saturday, Trump tweeted, “A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!”A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses! https://t.co/UxbS5gZecd— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020On Sunday morning, Trump added another tweet: “A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair? What about the so-called investigator? Read story!”A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair? What about the so-called investigator? Read story! https://t.co/CjBXBXxoNS— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020Trump tweeted about the case at least as far back as 2017. But a coroner found no evidence of foul play, ruling that that the 28-year-old Klausutis died because of a heart problem, causing her to hit her head on her desk. Scarborough was in Washington at the time she died.Trump has long traded in debunked conspiracy theories.Perhaps his most discredited theory was that former U.S. President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. state of Hawaii and shouldn’t have been eligible to become the country’s leader, a claim Trump eventually acknowledged was wrong as he ran for the presidency in 2016.  Trump also claimed that he saw Muslims in a television report celebrating the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorist jetliner attack on the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center by dancing on the rooftop of a building in neighboring New Jersey. No such television report has been found.
 
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The Trump administration may consider imposing a travel ban on Brazil as the South American country records a steep increase in coronavirus cases. In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation”, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said he expects a decision Sunday on whether to block travel from Brazil as was done with China and some European countries earlier this year.“We hope that will be temporary. But because of the situation in Brazil we’re going to take every step necessary to protect the American people,” he said.In recent months, Washington banned non-citizens who had been in China 14 days prior to their arrival from entering the United States. The same restrictions were later placed on those traveling from Europe.The United States remains the country with the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world – over 1,622,000.The number of cases in Brazil has increased in recent weeks. As of Sunday, Brazil had over 347,000 confirmed cases, making it the second-highest affected in the world after the United States, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. 
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A key U.S. coronavirus official voiced serious concerns Sunday about Americans failing to take the highly contagious disease seriously enough as the country begins to reopen its commercial and recreational life. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told the “Fox News Sunday” show, “I’m very concerned about people going out without social distancing,” staying at least two meters away from others to curb the chances of passing on the disease. “We have to have social distancing if they’re in groups,” she said. “They don’t know if they’re asymptomatic” and could unwittingly pass on the virus. “We want to urge people to hike, golf, play tennis,” but to do it safely by maintaining an appropriate distance from other people, she said. With the U.S. world-leading coronavirus death toll likely to top 100,000 within a week, President Donald Trump erroneously claimed on Twitter, “Cases, numbers and deaths are going down all over the Country!” Cases, numbers and deaths are going down all over the Country!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) US President Donald Trump leaves after speaking to the press on May 22, 2020, in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Trump urged state governors to allow places of worship to reopen immediately.Trump on Friday ordered the country’s 50 state governors to reopen houses of worship although legal experts say he lacked the authority to do so. In some states, coronavirus restrictions allowed stores and restaurants to begin to reopen with restrictions but not churches, synagogues and mosques. “In America, we need more prayer, not less,” Trump said. But Birx offered a cautionary note for worshippers, saying, “Although it may be safe for some to go to church, it may not be safe for those with [health] vulnerabilities.” She deplored some shoppers who have refused to wear face masks in stores, who claimed they had the constitutional freedom in the U.S. to defy store employee requests to do so. “There’s clear scientific evidence” that people without masks can pass on the virus to others, Birx said. “A mask does prevent others from becoming infected.” More than 38 million laid-off U.S. Workers — nearly a fourth of the country’s labor force — has filed for unemployment compensation over the last nine weeks.  The official unemployment rate in April was 14.7%, but officials predict that it could top 20% in May, when the official count for the month is released in early June. White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told CNN he believes it is quite possible the national unemployment rate will still be in double digits when Trump faces reelection Nov. 3 against the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden. FILE – People wait in line for help with unemployment benefits in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 17, 2020.Hassett said the country’s economic recovery will be well underway in the second half of the year, but that “unemployment is something that will move back slower. If there were a [coronavirus] vaccine in July I’d be way more optimistic.” U.S. health officials had originally suggested that it was not likely that a coronavirus vaccine would be available until well into 2021. But Birx said the availability of a vaccine could be reached in late 2020 or early 2021. She said the push for the rapid development of a cure by several companies in the U.S. and elsewhere and the early production of the “most promising candidates” even before health officials have concluded that they are safe and effective could advance the timetable for inoculations.      
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Even before the pandemic, people living in rural communities and on tribal lands were among the toughest to count in the 2020 census. The U.S. Census Bureau’s suspension of work this spring pushed those efforts even further behind.That concerns advocates in rural America and Indian Country. Alaska, West Virginia, New Mexico and other states with large rural populations are lagging behind the rest of the nation in answering the once-a-decade questionnaire.Those states have the largest concentration of households that rely on getting the forms from visiting census workers. Ultimately, it could cost them congressional seats and federal funding for highways, schools and health care.Los Alamos County, where the atomic bomb was born and many people are highly educated, has one of the nation’s highest response rates at 79%. Rio Arriba County, where a language other than English is spoken in over half of homes, is at the bottom at 9%.Waiting for drop-offsThe reason for the difference? Households in Rio Arriba and other rural counties across the U.S. rely on census workers to drop off their questionnaires, which was on hold for a month and a half because of the coronavirus pandemic.While the Census Bureau is restarting that work, leaders in rural America worry it will be difficult to catch up.We have historically been underrepresented in the past, and there's an unfortunate precedent to show we will be underrepresented again. This pandemic makes it all the more challenging,'' said Javier Sanchez, mayor of Espanola, a city of 10,000 in Rio Arriba County.I think we are struggling like every other rural community and doing the best we can amid these problems when so much is at stake in the next 10 years.”FILE – A little girl plays in her family compound in Tuba City, Ariz., April 22, 2020. People living in rural communities and on reservations are among the toughest groups to count in the 2020 census.A rolling census count shows that states with large rural populations are lagging behind the rest of the nation in answering the 2020 questionnaire. They have the largest concentration of households dependent on receiving forms from census workers in the spring.Around 5% of U.S. households fall into that category, but it accounts for anywhere from about 17% to almost 30% of homes in Alaska, West Virginia, New Mexico, Wyoming, Maine, Vermont and Montana.These are places where homes are spread apart and often hidden from main roads. Internet access is poor, and this is the first census in which most people are encouraged to respond online.Harder to reachMany people lack traditional city-style addresses, get their mail by post office box or live in areas with high concentrations of vacant, seasonal housing. While they wait for hard copies from census workers, the rest of the U.S. mostly is contacted by mail — either with invitations to respond online or with a paper form.Two months after most U.S. residents could start answering the 2020 census, response rates in states that have many households without city-style addresses ranged from 40% to 50%. The national rate is 59% as of mid-May.Households without traditional addresses are especially common on tribal lands, which have a history of being undercounted.In Rio Arriba County, more than 16% of residents are Native American, compared with just over 1% in neighboring Los Alamos County. The latter is home to Los Alamos National Laboratory and almost half its residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 15% in more rural Rio Arriba County.It's like criticizing someone for not voting when you never handed them a ballot,'' said Jose Viramontes, a spokesman for I Count NM, which is leading census outreach efforts in New Mexico.Funds at stakeFor Mayor James Schell of East Helena, Montana, an inaccurate count could jeopardize the potential for another U.S. representative pushing for federal funding to upgrade roads and wastewater infrastructure.By having that extra representation, more monies could be introduced for roads, water, sewers,” Schell said.The Census Bureau will absolutely'' be able to catch up with the rural count, said Tim Olson, associate director of field operations. When work was suspended in March, only about 10% of households without city-style addresses had received questionnaires. Now, it's at 30% two weeks into restarting door-to-door work in some places, he said.It’s going very well,Olson said.FILE - Chris Topher Chee waits for water to fill a tank in his truck in Oljato-Monument Valley, Utah, on the Navajo reservation, April 27, 2020. People living in rural or tribal communities are among the toughest to count in the U.S. census.But in some tribal areas, response rates were below 15% as of mid-May.It’s looking like there’s a real possibility of an undercount, given the obstacles we are facing,” Ta’jin Perez, program manager at Western Native Voice, an advocacy group in Montana.During the last census in 2010, American Indians and Alaska Natives living on reservations were undercounted by 4.9%, according to the Census Bureau, by far the highest undercount of any group.Olson acknowledged that some tribal lands have closed themselves off to stop the spread of the virus, and census workers won’t be able to drop off questionnaires until they reopen.“There may be some pockets that are further delayed,” he said.Deadline pushed backThe pandemic has forced the Census Bureau to push back its deadline for finishing the count from the end of July to the end of October.The agency says it’s restarting operations this week in Puerto Rico, where census forms are required to be dropped off at homes because of the devastation from Hurricane Maria in 2017. The island has a very low response rate as of mid-May — over 8%.In West Virginia, almost 30% of households don’t have traditional addresses, and the state’s response rate is 47%.While the state is getting back to pushing rural residents to fill out the census, halting work on the ground in March was like playing a ballgame “with three players off the field,” said Andy Malinoski, a spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Commerce.
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A fire engulfed a warehouse on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf early Saturday, sending thick smoke over the waterfront and threatening to spread to a historic World War II-era ship before firefighters brought the flames under control.One firefighter sustained a hand injury while battling the fire at the warehouse the size of a football field on Pier 45, San Francisco Fire Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter said.Baxter said that after the fire subsided, investigators scoured the building to determine whether homeless people were inside.”That is something of grave concern,” he told KGO-TV. “To our knowledge … nobody is supposed to be in the building and we are hoping … that there is no victim.”At least two workers told the San Francisco Chronicle they were inside the fish processing and storage warehouse when the fire broke out before dawn.Alejandro Arellano, who works for La Rocca Seafood, was cleaning out a fish storage locker when the fire began, shortly after 4 a.m.”I saw a lot of smoke. A few minutes later, fire everywhere,” he said. “It was very, very scary. I’ve never seen anything like it.”Firetruck threatenedThe fire tore through the warehouse near the end of the concrete pier, causing its walls to collapse, Baxter said. The flames singed the first firetruck to respond to the scene, forcing firefighters to turn their hoses on the vehicle to save it, he said.More than 130 firefighters fought the flames, with some using ladder trucks to drench the warehouse from above. A fire boat was used to protect the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, a liberty ship that stormed Normandy on D-Day in 1944.”Our firefighters absolutely saved the SS Jeremiah O’Brien during this fire as flames were pinching on the side of this vessel,” Baxter said.A fire official is shown reflected in a puddle in a warehouse after a fire broke out before dawn at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, May 23, 2020.The ship docks by Pier 45 and is among numerous tourist attractions on the wharf, a maritime hub for cruises around San Francisco Bay as well as fishing boats hauling in the catch of the day. Visitors come for the Dungeness crabs, clam chowders served in sourdough bread bowls, the sea lions that hang out on the floating docks and shops and curiosities on Pier 39.Shops and restaurants on the wharf have been shut by the city’s stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the coronavirus and were expected to reopen on May 31.The fire was confined to the end of the pier, well away from the Musée Mécanique and its historic arcade games and the popular restaurant Alioto’s.’It’s surreal’Fishing companies that have been operating out of Pier 45 said the fire exacerbated an already tough business climate caused by the pandemic.Kenny Belov, owner of the seafood wholesaler TwoXSea, told the Chronicle his building near the warehouse was not damaged but he worried a power outage on the pier could ruin the fish in his freezer.”Not that it would ever need this, but the seafood industry didn’t need this now,” Belov said. “It’s surreal. We’ve obviously had a tough go the last couple months, with restaurants [closed]. … Of all the problems in the world, this is not a big one. But it’s frustrating.”Coast Guard crew members and police assisted by keeping other vessels away from the pier.Fire investigators were assessing any damage to the pier and were looking into the cause of the blaze, Baxter said.
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The drive-in movie, dismissed by many as a relic of an earlier time in America, is making a comeback as entertainment seemingly designed for the coronavirus era.
 
Beth Wilson, who owns the Warwick Drive-in about an hour’s drive from Manhattan, says it has been sold out since May 15, the first day drive-ins were allowed to operate under New York’s reopening plan.
 
The drive-in has struck a chord with Americans who have been largely confined to their homes since March watching the death toll from COVID-19 accumulate on their TV screens.
 
Customers come “just to be out and for some form of entertainment that is not streaming on their TV,” said Wilson, adding she hopes the Warwick Drive-In can help people reconnect.
 
“I just want to see their happiness, their well-being.”
 
The drive-in experience is virtually tailor-made for the pandemic. Patrons control their close social interactions and any contact with other people happens outdoors, which is seen as lower risk for infection than indoors.
 
The Four Brothers Drive-In in Amenia, New York, which like Warwick has halved its capacity to put more distance between cars, is selling into next week after running out of tickets for the Memorial Day weekend.
 
“It’s a lot of first-time people that are inquiring and coming,” John Stefanopoulos, whose family owns the drive-in and an adjacent restaurant. “People want to get out of their house.”
 
Stefanopoulos sees a chance for the industry, which has shrunk by some 90% from a peak decades ago, to grow out of the crisis. He has received inquiries about developing drive-in theaters from England, Ireland and across the United States.
 
Some outsiders are looking to capitalize on the trend.
 
The Bel Aire Diner in the New York City borough of Queens propped up a screen in its parking lot and has been holding movie nights, serving food to customers in their cars while they watch classics like “The Princess Bride” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
 
In perhaps the most ambitious plan, one businessman said he was organizing a “drive-in on steroids” event to be held almost nightly in a parking lot of Yankee Stadium after July 4th. Marco Shalma, co-owner of the MASC Hospitality Group, said the evenings would include food, performances and a feature film, and he sees them as a way to reinvigorate New York.
 
“We make something out of nothing in New York,” Shalma said.
 
“It’s going to be epic.”
 
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Religious communities around the United States are reacting cautiously to President Donald Trump’s call to reopen houses of worship. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.   
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The United States will exempt some foreign athletes who compete in professional sporting events in the United States from entry bans imposed because of the novel coronavirus epidemic, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said on Friday.”In today’s environment, Americans need their sports. It’s time to reopen the economy and it’s time we get our professional athletes back to work,” Wolf said in a statement issued by the department announcing he had signed an order for the exemption.President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing to reopen the U.S. economy after drastic measures to combat the pandemic this year put tens of millions of people out of work.Major U.S. professional sports were shut down as part of the effort to tackle COVID-19, the respiratory disease cause by the coronavirus which has killed more than 96,000 people in the United States and infected more than 1.6 million.In its response to the epidemic, the Trump administration has also imposed bans on entry of travelers from China, where the epidemic started, as well as Iran and much of Europe.Besides the athletes, the exemption applies to the sporting leagues’ essential staff, spouses and dependents, the statement said.The sports covered by the exemption include Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, the Professional Golfers’ Association Tour, the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour, the National Hockey League, the Association of Tennis Professionals, and the Women’s Tennis Association. 
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The Trump administration discussed last week whether to conduct its first nuclear test explosion since 1992, the Washington Post reported late on Friday, citing a senior official and two former officials familiar with the matter.The topic surfaced at a meeting of senior officials representing the top national security agencies after accusations from the administration that Russia and China are conducting low-yield nuclear tests, the Washington Post said.The meeting, however, did not conclude with any agreement to conduct a nuclear test.A decision was ultimately made to take other measures in response to threats posed by Russia and China and avoid a resumption of testing, the report added.U.S. officials could not be reached immediately for a comment. 
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The United States is condemning China’s push to impose a new security law on Hong Kong, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying if the law passes it would be a death knell for the territory’s autonomy.  VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has the story.Videographer:  VOA Mandarin Service, Nike Ching Skype Video interview
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Memorial Day weekend is rapidly approaching, and for the first time in 20 years, the American Automobile Association did not release Memorial Day travel projections. 
 
Last year, the AAA estimated that 43 million Americans traveled for the annual holiday weekend — the second highest travel volume on record according to the organization. The approximation included 3.25 million people traveling by air.   
 
The AAA tweeted recently, “The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to significantly suppress travel over the Memorial Day weekend.” The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to significantly suppress travel over the Memorial Day weekend – the unofficial start of the summer travel season – but there are indications that people have begun planning for future trips. #AAA#Travelhttps://t.co/ZVqgNK2KV2pic.twitter.com/Pr0CCstEjj— AAA Travel (@AAA_Travel) May 14, 2020
For Americans still considering flying, the failure of major airlines to enforce safe social distancing guidelines could be reason for pause. 
 
The American Airlines passenger planes are parked on a runway due to flight reductions to slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Tulsa International Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma, March 23, 2020. American Airlines announced it would make more standard seats available and restrict access to some seats “when possible” to allow more space.  United Airlines has similarly stated it would “avoid where possible seating customers next to each other,” and it provides an option for customers to reschedule flights expected to reach full capacity.  On the other hand,  Delta and Southwest Airlines both have specified they would block middle seats, with Delta reducing its total number of passengers per flight to between 50% and 60% capacity, depending on the aircraft type. Despite not meeting the 6 feet of physical distance guidelines, the four major airlines have assured customers the planes are equipped with high-efficiency filters (HEPA) to circulate the air and the usage of electrostatic spraying to sanitize aircrafts. With some airlines, like United, reducing their flight schedules by 90% because of coronavirus fears, airline industry heads say they see the business struggling for the next few years.  
    
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The suspect killed during what the FBI is calling a “terrorism-related” attack at a Texas naval air base voiced support for hardline clerics, according to a group that monitors online activity of jihadists.The attack Thursday at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi wounded a sailor and left the gunman dead. The gunman was identified on Friday by the FBI as Adam Salim Alsahli, 20, of Corpus Christi. He had been a business major at a local community college.The gunman tried to speed through a security gate at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, opening fire and wounding the sailor, a member of base security, U.S. officials told the AP. But the sailor was able to roll over and hit a switch that raised a barrier, preventing the man from getting onto the base, the officials said.Other security personnel shot and killed the attacker.There was an initial concern that the gunman may have had an explosive device, but Navy experts swept the area and the car and found nothing. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details about an ongoing investigation. Officials worked late Thursday to process the crime scene and had recovered some type of electronic media.Social media postsThe FBI was examining social media posts investigators believe were made by the shooter expressing support for extremist groups, including al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, two officials familiar with the investigation told AP on condition of anonymityU.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday on NBC’s “Today” show that the wounded sailor was “doing well.” He also said the FBI knew the basics of what happened during the attack but was working through details, including those related to the suspect.“We hope to know more in the coming days as to what happened, what this person was motivated by,” Esper said. “But we need to let the facts come out, let the investigators do their job, and we’ll see where this ends up.”Social media accounts matching Alsahli’s profile on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp featured support for hardline clerics, mostly from Saudi Arabia, and jihadi figures such as Ibrahim al-Rabaysh, who had been a spokesman for the Yemen branch of al-Qaida and who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2015, according to Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group.Alsahli had been a student at Del Mar College, a community college in Corpus Christi, according to a statement on Friday from school spokeswoman Melinda Eddleman. He had been a business administration major and had attended classes in the fall 2018, spring 2019 and fall 2019 semesters.A search of court records in Corpus Christi showed Alsahli had received a traffic ticket in August for failing to yield. The ticket was dismissed in January after Alsahli took a driver safety course.FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Leah Greeves said at a news conference Thursday that investigators were working to determine whether a second person of interest was at large, but she did not elaborate. She also would not discuss a potential motive.Items taken from houseLater, federal agents were seen carrying items from inside a house that a Corpus Christi police tactical unit had surrounded and a public records search by local television station KRIS indicated was Alsahli’s last known address. A police spokesman would not confirm that the activity was related to the shooting at the naval station.The injured sailor was discharged from a hospital where she was treated for minor injuries, according to a statement from the command.The station, which was locked down for about five hours Thursday, had a similar lockdown in December. In another incident at the base last year, a man pleaded guilty of destruction of U.S. government property and possession of a stolen firearm for ramming his truck into a barricade.The shooting also came months after a Saudi air force officer who was training at a Navy base in Pensacola, Florida, killed three U.S. sailors and wounded eight other people in a shooting that American officials described as an act of terrorism. The country’s top federal law enforcement officials said this week that the gunman in December’s attack, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, had been in touch with al-Qaida operatives about planning and tactics in the months before the shooting. Alshamrani was killed by a sheriff’s deputy.According to U.S. officials, unlike Pensacola, there are no international or foreign national students at the Texas base. The military put several new safety procedures in place after the Pensacola shooting to restrict and better screen international students.
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China’s decision to propose new legislation tightening control over Hong Kong has sparked a wave of condemnation from American lawmakers and officials, in yet another sign of worsening relations between the economic superpowers.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a statement Friday saying he “condemns” China’s parliament for proposing legislation that he claimed “would be a death knell for the high degree of autonomy Beijing promised for Hong Kong.”FILE – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, May 20, 2020.He also vowed that “any decision impinging on Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms … would inevitably impact our assessment of One Country, Two Systems and the status of the territory.”Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, also denounced Beijing’s moves, saying China has used the global crisis around the pandemic as cover for increasing authoritarianism.”A further crackdown from Beijing will only intensify the Senate’s interest in reexamining the U.S.-China relationship,” McConnell said.White House reportEven before Beijing’s Hong Kong announcement this week, the Trump administration was reviewing its China policy, publishing a FILE – Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen speaks at the Taipei Guest House as part of her inauguration for her second term in office, in Taipei, May 20, 2020, in this handout picture taken by the Taiwan Presidential office.Addressing Tsai formally as “president,” Pompeo became the highest-level U.S. official to offer congratulations to a Taiwan president. In the past, top U.S. officials refrained from speaking out in order to not offend Beijing, which does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country.Russell Hsaio, executive director with Global Taiwan Institute, told VOA that the U.S. needs to send a strong signal of political support to Taiwan at this moment.”This was probably as much a signal to Beijing as it was to Taipei,” he said, “To the former, while the United States still adheres to its One-China Policy, Washington will not allow Beijing to dictate how it conducts relations with a democratic ally and important security partner of the United States.”A day after Tsai’s inauguration, the U.S. approved a possible sale of heavy weight torpedoes to Taiwan in a deal estimated to cost $180 million, a gesture certain to anger Beijing.  Hsaio said the enhancement of U.S.-Taiwan ties is a function of growing trust between Washington and Taipei.Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
 
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The coronavirus pandemic accelerated across Latin America, Russia and the Indian subcontinent on Friday even as curves flattened and reopening was underway in much of Europe, Asia and the United States.
Many governments say they have to shift their focus to saving jobs that are vanishing as quickly as the virus can spread. In the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, unemployment is soaring.  
The Federal Reserve chairman has estimated that up to one American in four could be jobless, while in China analysts estimate around a third of the urban workforce is unemployed.
But the virus is roaring through countries ill-equipped to handle the pandemic, which many scientists fear will seed the embers of a second global wave.
India saw its biggest single-day spike since the pandemic began, and Pakistan and Russia  recorded their highest death tolls. Most new Indian cases are in Bihar, where thousands returned home from jobs in the cities. For over a month, some walked among crowds for hundreds of miles.
Latin America’s two most populous nations — Mexico and Brazil — have reported record counts of new cases and deaths almost daily this week, fueling criticism of their presidents, who have slow-walked shutdowns in attempts to limit economic damage.  
Cases were rising and intensive-care units were also swamped in Peru, Chile and Ecuador — countries lauded for imposing early and aggressive business shutdowns and quarantines.  
Brazil reported more than 20,000 deaths and 300,000 confirmed cases Thursday night — the third worst-hit country in the world by official counts. Experts consider both numbers undercounts due to widespread lack of testing.
“It does not forgive, it does not choose race, or if you are rich or poor, black or white,” Bruno Almeida de Mello, a 24-year-old Uber driver, said at his 66-year-old grandmother’s burial in Rio de Janeiro. “It’s sad that in other countries people believe, but not here.”  
She had all the virus’s symptoms, but Vandelma Rosa’s death certificate reads “Suspected of COVID-19,” he said, because her hospital lacked tests. That means she didn’t figure in the death toll, which nevertheless on Thursday marked its biggest single-day increase: 1,181.
President Jair Bolsonaro has scoffed at the seriousness of the virus and actively campaigned against state governors’ attempts to limit movement and commerce.
Bolsonaro fired his first health minister for supporting governors. His second minister resigned after openly disagreeing with Bolsonaro about chloroquine, the predecessor of the anti-malarial often touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a viable coronavirus treatment.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador downplayed the threat for weeks as he continued to travel the country after Mexico’s first confirmed case. He insisted that Mexico was different, that its strong family bonds and work ethic would pull it through.  
The country is now reporting more than 400 deaths a day, and new infections still haven’t peaked.
Armando Sepulveda, a mauseleum manager in the massive Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec, said his burial and cremation business has doubled in recent weeks.
“The crematoriums are saturated,” Sepulveda said. “All of the ovens don’t have that capacity.” Families scour the city looking for funeral services that can handle their dead, because the hospitals can’t keep the bodies, he said.
Meanwhile Mexico’s government has shifted its attention to reactivating the economy. Mining, construction and parts of the North American automotive supply chain were allowed to resume operations this week.  
Russian health officials registered 150 deaths in 24 hours, for a total of 3,249. Many outside Russia have suggested the country is manipulating its statistics to show a comparatively low death rate. The total confirmed number of cases exceeded 326,000 on Friday.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who himself recovered from coronavirus, said earlier this week that only 27 regions out of 85 are ready to gradually lift their lockdowns. At least three cabinet ministers also contracted the disease, as well as the Kremlin spokesman.
China announced it would give local governments 2 trillion yuan ($280 billion) to help undo the damage from shutdowns imposed to curb the spread of the virus that first appeared in the city of Wuhan in late 2019 and has now infected at least 5.1 million people worldwide, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The Bank of Japan said it would provide $280 billion in zero-interest, unsecured loans to banks for financing small and medium-size businesses.
European countries also have seen heavy job losses, but robust government safety-net programs in places like Germany and France are subsidizing the wages of millions of workers and keeping them on the payroll. Tourism, a major income generator for Europe, has become a flashpoint as countries debate whether to quarantine new arrivals this summer for the virus’s two-week maximum incubation period.
Spain’s National Statistics Institute published its tourism report Friday showing columns of zeros for overnight stays, average length of stays and occupancy rates in April. Spain is Europe’s second most popular tourist destination, after France, and an economic recovery without visitors is all but unthinkable.  
Nearly 39 million Americans have lost their jobs since the crisis accelerated  two months ago. States from coast to coast are gradually reopening their economies and letting people return to work, but more than 2.4 million people filed for unemployment last week alone.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said over the weekend that U.S. unemployment could peak in May or June at 20% to 25%, a level last seen during the depths of the Great Depression almost 90 years ago. Unemployment in April stood at 14.7%, a figure also unmatched since the 1930s.
In an eerie echo of famous Depression-era images, U.S. cities are authorizing homeless tent encampments, including San Francisco, where about 80 tents are now neatly spaced out on a wide street near city hall as part of a “safe sleeping village” opened last week. The area between the city’s central library and its Asian Art Museum is fenced off to outsiders, monitored around the clock and provides meals, showers, clean water and trash pickup.
Nathan Rice, a 32-year-old who is camping there, said he’d much rather have a hotel room than a tent on a sidewalk.
“I hear it on the news, hear it from people here that they’re going to be getting us hotel rooms,” he said. “That’s what we want, you know, to be safe inside.”
Despite an often combative approach  to scientists who disagree with him, Trump’s approval ratings have remained steady, underscoring the way Americans seem to have made up their minds about him. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research says 41% approve of his job performance, while 58% disapprove. That’s consistent with opinions of him throughout his three years in office.
The World Bank announced a $500 million program for countries in East Africa battling COVID-19 and deadly flooding along with historic swarms of ravenous desert locusts. The added threat of the pandemic has further imperiled a region where millions lack regular access to food.
While many African countries have been praised for their response to the coronavirus, Tanzania is the most dramatic exception, run by a president who questions — or fires — his own health experts and says prayer has solved the crisis.  
The East African country’s number of confirmed virus cases hasn’t changed for three weeks, and the international community is openly worrying that Tanzania’s government is hiding the true scale of the pandemic. Just over 500 cases have been reported in a country of nearly 60 million people.
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Sitting outside an urgent care medical center, Michelle Thomas feels sick. She traveled 30 minutes across town from her Washington, D.C., neighborhood to seek treatment for a persistent cough and fever. Both are common symptoms for COVID-19 in a city that has lost at least 400 residents to the pandemic.“There’re no doctors’ offices in my neighborhood. I really don’t see a doctor regularly and wouldn’t know what to do if I got the virus,” Thomas told VOA.The 73-year-old retired schoolteacher is like millions of African Americans who have long-struggled to access adequate health care. Now, her concerns are heightened.“I know my age and health problems put me at greater risk for serious illness from the virus,” she said. Thomas’s plight comes as COVID-19 has proved especially deadly for many minority communities in America. Nationwide, more than 20,000 African Americans have died from the coronavirus, according to the American Public Media (APM) Research Lab. Authors of the survey acknowledged the numbers were incomplete because some states have not reported data broken down by race and ethnicity.  Even so, APM’s data show the black mortality rate from COVID-19 is three times higher than that of white people. Researchers believe minorities are more at risk of catching the virus because they disproportionately hold jobs for which teleworking and staying at home is not an option. Dr. Ala Stanford administers a COVID-19 swab test on Wade Jeffries in the parking lot of Pinn Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia, April 22, 2020.Snapshots of uneven health careMany longtime health care practitioners in urban areas say the pandemic has highlighted chronic shortcomings in health care delivery — and health outcomes — in African American neighborhoods.  “In D.C. neighborhoods, where 95% of the residents are black, the life expectancy is 72 years old. But just a few miles away in predominantly white neighborhoods, it is 87,” said Dr. Wayne Frederick, a surgical oncologist and president of Howard University, in Washington. “So, when you start looking at all the social determinants of health in both areas, you begin to see why the discrepancies exist.” In a city where in 2018, African Americans were estimated at 46% of the population, the Department of Health reports they account for 77% of COVID-19 deaths. By comparison, whites make up about 42% of city residents but just 11% of COVID-19 deaths. Nationwide, African Americans comprise 13% of the U.S. population. A survey from 40 states and the District of Columbia found that black people account for 27% of COVID-19 deaths.  Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, left, commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, departs a news conference with District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser at a temporary alternate care site constructed in response to the coronavirus outbreak.”This virus has not left the District,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a recent news conference. “We are working at building a healthy community and (to) improve access to better health care.”Decades of research show that many African Americans go untreated or undertreated for diabetes, hypertension and other medical conditions that add to the mortality risk for COVID-19. The problem extends to the nation’s capital, where in 2019, the federal government estimated that 97% of residents had some form of health insurance. Frederick blames poor health outcomes on a dearth of medical facilities in African American communities.“In one of the biggest populated black D.C. neighborhoods, there’s only one acute care facility, which is functioning at a very low level. And most of the acute care facilities are in the other neighborhoods,” he said. “It’s not a matter of not having health insurance. It’s a matter of having access to doctors’ facilities and other health care providers.” Some African American leaders are calling for more government spending directed at preventive care and coronavirus testing in black communities.“If you spend as much money on the lower tier of the health care outcomes, you actually help the entire system,” Frederick said. “We need more doctors and ambulatory care services in black neighborhoods.” He noted that Howard University’s medical school graduates more than 100 physicians every year, some of whom set up practices in underrepresented neighborhoods.In the short term, health officials are scrambling to increase testing and contact tracing in minority communities to slow down rates of infection.As Washington resident Thomas waits for her bus home, she said she hopes people in her community take the virus seriously. “I don’t want to see more people die,” she said. 
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In communities around the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in Massachusetts, families are marking the first Memorial Day without a veteran who was a parent, spouse or sibling. More than 70 have died of the coronavirus at the home. Relatives of the lost tell similar stories of their loved one, many who rarely spoke of their service, having moved on to tend to families and new careers at home. The outbreak at the Soldiers’ Home is one of the worst in the country and the subject of state and federal investigations.Each of their stories was different, but common strains repeat: Of humility and generosity; of finding joy in the unpretentious; of a sharp mind disappearing into fog or a hale body betrayed by age.And, of service, in war or in peace, that often went unspoken when they returned home.In their final years, these veterans found their place at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in Massachusetts. And in their final days, as the coronavirus engulfed the home and killed more than 70, they found battle again.Left behind by these victims of the pandemic are those who were blessed by their kindnesses. Memorial Day dawns for the first time without them here, and a new emptiness pervades the little Cape Cods and prim colonials they once shared.At these doorsteps, they were heroes not for valor, not for the enemies they defeated, but for the tenderness they showed. Peek through their bay windows and screen doors and bedroom panes. There is no blizzard of ticker tape, no gunfire of salute, just a void, a hole, a chasm of what’s been lost.Seeking to capture moments of private mourning at a time of global isolation, Associated Press photographer David Goldman visited the homes of 12 families struggling to honor spouses, parents and siblings during a lockdown that has sidelined many funeral traditions.Goldman used a projector to cast large images of the veterans onto the homes of their loved ones, who looked out from doors and windows. The resulting portraits show both the towering place each veteran held in their loved ones’ lives — and the sadness left behind. Here are their stories.An image of veteran Alfred Healy is projected onto the home of his daughter, Eileen Driscoll, left, as she looks out the window with her sister, Patricia Creran, in Holyoke, Mass., May 7, 2020.Alfred Healy, 91, loved corny jokes and adored his family. He listened to audiobooks constantly and closely followed the news. He devoured history and was quick with facts on U.S. presidents. He was humble. He won a Bronze Star, but his family only found out how decorated a soldier he was when he was gone. He was a longtime U.S. Postal Service employee who rose to become a town postmaster. He was sharp as a tack and liked to deem things “snazzy” or “classy.” On his last night, the nurses gave him chocolate ice cream and showed him photos of some young relatives. And by dawn, he was gone.An image of veteran Constance ‘Kandy’ Pinard is projected onto the home she grew up in with her sister, Tammy Petrowicz, left, and brothers, Paul, center, and Brian Driscoll in Florence, Mass., May 14, 2020.Constance Pinard, 73, had a life with struggles: A marriage gone sour, the pressures of raising two children on her own, family rifts that grew worse with an aggressive case of dementia. But there were so many joys, too: The miles she drove in her Jeep or flew in the air to reach new places as a travel nurse, the rank of captain she achieved, the thrill of meeting Barry Manilow, the musician she loved. Her sister Tammy Petrowicz remembers a woman overflowing with energy “like the Energizer Bunny,” who was 16 years older but “still could run circles around me.” The Air Force veteran loved meeting new people wherever she went. Petrowicz recalls standing in a grocery store line with her, chit-chatting with strangers like they were old friends. “She talked to anybody and everybody,” her sister says.An image of veteran James Sullivan is projected onto the home of his son, Tom Sullivan, left, as he looks out a window with his brother, Joseph Sullivan, in South Hadley, Mass., May 4, 2020.James Sullivan, 99, grew up with nothing and appreciated everything, a consummate gentleman who found joy in the small things — the Red Sox on TV, a cold Bud Light in his hand, a fresh tomato out of the garden. Sullivan was an artillery technician in the Army during World War II who won the Bronze Star. He had a mischievous side, as evidenced by the time his father told him he couldn’t play ball because he had to paint the garage. He obliged, painting it top to bottom, windowpanes and all. He was a liquor store clerk, a school custodian and a city councilman, a man who always beamed with a smile right up to the end of his life. He died four days shy of his 100th birthday. Quiet, unselfish, inquisitive about others. “How you doing, pal?” he’d ask. Whenever someone would ask him the same, he offered something similar: “Never had a bad day.”An image of veteran Charles Lowell is projected onto the home he shared with his wife, Alice, for 30 years as she stands at left with her daughter, Susan Kenney, in Hardwick, Mass., May 2, 2020.Charles Lowell, 78, was a missile guide technician and an IBM operations manager, a Masonic lodge master and town selectman, a volunteer firefighter and paramedic. Along the way, his life was littered with good deeds — the troubled teenager he’d take in, the hungry family he’d help with groceries — done with little notice or unmentioned altogether. “He didn’t tell people things like that,” his daughter Susan Kenney says. She remembers a father always teaching her something new and always trying to make people laugh, something his wife, Alice Lowell, says his colleagues appreciated. “It wasn’t like going to work,” she says of the man she knew since she was a child. “It was going to play with Chuck.”An image of veteran Stephen Kulig is projected onto the home of his daughter, Elizabeth DeForest, as she looks out the window of a spare bedroom as her husband, Kevin, sits downstairs in Chicopee, Mass., May 3, 2020.Stephen Kulig, 92, always had a smile on his face and hard candies in his pocket. The list of roles he played was long: veteran of World War II and Korea, devoted Boston sports fan, bingo caller, school dance chaperone, altar server, soup kitchen volunteer, Knights of Columbus member. His daughter Elizabeth DeForest remembers a man who was a natural caregiver — for his wife of 63 years, for his five children and for his parents and in-laws. “I use the word fierce to describe him,” DeForest says. “He was really fiercely proud of his family. He was fierce in the way that he practiced faith and he taught it to our family and to all of us. Just fierce in the way he loved and protected the people that mattered to him.”An image of veteran Chester LaPlante is projected onto the home of his son, Randy LaPlante, as he looks out a window with his wife, Nicole, and their sons, Evan and Blake, at their home in Amsterdam, N.Y., May 5, 2020.Chester LaPlante, 78, had a knack for improving things wherever he went. He restored cars and could repair just about anything, and in the lives of his three children, he was the jack-of-all-trades father who knew how to make them smile. His son Randy LaPlante remembered his father giving him “bear rides” around the living room, rubbing his beard against his little face and buying him a go-kart. Later, the elder LaPlante took his son under his wing and taught him about being a machinist, a career he holds to this day. “I don’t know where I would be without him,” LaPlante says.An image of veteran Harry Malandrinos is projected onto the home of his son, Paul Malandrinos, as he looks out a window with his wife, Cheryl, in Wilbraham, Mass., May 16, 2020.Harry Malandrinos, 89, was a quiet man, but had many stories to tell: of fighting a war in Korea, of touring the U.S. as a band’s drummer, of four decades as a public school teacher. “When he spoke, you listened, because he didn’t waste his words,” his daughter-in-law Cheryl Malandrinos says. He always had a joke, was a master woodworker, avidly rooted for the Patriots, Red Sox and Bruins and would happily settle for “Family Feud” if his teams weren’t on TV. Every now and again, his son Paul Malandrinos would run into a former student of his father’s who would sing his praises. “He was pretty much the working-class guy that represents so many of us,” his daughter-in-law says.An image of veteran Francis Foley is projected onto the home of his wife, Dale Foley, left, as she looks out a window with their daughter, Keri Rutherford, in Chicopee, Mass., April 29, 2020.Francis Foley, 84, never learned to read music but could play any song by ear. He loved a cup of coffee and something sweet from Dunkin’ Donuts. He kept the nurses at the home laughing. He was fiercely protective of his family. Ask his family about the man they lost, and the words flow easily about the card-carrying union carpenter, Army veteran, devoted husband of 54 years and father of four. “He was strong. He was funny. He was engaging. He was ornery. He was feisty,” his daughter Keri Rutherford says. “He was still full of life. And then within days, he’s gone.”An image of veteran Roy Benson is projected onto the home of his daughter, Robin Benson Wilson, left, as she looks out a doorway with her husband, Donald, in Holland, Mass., May 13, 2020.Roy Benson, 88, whistled a lilting song throughout his life, one of the things imprinted on the minds of those who loved him, like the way he’d stir sugar into his morning coffee or holler for a visitor to return the minute they stepped out the door. His daughter Robin Benson Wilson calls them “comfort sounds” that signaled “the world is good.” He was a towering 6-foot-4. He made friends easily and often, always finding a familiar face wherever he went. He was a mechanic in the Korean War and it seemed like he could fix anything. With old age, his ability to whistle faded. But during a Christmastime visit by Benson Wilson to the Soldiers’ Home, her father managed to pucker his lips and offer a bit of that familiar tune one last time.An image of veteran Emilio DiPalma, is projected onto the home of his daughter, Emily Aho, left, as she looks out a window with her husband, George, in Jaffrey, N.H., April 30, 2020.Emilio DiPalma, 93, had gone off to war as a happy-go-lucky kid, but it didn’t take long for his Hollywood visions of battle to dissolve into the reality of watching friends die. After the Germans were defeated, DiPalma was sent to Nuremberg, where he made copies of documents detailing war crimes, watched over Nazis in their prison cells and stood guard beside the witness box in the courtroom where the evils of genocide were detailed. One time, he filled the glass of one of the most powerful Nazis — Hermann Goring — with toilet water. Back home in the U.S., he lived a life of humility, rarely talking about his service. “He did all of this in World War II and we hardly knew about it,” says his daughter Emily Aho.An image of veteran James Mandeville is projected onto the home of his daughter, Laurie Mandeville Beaudette, as she looks out a window with her son, Kyle, left, and husband, Mike, in Springfield, Mass., May 12, 2020.James Mandeville, 83, had a playfulness to him that never seemed to fade. With his grandchildren, he’d swim and wrestle and play basketball, even after he started using a wheelchair. He’d play cards with his daughter Laurie Mandeville Beaudette and, if she left the table, she’d return to find the deck had been stacked. She took to calling him “Cheater Beater.” He found joy in babies and dogs and for all his fun-lovingness, he imparted something deep in those who were close to him. “He always made me feel like I was the most important person in the world,” she says. “We were best friends.”An image of veteran Samuel Melendez is projected onto the home of his nieces, Janet Ramirez, right, and Mary Perez, as they look out a doorway in Chicopee, Mass., May 17, 2020.Samuel Melendez, 86, would clam up and appear sad when someone would ask about his time in Korea. But he was affectionate and easygoing, a man who’d let a young relative have a seat on his lap or give them a dollar from his pocket, which made them feel rich. He loved the island of his heritage, Puerto Rico. He loved dominoes and family gatherings and would jump on a plane whenever someone needed him. When he became less independent, he went to live with his niece Janet Ramirez and when he needed more help, he moved to the Soldiers’ Home, where she is a nurse’s aide. She lost her own father when she was young and as her uncle grew sicker, Ramirez slipped away to his room to hold his hand or to play Spanish music on her phone and put it to his hear. “I felt like he was my dad,” she says.    
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U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered flags on all federal buildings and monuments lowed to half-staff for the next three days in memory of all Americans who have lost their lives to the coronavirus.He made the announcement late Thursday on Twitter at the same time he said the lowered flags Monday will also honor servicemen and women “who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation” as the country marks Memorial Day.Meanwhile, Michigan’s attorney general said Trump may not be invited back to the state if he refuses to wear a face mask in public.Trump on Thursday visited a Ford auto factory near Detroit that has been converted into a plant to build ventilators.All of the Ford executives who were showing Trump around the plant were wearing face masks. But Trump, as he has always done, refused to wear one.Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said it isn’t just Ford Motors’ policy that all visitors to its plants wear a mask – it is also state law.“He’s going to be asked not to return to any enclosed facilities inside our state … we’re going to have to take action” against any company that allows it in the future,” Nessel said.When asked if Trump was told it was not acceptable to not wear a mask in the plant, Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford said, “It’s up to him.”Trump claimed he did wear a mask out of view of reporters because he said he did not want to give the media the pleasure of seeing it.The president has reportedly told White House aides that he does not want to wear a mask in public because he thinks it makes him look weak.A member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment also known as The Old Guard wears a face mask as he places flags in front of each headstone for “Flags-In” at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., May 21, 2020, ahead of Memorial Day.Complaints from many Democrats and some governors that the White House’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak has been incoherent has apparently had little effect on Trump’s approval rating.A new poll by the Associated Press and University of Chicago gives him a 41 percent job approval rating — a number that has been consistent throughout his presidency.Also Thursday, the president said the government has made an agreement with British drugmaker AstraZeneca to produce 400 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine.AstraZeneca said it has received more than $1 billion from federal researchers.“We have a lot of things happening on the vaccine front,” Trump told reporters. “We’re so far ahead of where people thought we’d be.”The U.S. government has other deals with Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and the French company Sanofi for vaccine development.Some critics have said they are concerned that rich countries such as the United States will corner the market on vaccines because of the huge amounts of money they are investing.Experts have said a coronavirus vaccine may not be ready for as long as 18 months, but recent progress in testing indicates one may be ready sooner than later.The coronavirus has taken the life of someone who spent 55 years in the White House but never made headlines or stood behind a microphone in front of reporters.Wilson Roosevelt Jerman was a White House butler who served every president from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama before a stroke forced him into retirement in 2012.His granddaughter said he died last week of COVID-19.The Obamas, Clintons, and the George W. Bush family all said Thursday that Jerman was a kind and generous man who helped make the vast and sometimes cold and unfriendly White House feel like a home.  
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Puerto Rico is set to reopen retail businesses, beaches, and places of worship  on Tuesday, with a warning from health experts that the U.S. territory’s government is not prepared for a possible surge in new infections as it moves from a two-month lockdown.Governor Wanda Vázquez announced Thursday that most businesses will reopen under strict new rules, including restrictions on how many people will be allowed inside restaurants.Food truck owner Mauro Alago welcomed the reopenings, saying, “It’s a relief because people finally have green light.”  He also said he believes all businesses will be able to adapt to the new rules.A curfew, from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., will remain in place until June 15, and people are still required to wear face masks.Vázquez said the restricted reopenings will protect people and provide an economic boost to the island, still recovering from hurricanes and earthquakes.Although Puerto Rico continues to add dozens of coronavirus cases daily, Vázquez said,  “[I]t’s the right time, and we have flattened the curve.”Puerto Rico’s Health Department confirms more than 2,900 COVID-19 cases and 126 deaths.Vázquez said gyms and movie theaters will remain closed and malls will reopen June 8. 
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The Pentagon has rescinded a recruiting policy that banned anyone who was hospitalized because of COVID-19 from joining the military without a waiver, a top official said Thursday. Matthew Donovan, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told reporters Thursday that he had nixed the interim policy guidance and that the military had returned to its previous guidelines for military recruits. He said COVID-19 cases would be processed on a case-by-case basis, going through the infectious disease history of each individual recruit and then relying on the attending physician to determine if the recruitment candidate meets the military’s accession standards. In this image provided by the U.S. Army, recent Army basic combat training graduates have their temperatures taken as they arrive at Fort Lee, Va, on March 31, 2020, after being transported using sterilized buses from Fort Jackson, S.C.Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters the military would look at COVID-19 hospitalizations as it does underlying illnesses such as asthma, which is not an automatic disqualifier for joining the military. “Like any other disease, an underlying damage or illness or harm that results from that would have to be examined by a physician (to) make a determination whether they can meet the standards for the force,” Hoffman said. The previous guidance, revealed earlier this month, dictated that individuals who were hospitalized with COVID-19 were “medically disqualified for accession, subject to further review of hospitalization/comorbidity records, and waiver by a Service Medical Waiver Authority.” Military Entrance Processing Command (MEPCOM), which screens military applicants, said in a statement given to VOA on May 7 that patients who were hospitalized “may be contagious for a longer period than others” and “are likely to require evaluation for residual physical performance limitations (e.g., pulmonary and end-organ function) before medical qualification.”    Long-term health effects for this group “are unknown,” the command said, which is why a waiver review was required.  COVID-19 and current troops  COVID-19 hospitalizations still are “not immediate disqualifications” for current troops, according to a senior defense official. But those who are no longer able to perform their duties would need to undergo a medical board process that could lead to a change in military specialization or a discontinuation of service.  “This is similar to what’s done with any illness or injury obtained while in the military,” the senior official told VOA earlier this month.  
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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is implementing changes to the security checkpoint process at airports to reduce risks of cross-contamination in light of the coronavirus pandemic. With Memorial Day weekend approaching, many of TSA’s changes have already begun, and more are to be added nationwide by mid-June.  A traveler pulls down her protective mask as a TSA agent compares her face to her identification at a security entrance at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, May 18, 2020, in SeaTac, Wash.Changes already in effect include optional eye protection and plastic face shields for TSA officers, routine cleaning and disinfecting of common surfaces, plastic shielding at checkpoints and other social distancing precautions. In order to minimize potential cross-contamination, travelers are encouraged to place items from their pockets — such as wallets and keys — as well as belts directly into carry-on bags rather than bins.  Food should now be packed in clear plastic bags to be scanned separately so TSA officers will not have to open carry-ons for further inspection. Passengers will scan their own boarding passes and hold them up to TSA officers for visual inspections to limit touch contact. If carry-on items that should have been removed are found, passengers may be asked to repeat the security process in order to limit TSA officers having to manually search belongings.   Face masks for passengers and social distancing practices are strongly suggested, as well. At this time last year, more than 2 million total travelers passed through checkpoints in a single day, according to the TSA. That number dropped off significantly in mid-March but has been steadily increasing. Today, that number is around 230,000. “In the interest of TSA front-line workers and traveler health, TSA is committed to making prudent changes to our screening processes to limit physical contact and increase physical distance as much as possible,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. “We continue to evaluate our security measures with an eye towards making smart, timely decisions benefiting health and safety, as well as the traveler experience.” TSA advises travelers to check with individual airports and airlines for specific COVID-19 guidelines, as they may vary. 
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An armed person wounded a sailor at a Texas naval air station Thursday before being killed by security forces, officials said.The U.S. Navy said the security team “neutralized” an active shooter at the Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi about 6:15 a.m. Thursday. The shooter was shot and killed by security personnel, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details about an ongoing investigation.One sailor assigned to the security team was injured but was in good condition, the Navy said.The injured Navy sailor was shot but was wearing body armor, said another U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide information not yet made public.The FBI in Houston said it will lead the investigation. Neither investigators nor the Navy provided details on the shooter or a possible motive.Attorney General William Barr was briefed on the shooting, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.The facility was on lockdown for about five hours Thursday morning, but that was lifted shortly before noon. One gate remained closed.  The station had a similar lockdown last December. In another incident at the base last year, a man pleaded guilty to destruction of U.S. government property and possession of a stolen firearm for ramming his truck into a barricade at the Corpus Christi station.
 
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One of U.S. President Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters is set to lead the country’s intelligence community, overcoming concerns about his experience and a bitter partisan divide to win Senate confirmation. The Senate voted 49 to 44, along party lines, Thursday to confirm Texas Representative John Ratcliffe as the next director of national intelligence and the U.S. intelligence community’s first permanent leader since former Director Dan Coats stepped down last August. During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Ratcliffe promised that he would deliver the president and top policymakers the FILE – In this April 21, 2020, file photo Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington.Ratcliffe “will lead the intelligence community in countering threats from great powers, rogue nations and terrorists, and ensuring that work is untainted by political bias,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Ratcliffe will have tremendous power to do good and to be transparent,” added Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. But Senate Democrats criticized Ratcliffe, expressing reservations that the Texas lawmaker would be able to set aside his partisan rhetoric. “It requires someone with unimpeachable integrity, deep experience, and the independence and the backbone to speak truth to power,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Unfortunately, Mr. Ratcliffe doesn’t even come close to meeting that high bar.” Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) talks to reporters on April 21, 2020, in Washington.One of the Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, talks to reporters in Washington, March 19, 2019.”The intelligence community is a creation of Congress. Congress is not a creation of the intelligence community,” Grassley said in remarks praising Ratcliffe’s nomination before Thursday’s vote. “The intelligence community answers to us.” Grassley also praised the current acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, saying Ratcliffe “has some big shoes to fill.” The current U.S. ambassador to Germany, Grenell has stoked the ire of both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, and of Democrats in the House, for pushing ahead with a series of reforms without consulting them, while failing to give proper notification. JUST IN: Senate Intelligence Committee official tells @VOANews that @ODNIgov Acting Dir @RichardGrenell failed to comply w/request from Republican Chair @SenatorBurr & Democratic Vice Chair @MarkWarner “consult with the Committee before making any further organizational changes” https://t.co/xpQQyBhu2T— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) May 8, 2020 Those changes, some made despite concerns by both current and former intelligence officials, include reforms to how the intelligence community will brief on election interference and move to streamline operations at the National Counterterrorism Center. Grenell on Thursday congratulated Ratcliffe on Twitter, saying Ratcliffe “will be the best DNI ever!” Congratulations, @RepRatcliffe! You will be the best DNI ever! #USAhttps://t.co/2iVS80aAMB— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 21, 2020Ratcliffe’s nomination also polarized former intelligence officials, some of whom have taken their concerns public. Clapper told VOA earlier this month that Ratcliffe’s relationship with the intelligence agencies going forward bears watching. “We’ll have to see how he performs,” Clapper said. “If he behaves as strictly a Trump loyalist, there will be a lot of blowback from the ranks.” 
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The FILE – Seabees coordinate transportation of U.S. Navy sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt who have tested negative for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to locations off base at Naval Base Guam, April 10, 2020.More than 1,500 crewmembers remain at Naval Base Guam, including about 700 who had tested positive during the outbreak, a Navy official told VOA on Thursday. Fourteen of those sailors had recovered from the virus but then tested positive again, according to the official.A Navy press release said there were enough crewmembers onboard to complete the current mission requirement.“Carrier qualification requires fewer personnel than other missions, and bringing fewer sailors on board will enable enhanced social distancing while underway,” said Capt. Carlos Sardiello, Theodore Roosevelt’s commanding officer.The carrier is the focus of an ongoing investigation into how the coronavirus outbreak was handled onboard. At the center of the review lies the fate of Brett Crozier, the Roosevelt’s captain during the outbreak who was removed from his post for raising COVID-19 concerns in an email to superiors.Former Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, who fired Crozier, resigned after audio was publicly released of him calling Crozier “too naïve or too stupid to be the commanding officer” for sending his letter of concern to at least 20 Navy personnel.The Navy now has seven aircraft carriers deployed at sea across the globe, including the USS Ronald Reagan, which left its port in Japan on Wednesday for operations also in the Philippine Sea.
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A Hollywood actress and her fashion-designer husband have agreed to plead guilty in a university admissions scandal in which their daughters were falsely portrayed as a sports champion.Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli have agreed to plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to secure “fraudulent admission” of their two children to the University of Southern California (USC), according to the U.S. Department of Justice.The Justice Department stated that Loughlin agreed to two months in prison, a $150,000 fine and two years of supervised release with 100 hours of community service. Giannulli’s plea agreement includes five months in prison, a $250,000 fine and two years of supervised release with 250 hours of community service.Loughlin, 55, and Giannulli, 56, both of Los Angeles, have long fought the charges that they fabricated their daughters’ skill at rowing through an admissions’ fixer to gain her entry to the prestigious USC. Earlier this month, a federal judge refused to drop charges against the couple who had alleged that the Justice Department fabricated evidence.The couple was accused of paying $500,000 to William “Rick” Singer for his help securing them slots at USC through a sports recruiter. In a video on social media, their daughter, Olivia Jade, talked about being more interested in the social rather than scholastic aspects of attending USC.The Justice Department stated that Loughlin will “plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while Giannulli will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud.”Loughlin and Giannulli are the 23rd and 24th parents to plead guilty in the college admissions case.Prosecutors: College Scam Takes Cheating to Whole New LevelParents Spend Up to Millions to Boost Student ProfilesEarlier this week, a Chinese mother who lives in Canada was sentenced for bribing a fixer to get her son admitted to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a soccer recruit.Xiaoning Sui, 48, of Surrey, British Columbia, was sentenced to five months’ time served during a videoconference hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock.She was ordered to pay a fine of $250,000 in addition to forfeiting the $400,000 she paid to Singer, according to Justice Department.The U.S. Department of Justice conducted a multilevel, years-long investigation it dubbed Operation Varsity Blues. 
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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer says the state will pursue “every line of legal  recourse” against the owners of one of two dams that failed earlier this week, causing severe flooding in several communities. More than 10,000 residents in the central town of Midland were evacuated Wednesday as the Tittabawassee River overran its banks hours after the Edenville Dam, located 32 kilometers north, failed after several days of heavy seasonal rains. Officials say the Tittabawassee River crested just above 10 meters late Wednesday before receding from several areas.    The Tittabawassee River overflows in Freeland, Mich., May 20, 2020.The mass evacuation is complicated by the threat of COVID-19 in the area. Although Midland County has confirmed fewer than 80 cases and fewer than 10 deaths, Michigan has 52,350 confirmed cases, the state’s government reported.  Midland is home to the headquarters of Dow Chemical company, which also operates a major manufacturing plant there.  A Dow spokesman says the company has shut down all of its units, except those necessary to safeguard chemicals, but added that floodwaters were mixing with containment ponds used for storm and brine water.  The company said there was no threat to residents or the environment.   The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revoked the operating license of the 96-year-old Edenville hydroelectric dam in 2018 because Boyce Hydro, the dam’s owner, had ignored the dam’s structural deficiencies for more than a decade, especially its failure to increase its spillway capacity to divert floodwaters.    That same year, the FERC gave a fair condition rating to the Sanford Dam, located downstream from Edenville, which also failed Tuesday. President Donald Trump, who has criticized Whitmer relentlessly over her response to the coronavirus pandemic in her state, is planning to visit a Ford Motor Company auto plant in Michigan Thursday. He tweeted in support of the evacuations on Wednesday, writing, “STAY SAFE and listen to local officials.”My team is closely monitoring the flooding in Central Michigan – Stay SAFE and listen to local officials. Our brave First Responders are once again stepping up to serve their fellow citizens, THANK YOU!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2020 
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