Category Archives: US News

Coronavirus live news: Europe fatalities pass 100,000, but death rate slows in Spain and Netherlands

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Saudia Arabia religious body urges all Muslims to pray at home during Ramadan; Spanish PM seeks lockdown extension

Lockdowns across Europe have had a dramatic impact on air traffic, with 90% fewer flights taking off from the continent’s largest airports compared to a year ago

Wearing face masks, waving black flags and keeping two yards apart, thousands of Israelis demonstrated against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu under strict coronavirus restrictions on Sunday.

Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, is under criminal indictment in three corruption cases.

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Briefing or rally? Trump shifts to campaign mode as he rails against the media

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At his latest coronavirus press conference, the president attacked Joe Biden and suggested he might have saved the planet

He bashed “Sleepy Joe” Biden. He railed against the Russia investigation and “fake people” in the media. He predicted that had he not been elected, the world might have ended.

And somewhere along the way, he talked about the coronavirus.

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Protesters decry stay-at-home orders in Maryland, Texas and Ohio capitals

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Rightwing media and Donald Trump have supported demonstrators but they appear to represent a minority opinion

A day after Donald Trump encouraged Americans to protest against strict public health measures aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus, rallies were held in state capitals in Maryland, Texas and Ohio, with more planned for next week in other states.

Hundreds of people stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the Texas Capitol on Saturday, chanting “Fire Fauci!” as part of a protest organized by the conspiracy theory site InfoWars. Anthony Fauci is the top public health expert on the White House coronavirus taskforce.

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‘They seem very responsible to me’: Trump defends anti-lockdown protesters – video

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The US president urged supporters to 'liberate' three states led by Democratic governors on Friday, apparently encouraging protests against stay-at-home restrictions. 'These are people expressing their views,' Trump said during his daily White House coronavirus briefing.

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Judge overturns ban on abortions in Tennessee during Covid-19 crisis

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US state’s move was part of a temporary ban on non-essential medical procedures


A federal judge has barred the state of Tennessee from preventing abortions during a temporary ban on non-essential medical procedures to slow the spread of Covid-19.

US district judge, Bernard Friedman, said the defendants didn’t show that any appreciable amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) would be saved if the ban was applied to abortions.

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Coronavirus live news: Trump backs anti-lockdown protests as global deaths pass 150,000

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China pushes ‘comprehensive’ economic reopening; first virus case in Syria’s northeast; Germany says pandemic ‘under control’. Follow latest updates

For the latest global coronavirus developments, here is our at-a-glance guide:

Related: Coronavirus latest: at a glance

Thailand has reported 33 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total to 2,733 cases.

Eleven of the new cases were in Bangkok and had a history of going to public areas, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

Some have questioned if the low number of detected cases is down to a lack of testing in the country.

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Caught in a superpower struggle: the inside story of the WHO’s response to coronavirus

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Caught between the US and China, the world health body has been unable to enforce compliance or information sharing

When a pandemic strikes, the world’s leading experts convene – physically or virtually – in a hi-tech chamber in the basement of the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization.

It is called the “strategic health operations centre”, or SHOC, an appropriately urgent acronym for a place where life and death decisions are taken, and it is where critical choices were made in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.

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Antibody study suggests coronavirus is far more widespread than previously thought

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Non-peer reviewed study from Stanford found rate of virus may be 50 to 85 times higher than official figures

A new study in California has found the number of people infected with coronavirus may be tens of times higher than previously thought.

The study from Stanford University, which was released Friday and has yet to be peer reviewed, tested samples from 3,330 people in Santa Clara county and found the virus was 50 to 85 times more common than official figures indicated.

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‘Do your job’: Andrew Cuomo gives scathing criticism of Donald Trump – video

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New York governor criticises Donald Trump during a briefing on the spread of coronavirus in the state after the US president lashed out against Cuomo in a tweet.

Trump’s tweet suggested Cuomo should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining'. The governor said: 'If he’s sitting at home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work'

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Coronavirus live news: nearly 100,000 EU citizens remain stranded overseas due to pandemic

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China denies cover-up as Wuhan death toll revised up by 50%; Brazil’s president fires health minister

WHO’s daily briefing on the coronavirus outbreak has just begun. WHO director Tarik Jasarevic said the coronavirus solidarity fund has generated $150 million from more than 245,000 individuals, corporations, and foundations.

Deaths from the coronavirus epidemic in Italy rose by 575 on Friday, up from 525 the day before, while the number of new cases declined slightly to 3,493 from a previous 3,786.

The daily death toll is down considerably from peaks reached around the end of March, Reuters reports.

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Nearly 100,000 EU citizens remain stranded overseas due to pandemic – as it happened

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China denies cover-up as Wuhan death toll revised up by 50%; Brazil’s president fires health minister

We are closing this live global blog now, but you can pick up all of our continuing coverage on our new global blog here.

You can also see our latest summary of events at Coronavirus latest developments: at a glance.

Oliver Milman, an environment reporter for Guardian in New York, has some analysis on the progression of the coronavirus pandemic in the US.

A model relied upon by the White House, from the University of Washington, estimates that the virus will “peter out” in May and then essentially grind to a halt by the summer. This is based on the experiences of China and Italy, previous coronavirus hotspots.

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Coronavirus US live: Cuomo says Trump should ‘go to work’ after president lashes out during briefing

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New York governor Andrew Cuomo reiterated that the federal government must be involved in expanding testing capacity, after Trump tweeted it was up to the states to make tests more widely available.

“If we don’t have federal help on testing, that’s a real problem,” Cuomo said.

Trump sent a series of tweets trying to deflect responsibility for the coronavirus crisis, suggesting states are the ones who need to expand testing capacity.

The States have to step up their TESTING!

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Ilhan Omar unveils bill to cancel rent and mortgage payments amid pandemic

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Landlords and mortgage holders would be able to have losses covered by the federal government under the legislation

The Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar has unveiled a bill that would cancel rent and mortgage payments for millions of Americans struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the legislation announced on Friday, landlords and mortgage holders would be able to have losses covered by the federal government. The program would extend for a month beyond the end of the national emergency, which was declared on 13 March, and would be made retroactive to cover April payments.

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Coronavirus ‘under control’ in Germany, as some countries plan to relax lockdowns

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Health minister says Germany will produce 50m face masks a week by the summer

Germany has declared its coronavirus outbreak under control as it prepares to take its first tentative steps out of lockdown next week, while several European countries unveiled contact-tracing mobile apps aimed at facilitating a gradual return to a more normal life.

The German health minister, Jens Spahn, said on Friday that the virus was under control in Europe’s largest economy, thanks to confinement measures imposed after an early surge in cases. “The infection numbers have sunk significantly, especially the relative day-by-day increase,” he said.

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Michael Cohen to be released from prison over coronavirus fears – report

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Trump’s ex-fixer will remain under quarantine for 14 days before he is released to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement

Donald Trump’s former lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen will reportedly be released from federal prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cohen is currently locked up at FCI Otisville in New York after pleading guilty to numerous charges, including campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress. Cohen began serving his sentence last May and was scheduled to be released from prison in November 2021.

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Life, but not as they knew it: ISS crew return to Earth transformed by Covid-19

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American and Russian crew touch down in Kazakhstan after months on International Space Station

The three-person crew of the International Space Station returned to Earth on Friday morning, arriving back to a world that has been radically transformed by coronavirus in the time they were away.

Space travel is often a journey into the unknown, but for Americans Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan, and Russian Oleg Skripochka, their return to Earth may bring more surprises than the time they spent in orbit. The trio’s landing capsule touched down on the Kazakh steppe in the early hours of the morning.

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US to give Palestinians $5m in coronavirus aid – 1% of what Trump cut

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President accused of damaging Palestinian ability to cope with pandemic by cutting funding

The United States has announced it will give $5m to the Palestinians to help them fight the coronavirus epidemic, roughly 1% of the amount Washington provided a year before Donald Trump cut almost all aid.

The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, a former Trump bankruptcy lawyer, announced the aid package on Twitter, saying he was “very pleased” the US would provide money for Palestinian hospitals and households.

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‘Huge environmental waste’ as US airlines fly near-empty planes

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A 96% drop in passenger numbers because of coronavirus restrictions has not been matched by cuts in flights

The coronavirus outbreak has provoked a string of unsettling sights, such as the sudden widespread use of masks, shuttered businesses and deserted streets. Another unusual phenomenon is also playing out in the skies – near-empty airplanes flying through the air.

Widespread travel restrictions around the world have slashed demand for air travel, with more than eight in 10 flights canceled. But there is a disparity in the US – while the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has reported a 96% slump in passenger volume, to a level not seen since 1954, this hasn’t been matched by the number of flights being scrapped.

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Trump announces guidelines for lifting lockdowns but defers to state governors – video

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Donald Trump and his coronavirus taskforce have unveiled a set of federal guidelines for reopening the economy, which comprise three phases but ultimately defer to governors on when and how to return their states to normal.

‘A prolonged lockdown combined with a forced economic depression would inflict an immense and wide-ranging toll on public health,’ he said. In Trump’s plan, the responsibility for opening businesses across the country lies with state, not federal, authorities. The announcement was in stark contrast to an earlier press conference where Trump said he had ‘total authority’ over the re-opening of the country 

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‘I’m just like Anne Frank, like Indiana Jones’: Bob Dylan continues return to new songs

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Nobel prize-winning songwriter follows 17-minute Murder Most Foul with I Contain Multitudes, referencing everything from Edgar Allan Poe to William Blake and the Rolling Stones

Bob Dylan has continued to release his first original music in eight years, with a song in which he seemingly compares himself to Anne Frank, Indiana Jones, the Rolling Stones and William Blake.

At four and a half minutes, I Contain Multitudes is less lengthy than the song he returned with, Murder Most Foul, a 17-minute long track about the JFK assassination. Like that song, though, I Contain Multitudes is drifting and percussion-free, backed by acoustic, electric and pedal steel guitars.

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