May 24, 2020 6:21 am
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) – At least one migrant has drowned, six are missing and over 80 have been rescued off Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast. Tunisian authorities are reporting a new wave of dangerous attempts by migrant traffickers to cross the Mediterranean Sea and reach Europe. The Tunisian coast guard rescued 11 migrants after an emergency call from a boat that was filling with water Saturday off the city of Sfax. Divers from the Tunisian emergency services retrieved one body, and the captain and chief trafficker fled. Six others who had been aboard the boat are missing. The coast guard also rescued 70 other people from another boat in poor condition.
May 24, 2020 6:20 am
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – The first of five tankers loaded with gasoline sent from Iran has reached Venezuelan waters. The ships’ loads are expected to temporarily ease the South American nation’s fuel crunch while defying Trump administration sanctions targeting the two U.S. foes. The oil tanker Fortune encountered no immediate signs of U.S. interference late Saturday as it eased through the Caribbean. Venezuela’s foreign minister celebrated the gasoline delivery, saying Iran and Venezuela have always supported each other in times of difficulty. Washington says both nations are ruled by repressive regimes. The Trump administration has heavily sanctioned both nations.
May 24, 2020 6:19 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea’s state media say leader Kim Jong Un has convened a key military meeting to discuss bolstering its nuclear arsenal and putting his country’s strategic armed forces on a high alert. It’s his first public appearance in about 20 days. He earlier ended another 20-day absence by appearing at a factory. His earlier time away triggered rumors about his health. The Korean Central News Agency said Sunday the meeting at the Central Military Commission set forth new policies for further increasing nuclear deterrence.
May 24, 2020 6:18 am
NEW YORK (AP) – The director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology says claims promoted by the Trump administration that the global coronavirus pandemic originated at the Chinese laboratory are a “pure fabrication.” President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have repeatedly said they suspect the virus was somehow released from the laboratory. Most scientists say it was passed from bats to humans via an intermediary species likely sold at a wet market in Wuhan late last year. The New York Times devoted Sunday’s entire front page to a long list of names of people who have died in the pandemic. The names and brief descriptions culled from obituaries from around the country fill six columns under the headline “U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, an Incalculable Loss.”
May 24, 2020 6:15 am
AMBRIDGE, Pa. — A body was located in the Ohio River near a bridge in Ambridge Saturday night. Police confirmed the body was located in the water near the Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge around 8 p.m. The victim has not yet been identified by the Beaver County coroner’s office. Investigators said an autopsy will provide more details, such as the victim’s name and cause of death. Ambridge, Ohio Township and Beaver County police will be conducting a joint investigation.
May 24, 2020 6:11 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – State health officials say civil penalties totaling more than $93,000 have been assessed against nursing care facilities in Pennsylvania amid hundreds of complaint investigations during the coronavirus pandemic. The Pennsylvania Department of Health said Saturday that nursing home surveyors have conducted more than 1,470 inspections of nursing homes since the beginning of February. Officials said more than 5,000 deaths in the commonwealth are now associated with the coronavirus. State health officials also reported that more than 700 more people testing positive for the coronavirus, bringing the state total to just under 67,000.
May 24, 2020 2:00 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Gov. Tom Wolf is easing some pandemic restrictions in Philadelphia and the heavily populated suburbs on June 5, while lifting them almost entirely in 17 rural counties next week. Pennsylvania is continuing to emerge from a shutdown imposed nearly two months ago to help slow the spread of the new virus. Wolf is accelerating his reopening plan even though more than 20 Pennsylvania counties remain above the state’s target for new infections that were supposed to qualify them for an easing of pandemic restrictions. Eight counties are more than three times over. Local elected officials, Republican and Democrats alike, have been pressing for shutdown relief amid skyrocketing unemployment.
May 23, 2020 9:50 am
Hertz has filed for bankruptcy protection, unable to withstand the coronavirus pandemic that has crippled global travel and with it, the heavily indebted 102-year-old car rental company’s business. The Florida-based company’s lenders were unwilling to grant it another extension on its auto lease debt payments past a Friday deadline, triggering the filing. By the end of March, Hertz had more than $24 billion in debt with only $1 billion of available cash. Starting in mid-March, the company lost all revenue when travel nearly shut down due to the novel coronavirus. Hertz also has been plagued by management upheaval, naming its fourth CEO in six years on May 18.
May 23, 2020 9:24 am
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – Health officials are worried that Alabama’s coronavirus caseload is increasing and residents aren’t guarding against COVID-19 as it opens its casinos, church and more. Parking lots are filling up again outside many businesses, and in many places it’s rare to see people wearing face masks. University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban has released a video encouraging people to cover their faces and practice social distancing. But it’s unclear whether that will help, and health officials are concerned. Hospitalizations have increased since April, as have the overall number of cases in the state. Officials say it’s unclear whether the increase is linked to more testing or more disease.
May 23, 2020 9:21 am
HOUSTON (AP) – A judge has criticized the Trump administration’s handling of detained immigrant children and families, ordering it to give the court detailed information about efforts to quickly release them in the wake of the coronavirus. On Friday, the judge ordered the U.S. government to better explain why it hasn’t released some of the approximately 350 parents and children in three family detention centers – one in Pennsylvania and two in Texas. Advocates allege that parents in those centers were asked to sign forms that would have allowed their children to be released to sponsors while the parents remained in custody. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the forms are part of a “routine parole review consistent with the law.”
