North America

WASHINGTON, April 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Donald Trump will hold a video teleconference with G7 leaders on Thursday to coordinate national responses to the coronavirus outbreak, the White House said.

Trump, who is head of the G7 this year, had planned to hold this year’s summit at the presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland, in June, but moved it to a virtual setting due to the virus.

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — It is “not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

“It is my belief that the World Health Organization must be supported, as it is absolutely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war against COVID-19,” he said, after US President Donald Trump announced that his country would cut off funding to the UN health body for mishandling the coronavirus pandemic.

UNITED NATIONS, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The UN envoy for Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, on Tuesday told the Security Council that the COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound impact on the country, but it is encouraging to see Colombians finding creative responses to the pandemic.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound impact on Colombia, and the peace process will undoubtedly feel its effects," Massieu told the virtual council meeting on the situation in the country.

UNITED NATIONS, April 14 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that the World Health Organization must be supported, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump' announcement of halting the nation's funding to the organization.

"It is my belief that the World Health Organization must be supported, as it is absolutely critical to the world's efforts to win the war against COVID-19," the secretary-general said in a statement issued by his spokesman.

NEW YORK, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 600,000 Tuesday evening, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The country has seen 602,989 cases with 25,575 deaths by 6:50 p.m. (2250 GMT), according to the CSSE.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his administration is halting the nation's funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), a move experts have warned against, as COVID-19 continues to take a toll globally.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump also said a review is being conducted to assess the WHO's role in addressing the spread of the coronavirus.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Barack Obama endorsed Joe Biden on Tuesday, giving the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee a boost from the party’s biggest fundraiser and one of its most popular figures.

“Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery,” Obama said in a 12-minute video in which he argued the coronavirus pandemic reinforced the need for better leadership.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump insists there are “numerous provisions” in the Constitution to support his view that he has “total authority” to order states to open their economies as the coronavirus pandemic roils.

He did not enumerate what they were. And the consensus among constitutional scholars is that’s because they don’t exist.

NEW YORK (AP) — The official death toll from the coronavirus soared in New York City on Tuesday after health authorities began including people who probably had COVID-19, but died without ever being tested.

Officials reported 3,778 “probable” deaths, where doctors were certain enough of the cause of death to list it on the death certificate, and 6,589 confirmed by a lab test. Combined, that would put the total fatalities in the city over 10,000.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — In deeply conservative eastern Washington state, a prominent state lawmaker kicked out of his Republican Party caucus labels the coronavirus as a foreign bio-weapon, accuses Marxists of using the pandemic to advance totalitarianism and rails against lockdown restrictions imposed by the Democratic governor.