USA

BALTIMORE (AP) — President Donald Trump honored America’s war dead Monday in back-to-back Memorial Day appearances colored by an epic struggle off the battlefield, against the coronavirus.

Eager to demonstrate national revival from the pandemic, Trump doubled up on his public schedule, while threatening to pull the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte in August unless North Carolina’s Democratic governor gives a quick green light to the party’s plans to assemble en masse.

NEW YORK, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The front page of Sunday's New York Times features the names of 1,000 people who have died of COVID-19 in the United States. Calling it "an incalculable loss," the newspaper clarified that "the 1,000 people here reflect just 1 percent of toll."

"They were not simply names on a list. They were us," the paper said. "Numbers alone cannot possibly measure the impact of the coronavirus in America, whether it is the number of patients treated, jobs interrupted or lives cut short."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden worked out deals with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. He defended Vice President Mike Pence as a “decent guy” and eulogized Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s “fairness, honesty, dignity, respect.”

When he launched his presidential campaign, such overtures to Republicans were central to Biden’s promise to “unify the country” and “restore the soul of the nation” after defeating President Donald Trump.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Nearly two weeks ago the White House urged governors to ensure that every nursing home resident and staff member be tested for the coronavirus within 14 days.

It’s not going to happen.

A review by The Associated Press found that at least half of the states are not going to meet White House’s deadline and some aren’t even bothering to try.

Only a handful of states, including West Virginia and Rhode Island, have said they’ve already tested every nursing home resident.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday further limited travel from the world’s coronavirus hotspots by denying entry to foreigners coming from Brazil, which is second to the U.S. in the number of confirmed cases.

Trump had already banned certain travelers from China, Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Iran. He has not moved to ban travel from Russia, which has the world’s third-highest caseload.

Trump had said last week that he was considering limiting travel from Brazil.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has a new pitch to voters for this fall: Trust me.

As the economy faces a once-in-a-century recession, with more than 38 million people out of work, Trump is increasingly talking up a future recovery that probably won’t materialize until after the November election. He’s asking voters to look past the pain being felt across the nation and give him another four-year term on the promise of an economic comeback in 2021.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The Memorial Day weekend marking the unofficial start of summer in the U.S. meant big crowds at beaches and warnings from authorities Sunday about people disregarding the coronavirus social-distancing rules and risking a resurgence of the scourge that has killed nearly 100,000 Americans.

Meanwhile, the White House broadened its travel ban against countries hard hit by the virus by saying it would deny admission to foreigners who have recently been in Brazil.

UNITED NATIONS, May 24 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed Saturday’s announcement by the Taliban and the Afghan government of a ceasefire to enable the people of war-torn Afghanistan to celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr in peace.

“The Secretary-General urges all parties concerned to seize this opportunity and embrace an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process,” the UN Chief’s spokesman said in a statement.

NEW YORK, May 24. /TASS/: Russian citizens, who had earlier expressed their intention to return to their home country from the United States amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, departed from New York on Saturday aboard a special Aeroflot flight, JFK Airport’s said on its online list of departures.

The plane is expected to land at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport is 12:09 Moscow time on Sunday.

Russia’s US Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said the plane had 12 schoolchildren and 21 students on board.

WASHINGTON, May 24. /TASS/: The Russian embassy in the United States called upon the Bloomberg news agency to apologize for wrong information about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s poll ratings.

"There is a lasting impression that articles in Bloomberg are written to promote fake graphs and create sustainable false visual images about the ‘negative dynamics’ in Russia," the embassy said in a Facebook post. "This time the object of fraud was President Putin's ‘poll ratings.’"