USA

UNITED NATIONS, May 05 (APP): An estimated 19 million children more than ever before were living in displacement within their own countries due to conflict and violence in 2019 some of them for years, UNICEF said in a new report.

The report, ‘Lost at Home’, looks at the risks and challenges internally displaced children face, and the urgent actions needed to protect them. As coronavirus continues to spread around the world, these children are among the most vulnerable to its direct and indirect impacts, the UN children agency said.

5 May 2020; AFP: The World Health Organization said Monday that Washington had provided no evidence to support "speculative" claims by the US president that the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab.

"We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus -- so from our perspective, this remains speculative," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual briefing.

5 May 2020; AFP: The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic topped a quarter of a million on Tuesday, with the US government predicting a further surge in fatalities as an international vaccine drive garnered $8 billion in pledges.

The dire forecast from the United States came as much of the Western world emerged from weeks of lockdown, with hopes that the disease may have peaked in Europe, where deaths in the worst affected countries have dropped after nearly two months of confinement.

WASHINGTON, May 5. /TASS/: A series of the New York Times articles criticizing Russia, which won the Pulitzer Prize on Monday, are Russophobic fabrications damaging the newspaper’s reputation, the Russian Embassy in the US wrote on its Facebook page.

UNITED NATIONS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Monday expressed concerns over recent incidents on the Israel-Lebanon border, which is being monitored by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In "press elements" released after closed consultations, the members of the council expressed their deep concern following the recent incidents, which occurred across the Blue Line and in UNIFIL's area of operations, as well as all the violations of Security Council Resolution 1701, including by land and air.

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 death toll in the United States rose by 1,015 in the past 24 hours, the lowest one-day figure in a month, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed on Monday.

The Baltimore-based university had registered more than 1.17 million cases in the country as of 0030 GMT Tuesday, with 68,689 deaths. 

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Xinhua) -- An influential COVID-19 model produced by the University of Washington revised its projections on Monday, estimating over 134,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States through August.

The model, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, projected 134,475 COVID-19 deaths by August 4.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel is considering Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe’s nomination for director of national intelligence, holding the in-person hearing amid President Donald Trump’s shakeup of the intelligence community and under drastic new distancing rules to protect Capitol Hill from the coronavirus.

DETROIT (AP) — After a devastating start to the Democratic primary, Joe Biden’s campaign was revived when black voters in South Carolina and throughout the South overwhelmingly sided with him. Now that he’s the presumptive Democratic nominee, black voters and leaders are pressing for him to pick a black woman as his running mate.

Biden launched a committee last week to begin vetting possible candidates for the vice presidency, a process he has said will likely last through July. He has already committed to picking a woman.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite a century’s progress in science, 2020 is looking a lot like 1918.

In the years between two lethal pandemics, one the misnamed Spanish flu, the other COVID-19, the world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks.

Yet here we are again, face-masked to the max. And still unable to crush an insidious yet avoidable infectious disease before hundreds of thousands die from it.