USA

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Department of Defense extended its freeze order on the movement of U.S. troops through June 30 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, a Pentagon official announced on Saturday.

Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Matthew Donovan said in a briefing that the new order, which comes into force on Monday, would include eased restrictions and more exemptions allowed compared to the previous order.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge on Saturday blocked Kansas from limiting attendance at in-person religious worship services or activities to 10 people or fewer to check the spread of the coronavirus, signaling that he believes that it’s likely that the policy violates religious freedom and free speech rights.

(AP) --- For the majority of people of color who believe Donald Trump is a racist unworthy of reelection, the Republican president can point to Alice Marie Johnson.

The 64-year-old African American great-grandmother spent 21 years in prison for a nonviolent drug offense before Trump commuted her sentence in 2018. She then became the unwitting star of his reelection campaign’s $10-million Super Bowl ad, which featured footage of Johnson’s emotional release from prison as she praised “Donald John Trump.”

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Ten years after an oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, companies are drilling into deeper and deeper waters, where the payoffs can be huge but the risks are greater than ever.

Industry leaders and government officials say they’re determined to prevent a repeat of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. It spilled 134 million gallons of oil that fouled beaches from Louisiana to Florida, killed hundreds of thousands of marine animals and devastated the region’s tourist economy.

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) — In a symbolic nod to normalcy, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a commencement address to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s graduating class on Saturday, telling the cadets that by setting off on their mission to defend the nation they “inspire confidence that we will prevail against the invisible enemy in our time as well.”

Pence’s trip, only his second outside Washington in the last six weeks, was aimed at showing that the country is on course to gradually reopening after weeks of the coronavirus shutdown.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Stores in Texas can soon begin selling merchandise with curbside service, and hospitals can resume nonessential surgeries. In Florida, people are returning to a few beaches and parks. And protesters are clamoring for more.

Governors eager to rescue their economies and feeling heat from President Donald Trump are moving to ease restrictions meant to control the spread of the coronavirus, even as new hot spots emerge and experts warn that moving too fast could prove disastrous.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 (APP): The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has called for compassion for people desperately seeking shelter, after 30 Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar died on a boat in the Bay of Bengal that had spent nearly two months at sea.

Nearly 400 others onboard were found dehydrated, malnourished and in need of immediate medical care. They disembarked in Bangladesh on Thursday morning and are receiving assistance from UNHCR and its partners.

UNITED NATIONS, April 18. /TASS/: Once created, a vaccine against the novel coronavirus should be treated as "a global public good" and be accessible to everyone, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

"We need a global coalition to develop a COVID19 vaccine, which must become available and affordable for everyone, everywhere," the UN chief wrote in a Twitter post. "It must be considered a global public good."

WASHINGTON, April 18. /TASS/: The United States has been looking into the origins of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the pathogen itself, US President Donald Trump told reporters in the White House.

"We are looking out at it, a lot of people are looking out at it. It seems, it makes sense," he said.

Washington, Apr 18 (PTI) The world economy, already "sluggish" before the coronavirus outbreak, is now bound to suffer a "severe recession" in 2020, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva has warned and said the current crisis posed "daunting challenges" for policymakers in many emerging markets and developing economies.

Addressing the Development Committee Meeting during the annual Spring Meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the IMF Managing Director said a large global contraction in the first half of this year was inevitable.