USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ceri Weber had just begun to defend her dissertation when the chaos began: Echoes and voices interrupted her. Someone parroted her words. Then Britney Spears music came on, and someone told Weber to shut up. Someone threatened to rape her.

Hackers had targeted the meeting on the video conference platform Zoom while Weber was completing the final step of her doctoral degree at Duke University. The harassment lasted 10 minutes — the result of an increasingly common form of cyber attack known as “Zoom bombing.”

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin is asking hundreds of thousands of voters to ignore a stay-at-home order in the midst of a pandemic to participate in Tuesday’s presidential primary election, becoming a test case for dozens of states struggling to balance public health concerns with a core pillar of democracy.

The National Guard will help run voting sites across the state after thousands of election workers stepped down fearing for their safety. Dozens of polling places will be closed, but those that are active will open at 7 a.m. CDT.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an extraordinary broadside punctuated with profanity, the Navy’s top leader accused the fired commander of the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt of being “too naive or too stupid” to be in charge of an aircraft carrier. He delivered the criticism to sailors who had cheered the departing skipper last week.

Hours after the remark was widely reported in the news media, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly issued a written public apology, saying he does not believe Capt. Brett E. Crozier is stupid or naive.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders are jolting ahead with another coronavirus rescue package as President Donald Trump indicated that Americans will need more aid during the stark pandemic and economic shutdown.

NEW YORK (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained in intensive care Tuesday for treatment of his coronavirus illness, while authorities in New York hoped that a leveling off of deaths and new hospitalizations would hold and signal that the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak had turned a corner.

WASHINGTON, Apr 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Captain Brett Crozier, who commanded the aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, until his recent removal by the Navy, for sounding the alarm about a COVID-19 outbreak on board, has tested positive for the virus.

The Times, citing Crozier’s Naval Academy classmates, said, Crozier exhibited symptoms before he was relieved of his duty on the warship.

WASHINGTON, Apr 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The death toll from COVID-19 exceeded 1,200 in the United States, in the past day, Johns Hopkins University said, Sunday evening.

There are more than 337,072 confirmed infections in the United States with 9,633 deaths, said the Baltimore-based university.

6 April 2020; AFP: Boeing has said it will indefinitely extend a shutdown at its factories in Washington state because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The aerospace giant had already halted production at its Puget Sound facility near Seattle, where the company builds the long-range 777 jet and other models, after announcing a two-week stoppage last month.

It had also shut its other major state factory at Moses Lake because of the 737 MAX grounding.

6 April 2020; AFP: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged governments to include the protection of women in their response to the deadly novel coronavirus pandemic.

Reports of domestic violence have surged globally in the wake of massive lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the disease.

"Violence is not confined to the battlefield," said Guterres in a statement and video released in multiple languages, days after his call for a worldwide ceasefire in the wake of the outbreak.

6 April 2020; AFP: Apple has said it will soon be producing one million face shields a week for medical workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.

The tech giant had already sourced 20 million surgical masks from around the world to help address a global shortage, chief executive Tim Cook said in a video posted to Twitter on Sunday.

But the company had also designed its own transparent protective face shield and begun mass production at its factories in the US and China, he added.