USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Entire countries are on lockdown, state visits canceled, travel curtailed, key meetings postponed or moved online.

The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically altered international diplomacy. While the interruptions may seem to many like trivial inconveniences for a well-heeled jet set, they may have significant implications for matters of war and peace, arms control and human rights.

WASHINGTON (AP) — While Wisconsin struggles to hold its primary on Tuesday, President Donald Trump and Democrats are bickering over how to provide voters with safe and secure access to a ballot as the coronavirus pandemic rages in the U.S. and threatens to extend into the fall, affecting the general election.

With another economic rescue package in the works, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she wants money to give more voters the chance to cast their ballot by mail, an option that would allow people to vote without the concern over the safety of polling places.

NEW YORK (AP) — Despite state and local limits on public gatherings, some faith leaders have persisted in holding in-person services -- a matter of religious freedom, they say, as the nation approached its fourth Sunday battling the coronavirus pandemic.

The most high-profile clash over in-person worship – and crowd limits designed to stop the virus’ spread -- came in Florida, where Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne was arrested Monday for violating a county order by hosting a large number of congregants at his Tampa church.

(AP) --- Kyle Navarro was kneeling down to unlock his bicycle when he noticed an older white man staring at him. Navarro, who is Filipino, tried to ignore him, but that soon became impossible.

The man walked by, looked back and called Navarro a racial slur. He “spat in my direction, and kept walking,” Navarro said.

Navarro, a school nurse in San Francisco, already had anxiety about racism related to the coronavirus, which emerged in China and has Asian people facing unfounded blame and attacks as it’s spread worldwide. Now, he was outraged.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday criticized the ousted inspector general who handled an anonymous whistleblower’s complaint that sparked his impeachment as a “disgrace” and suggested that the independent watchdog should have discussed the complaint with him.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump warned Saturday that the country could be headed into its “toughest” weeks yet as the coronavirus death toll mounts, but at the same time he expressed growing impatience with social distancing guidelines and said he’s eager to get the country reopened and its stalled economy back on track.

“There will be a lot of death, unfortunately,” Trump said in a somber start to his daily briefing on the pandemic. “There will be death.”

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York governor said Saturday the Chinese government was facilitating a shipment of 1,000 donated ventilators to his state, highlighting the extreme measures leaders are taking in what has become a cutthroat scramble to independently secure enough lifesaving devices during the coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON, April 4. /TASS/: Over 2,000 Russian citizens who are currently in the United States have expressed desire to return home to the Russian Embassy in Washington, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said in his answers to reporters that were published on the official Facebook.account of the Russian Embassy.

New York, Apr 3 (AP) Stocks are falling in afternoon trading Friday, putting Wall Street on track for its third losing week in the last four.

The losses came after the government said U.S. employers cut 701,000 more jobs than they added last month, the first drop in nearly a decade. Many businesses have screeched to a halt amid attempts to slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, and economists say the dire data is only going to get worse.

Washington, Apr 4 (AP) President Donald Trump has fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the intelligence community who handled the whistleblower complaint that triggered Trump's impeachment.

Trump informed the Senate intelligence committee Friday of his decision to fire Atkinson, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.