North America

16 April 2020; MEMO: The US navy has claimed that 11 Iranian navy vessels came within ten yards of six of its warships, describing the close encounters as “dangerous and harassing approaches”.

The incident took place yesterday with footage released by the US Fifth Fleet showing boats belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy.

(Reuters) - Big banks in the United States should raise $200 billion in capital right now amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari wrote in an op-ed for the Financial Times newspaper on.ft.com/34JV0qq.

“In 2008, U.S. taxpayers injected about $200 billion of capital to strengthen banks”, Kashkari wrote on Thursday.

MEXICO CITY, April 16 (NNN-Xinhua) — Latin American countries reported more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections to nearly 80,000.

In PERU, a total of 1,172 new cases were reported, bringing the number of infections to 11,475 with 254 deaths, the Health Ministry said.

“We have tested 109,385 people for COVID-19, obtaining 11,475 positive results and 97,910 negative results,” the ministry said in a statement.

Seven legislators are among those who have tested positive, the statement added.

MEXICO CITY, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mexico could force the closure of companies in non-essential sectors if they refuse to suspend operations during a state of emergency to curb spread of the coronavirus, a top health official said.

The announcement comes after a group representing US manufacturers told President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that an economic shutdown over the virus could weaken North America’s response to the pandemic.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Haiti will reopen its key textile industry next week, Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe said, suggesting the impoverished nation had escaped the worst of the global coronavirus pandemic by imposing early on a state of emergency.

The poorest country in the western hemisphere typically struggles to fight serious disease outbreaks due to its high population density, lack of water and sanitation infrastructure and inadequate health services.

PARIS, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US decision to freeze funding to the World Health Organization over what President Donald Trump said was its “mismanaging” of the global coronavirus pandemic triggered anger and concern.

Trump announced that the United States would halt payments to the UN body that amounted to $400 million last year.

WASHINGTON, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump says the US has “passed the peak” of new COVID-19 cases and predicted some states would reopen this month.

At the daily White House virus briefing, Trump said new reopening guidelines would be announced on Thursday after he speaks to governors.

“We’ll be the comeback kids, all of us,” the president said. “We want to get our country back.”

UNITED NATIONS, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A COVID-19 vaccine may be the only thing that can bring back “normalcy,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, hoping for just that before the end of the year.

“A safe and effective vaccine may be the only tool that can return the world to a sense of ‘normalcy,’ saving millions of lives and countless trillions of dollars,” he added during a video conference with the 50 or so African countries that are members of the United Nations.

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 (Xinhua) -- It is up to the governing body of the World Health Organization (WHO) to decide where to seek funds in its COVID-19 fight, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday.

Stephane Dujarric said it was up to the World Health Assembly, the 194-member state governing body, to decide where to look for funding in the face of the United States withdrawing from WHO financing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing the coronavirus, Donald Trump is threatening unprecedented action — adjourning both houses of Congress — to entice the Senate to approve more of his nominees.

In recent years, Congress has refused to fully adjourn during most breaks precisely to prevent the president from making recess appointments. Little or no business is conducted in such “pro-forma sessions,” but they give members of both chambers of Congress the chance to go back home without going into recess.