North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barbershops at some Marine Corps bases are abuzz with demand for high-and-tight haircuts.

Despite social distancing and other Defense Department policies on coronavirus prevention, Marines are still lining up for the trademark cuts, at times standing only a foot or two apart, with few masks in sight.

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper acknowledged it’s tough to enforce new virus standards with a force of 2.2 million spread out all over the world.

CHICAGO (AP) — Videos and online reports claiming that millions of Americans will have to repay the relief checks they receive from the federal government under the $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic recovery bill are not true.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three potential COVID-19 vaccines are making fast progress in early-stage testing in volunteers in China and the U.S., but it’s still a long road to prove if they’ll really work.

China’s CanSino Biologics has begun the second phase of testing its vaccine candidate, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology said Tuesday.

In the U.S., a shot made by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. isn’t far behind. The first person to receive that experimental vaccine last month returned to a Seattle clinic Tuesday for a second dose.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Ronald Mitchell worried about his mother’s care at a suburban Richmond nursing home long before she was swept up in one of the nation’s deadliest coronavirus outbreaks.

She’s bedbound and susceptible to seizures. A sore on her foot went unnoticed for so long, he said, that it led to the amputation of her leg. When he called her last month after she tested positive for COVID-19, she sounded disoriented, and he stayed on the line as she pressed a call button and waited an hour and a half for a nurse who never came.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he’s open to some states “reopening” before federal social distancing guidelines expire at the end of month, as he appeared to back off his claim of absolute authority to decide when the time was right to act.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Governors around the U.S. began sketching out plans Tuesday to reopen their economies in a slow and methodical process to prevent the coronavirus from rebounding with tragic consequences, as President Donald Trump appeared to back off his claim of absolute authority to determine when to end social distancing guidelines.

14 April 2020; MEMO: Crude oil prices rose today after US President Donald Trump called on OPEC+ to double its oil production cut.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $32.20 per barrel, a 1.35 per cent increase after closing at $31.74 a barrel yesterday.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $22.62 a barrel, a rise of 0.93 per cent after ending the previous day at $22.41 per barrel.

Washington, Apr 14 (PTI) US President Donald Trump has hinted that there would be consequences for China's alleged misinformation to the international community and the WHO on coronavirus, that originated from its Wuhan city last year, and has claimed 119,666 lives with nearly two million infections globally.

Trump shot back at a reporter on Monday during his White House press conference on coronavirus when repeatedly asked why there are no consequences for China.

NEW YORK, Apr 14 (APP): The outbreak of coronavirus in India has setoff a series of attacks against Muslims across the country, with the health ministry of the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that Muslims are spreading the virus, according to a leading U.S. newspaper.

“Young Muslim men who were passing out food to the poor were assaulted with cricket bats,” The New York Times said in a New Delhi-datelined report.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 14 (APP): The head of World Health Organization’s (WHO) has said he is confident the United States will continue its financial contribution to the U.N. agency that is spearheading the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic that has engulfed much of the globe.

The comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus come nearly a week after President Trump criticized the agency for waiting too long to call the outbreak a pandemic and said he was considering a freeze or cut in U.S. funding to the organization.