USA

17 April 2020; MEMO: Global ecommerce company Amazon has donated $300,000 to a non-profit US organisation which is supplying medical equipment to healthcare professionals and patients in Israel during the coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries have discussed efforts to combat COVID-19 and launch an economic recovery, the White House said on Thursday.

In a statement, the White House said that G7 leaders agreed to take essential measures to ensure a coordinated global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to launch a robust recovery.

UNITED NATIONS, April 16 (Xinhua) -- UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths on Thursday asked the warring parties to seize the opportunity for peace.

An opportunity has emerged to bring peace to Yemen, said Griffiths, referring to the willingness of the Yemeni government and Houthi forces to forge a cease-fire.

NEW YORK, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 650,000 by 4 p.m. local time on Thursday (2000 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The fresh figure reached 653,825 with 30,998 deaths, according to the CSSE.

CHICAGO (AP) — California Sen. Kamala Harris is raising money for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden while speaking out about the disproportionate number of African Americans with COVID-19.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has been praising the former vice president on television and Twitter as she unveils a plan to fight the coronavirus in rural America.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer went on “The Daily Show” to plead for help addressing the pandemic while wearing a T-shirt with a jab at President Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers struggled Thursday to break a stalemate over President Donald Trump’s $250 billion emergency request for a small-business program, stoking uncertainty about when additional support will be available in a key rescue program now exhausted of funds.

NEW YORK (AP) — The coronavirus is poised to reshape the political map, pummeling battleground states and alarming Republicans who see early signs of an election that could be a referendum on President Donald Trump’s management of the crisis.

The pandemic, which has killed more than 30,000 Americans and left millions out of work, has eviscerated Trump’s hope to run for reelection on a strong economy. A series of states he won in 2016 could tilt toward Democrats.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen will be released from federal prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement amid the coronavirus pandemic, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — In the 25 years since a truck bomb ripped through a federal building in downtown Oklahoma City and killed 168 people, the United States has suffered through foreign wars, a rise in mass shootings and a much deadlier act of terror, the Sept. 11 attacks.

But the April 19, 1995, assault on a sleepy city in the nation’s heartland shocked many Americans out of their sense of security and awakened them to their own vulnerability. Terror wasn’t just a foreign problem, it was here. Events since have only contributed to a shared anxiety.

NEW YORK (AP) — Hopeful talk about getting people out of their homes and back to work in some parts of the country seems a far cry from the harsh reality in New York and its suburbs: Thousands of people infected with the coronavirus are still streaming into hospitals every day. Hundreds are still dying.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted the lack of major improvement Thursday as he announced another 606 deaths in the state and said current social isolation rules will stay in place through at least May 15. The number dying was down from a day earlier, but remains alarmingly high.