Nation

As US COVID-19 death toll nears 600,000, racial gaps persist

Published on Mon, 06/14/2021 - 3:40pm
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By The Associated Press

 

Jerry Ramos spent his final days in a California hospital, hooked to an oxygen machine with blood clots in his lungs from COVID-19, his 3-year-old daughter in his thoughts.

“I have to be here to watch my princess grow up,” the Mexican American restaurant worker wrote on Facebook. “My heart feels broken into pieces.” 

Police: Vehicle plows into Minnesota protesters, killing 1

Published on Mon, 06/14/2021 - 3:39pm
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A woman was killed and three other people were injured when an SUV struck a parked car and tossed it into demonstrators during a protest in the Minneapolis neighborhood where a Black man was  fatally shot earlier this month during an arrest attempt, police and witnesses said Monday.

The suspect was pulled from his vehicle by protesters after the 11:39 p.m. Sunday crash in Uptown and, according to reports from witnesses, demonstrators began striking him, according to police. 

McDonald’s latest company to be hit by a data breach

Published on Fri, 06/11/2021 - 4:49pm
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McDonald’s has become the latest company to be hit by a data breach after unauthorized activity on its network exposed the personal data of some customers in South Korea and Taiwan.

McDonald’s Corp. said Friday that it quickly identified and contained the incident and that a thorough investigation was done.

“While we were able to close off access quickly after identification, our investigation has determined that a small number of files were accessed, some of which contained personal data,” the burger chain said.

Senators eye $579B in new infrastructure spending

Published on Fri, 06/11/2021 - 4:39pm
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of senators is eyeing an infrastructure deal  with $579 billion in new spending as negotiators try to strike a nearly $1 trillion deal on President Joe Biden’s top priority, according to those briefed on the plan.

The 10 senators have been huddling behind closed doors, encouraged by Biden to keep working on the effort after he walked away from a Republican-only proposal this week unable to resolve differences. The senators are briefing their colleagues privately and cautioned changes could still be made.

Source: US to buy 500M Pfizer shots to share globally

Published on Thu, 06/10/2021 - 4:36pm
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will buy 500 million more doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to share through the global COVAX alliance for donation to 92 lower income countries and the African Union over the next year, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

President Joe Biden was set to make the announcement Thursday in a speech before the start of the Group of Seven summit. Two hundred million doses — enough to fully protect 100 million people — would be shared this year, with the balance to be donated in the first half of 2022, the person said.

Another jump in prices tightens squeeze on consumers

Published on Thu, 06/10/2021 - 4:32pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — American consumers absorbed another surge in prices in May — a 0.6% increase over April and 5% over the past year, the biggest 12-month inflation spike since 2008.

The May rise in consumer prices that the Labor Department reported Thursday reflected a range of goods and services now in growing demand as people increasingly shop, travel, dine out and attend entertainment events in a rapidly reopening economy.

In UK for 1st foreign trip, Biden to announce vaccine plan

Published on Wed, 06/09/2021 - 4:07pm
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MILDENHALL, England (AP) — Embarking on the first overseas trip of his term, President Joe Biden is eager to reassert the United States on the world stage, steadying European allies deeply shaken by his predecessor and pushing democracy as the only bulwark to rising forces of authoritarianism.

Biden has set the stakes for his eight-day trip in sweeping terms, believing the West must publicly demonstrate it can compete economically with China as the world emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.

Wedding boom is on in the United States as vendors scramble to keep up

Published on Wed, 06/09/2021 - 4:06pm
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NEW YORK (AP) — Couples in the U.S. are racing to the altar in a vaccination-era wedding boom that has venues and other vendors in high demand.

With restrictions on large gatherings loosening, wedding planners and others who make the magic happen said they’ve started pushing their bookings into late 2022 and early 2023.

‘Do not come’: Harris makes comments on immigration while on Latin American trip

Published on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 3:43pm
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris told Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that the United States and Mexico are “embarking on a new era” during her first in-person meeting with the leader, as she seeks to foster greater cooperation with Mexico on immigration to the U.S.

Speaking at the start of their bilateral meeting at the Mexican national palace, Harris emphasized the “longstanding relationship” between the two nations and their “interdependence and interconnection.” 

United States recovers most of ransom paid after Colonial Pipeline hack

Published on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 3:41pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has recovered most of a multimillion-dollar ransom payment made to hackers after a cyberattack that caused the operator of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline to halt its operations last month, officials said Monday.