Confirmed virus cases hit 10 million as Poland, France vote

ROME (AP) — Worldwide confirmed coronavirus infections hit the 10 million mark Sunday as voters in Poland and France went to the polls for virus-delayed elections.

New clusters of cases at a Swiss nightclub and in the central English city of Leicester showed that the virus was still circulating widely in Europe, though not with the rapidly growing infection rate seen in parts of the U.S., Latin America and India.

Wearing mandatory masks, social distancing in lines and carrying their own pens to sign voting registers, French voters cast ballots in a second round of municipal elections. Poles also wore masks and used hand sanitizer, and some in virus-hit areas were told to mail in their ballots to avoid further contagion.

“I didn’t go and vote the first time around because I am elderly and I got scared,” said Fanny Barouh as she voted in a Paris school.

While concern in the U.S. has focused on big states like Texas, Arizona and Florida reporting thousands of new cases a day, rural states are also seeing infection surges, including in Kansas, where livestock outnumber people.

The U.S. handling of the outbreak has drawn concern from abroad. The European Union seems almost certain to bar Americans from traveling to the bloc in the short term as it draws up new travel rules to be announced shortly.


The infection surges prompted Vice President Mike Pence to call off campaign events in Florida and Arizona, although he will still travel to those states and to Texas this week to meet with their Republican governors. Those three governors have come under criticism for aggressively reopening their economies after virus lockdowns despite increasing infections in their states.

After confirmed daily infections in the U.S. hit an all-time high of 40,000 on Friday, Texas and Florida reversed course and closed down bars in their states again. Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey reversed himself and allowed cities and counties to require face masks in public even though he hasn’t been seen wearing one.

“This is not a sprint, this is a marathon,” said Dr. Lisa Goldberg, director of the emergency department of Tucson Medical Center in Arizona. “In fact, it’s an ultra-marathon.”

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar stressed that “the window is closing” for the U.S. to take action to effectively curb the coronavirus.

Azar pointed to a recent spike in infections, particularly in the South. He says people have “to act responsibly” by social distancing and wearing face masks, especially “in these hot zones.”

Speaking on NBC and CNN, Azar argued that the U.S. is in a better position than two months ago in fighting the virus because it is conducting more testing and has therapeutics available to treat COVID-19.

But he acknowledged that hospitalizations and deaths could increase in the next few weeks.

Globally, confirmed COVID-19 cases passed the 10 million mark and confirmed deaths neared half a million, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University, with the U.S., Brazil, Russia and India having the most cases. The U.S. also has the highest virus death toll in the world at over 125,000.

Experts say all those figures significantly undercount the true toll of the pandemic, due to limited testing and missed mild cases. U.S. government experts last week estimated the U.S. alone could have had 20 million cases.

Workplace infection worries increased after Tyson Foods announced that 371 employees at its chicken processing plant in the southwestern corner of Missouri have tested positive for COVID-19.

In the state of Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee put a hold on plans to move counties to the fourth phase of his reopening plan as cases continue to increase. But in Hawaii, the city of Honolulu announced that campgrounds will reopen for the first time in three months with limited permits to ensure social distancing.

Britain’s government, meanwhile, is considering whether a local lockdown is needed for the central English city of Leicester amid reports about a spike in COVID-19 among its Asian community. It would be Britain’s first local lockdown.

“We have seen flare-ups across the country in recent weeks,” Home Secretary Priti Patel told the BBC on Sunday.

Polish voters were casting ballots, in person and by mail, for a presidential election that was supposed to have taken place in May but was chaotically postponed amid the pandemic. President Andrzej Duda, a 48-year-old conservative backed by the nationalist ruling Law and Justice party, is running against 10 other candidates as he seeks a second five-year term.

Iwona Goge, 79, was encouraged to see so many people voting in Warsaw.

“It’s bad. Poland is terribly divided and people are getting discouraged,” she said.

French voters were choosing mayors and municipal councilors in Paris and 5,000 towns and cities in a second round of municipal elections held under strict hygiene rules. Key battlegrounds include Paris, where the next mayor will preside over the 2024 Summer Olympics. The spread of the virus in France has slowed significantly but is still expected to hurt Sunday’s turnout.

Italy was honoring its dead later Sunday with an evening Requiem concert in hard-hit Bergamo province. The ceremony in the onetime epicenter of the European outbreak came a day after Italy registered the lowest daily tally of COVID-19 deaths in nearly four months: eight.

European leaders were taking no chances in tamping down new clusters. German authorities renewed a lockdown in a western region of about 500,000 people after about 1,300 slaughterhouse workers tested positive. Swiss authorities ordered 300 people into quarantine after a “superspreader” outbreak of coronavirus at a Zurich nightclub.

In Asia, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his country must focus on bolstering the economy as it exits lockdowns, even as the number of coronavirus cases still keep on climbing. On Sunday, India reported additional 19,906 confirmed cases, taking its total to nearly 529,000 with 16,095 deaths. The pandemic has exposed wide inequalities in India, with public hospitals being overwhelmed by virus cases while the rich get expert treatment in private hospitals.

China reported 17 new cases, all but three of them from domestic transmission in Beijing. But authorities say a campaign to conduct tests on employees at hair and beauty salons across the city has found no positive cases so far.

___

Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

Mickelson added to field in a US Open without qualifying

The USGA is leaning a little more on the world ranking and a lot more on tournament results over the next two months to fill the 144-man field for a U.S. Open that will be without open qualifying for the first time in nearly a century.

The exemption categories announced Thursday include a spot for Phil Mickelson.

A runner-up six times in the only major Lefty hasn’t won, the most devastating was in 2006 at Winged Foot, just north of New York City, where the U.S. Open is set to return Sept. 17-20.

The COVID-19 pandemic that forced the U.S. Open to move from June also cost the championship its identity of being open to all. Open qualifying wasn’t possible for two stages at nearly 120 courses across the country and into Canada, England and Japan.

The idea was to create a field that reflected a typical U.S. Open — the elite and the aspiring, from every continent in golf, pros and amateurs. And while it won’t be 36 holes of qualifying, it still comes down to playing well.

“We are excited that players will still have an opportunity to earn a place in the field,” said John Bodenhamer, senior managing director of USGA championships.


The top 70 from the world ranking on March 15 are exempt. Along with increasing that category by 10 spots, the USGA chose to use the last ranking before it was frozen during the shutdown in golf worldwide. That helps European Tour players, such as Eddie Pepperell and Robert MacIntyre, who are not able to play until July 9 — a month after the PGA Tour resumed with strong fields and big ranking points.

That also momentarily leaves out Daniel Berger, who went from outside the top 100 to No. 31 with his victory against a stacked field at Colonial. But the USGA will use the Aug. 23 ranking — after the first FedEx Cup playoff event — as its reserve list, and about seven spots are expected to come from there.

Mickelson was No. 61 when the ranking was frozen, and now is at No. 66. Mickelson, outspoken about the USGA and how it sets up U.S. Open courses, said in February that he would not ask for a special exemption if he was not otherwise eligible. With his five majors and Hall of Fame career — not to mention his legacy of silver medals in the U.S. Open — Mickelson likely would have received at least one exemption.

Now he won’t have to worry about that. In 2006, Mickelson had a one-shot lead playing the 18th hole when he drove wildly to the left and tried to hit 3-iron over a tree. He hit the tree, hit into a plugged lie in the bunker and made double bogey to finish one shot behind Geoff Ogilvy.

“That worked out great, to be able to know that I have a chance to go back to Winged Foot and give it another shot,” Mickelson said at the Travelers Championship. “As long as I’m playing well enough to compete to earn my way into the field, then I want to play and keep trying to win that tournament.”

Bodenhamer said the 36-hole qualifier in England typically is the strongest, along with one in Ohio after the Memorial. Thus, 10 spots will be awarded to the leading 10 players (not already eligible) from a separate points list of the opening five tournaments on the European Tour’s U.K. swing when its schedule resumes.

The Korn Ferry Tour also gets 10 spots — five from this season’s points list through the Portland Open, and then a special points list of three events that typically comprise the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. The leading five players from that list also get into Winged Foot.

“We’ve got a pretty good mix of players,” Bodenhamer said. “Looking at the data, looking back at what the fields have been the last five years, there was a lot of Korn Ferry representation. We wanted to create pathways and allow those categories to earn their way in.”

That held true for the amateurs. The U.S. Open already has six amateurs who earned spots by winning the U.S. Amateur or British Amateur, for example. The USGA also will take the leading seven amateurs available from the world amateur ranking on Aug. 19.

The rest of the field is similar to what the British Open has done with its International Finals Qualifying for the PGA Tour. Two spots from the top 10 will earn exemptions from the Memorial, 3M Open, Barracuda Championship, FedEx St. Jude Invitational and Wyndham Championship. Three spots will be available from the PGA Championship.

And for the international presence, two spots will be given to the leader money winner in the most recent season on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, the Asian Tour, the PGA Tour of Australasia and the Japan Golf Tour, which gets two spots.

“We think this is the best path forward,” Bodenhamer said.

The Associated Press

Stocks move higher on Wall Street, following gains overseas

Stocks headed higher in midday trading on Wall Street Tuesday, adding to the market’s gains from a day earlier, as investors focused on the prospects for an economic recovery as more businesses reopen after being shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The S&P 500 was up 1% and on pace for its third straight monthly gain. The rally follows solid gains in Europe, where indexes marched higher after some encouraging economic data. Bond yields rose slightly, another sign that investors were regaining confidence in the economy.

Technology sector stocks, which led the way higher as the market rebounded the past three months from a 34% plunge, helped power the latest gains. Banks, health care stocks and companies that rely on consumer spending were among the big gainers. Real estate and utilities stocks fell.


Encouraging economic data, including retail sales and hiring, have helped stoke optimism among investors that the reopening of businesses in the U.S. and other countries will pull the economy out of its recession relatively quickly. The market has continued to climb, despite bouts of volatility, even as a rise in new coronvairus cases in the U.S. and other countries clouds the prospects for an economic recovery.

Investors have grown confident that the Federal Reserve and Congress are prepared to continue providing a historic amount of support to the market and economy, said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.

“All of the negative news has basically been built into share prices,” Stovall said. “If we are to stumble, then the Fed and Congress are likely to step in to put a fiscal and monetary floor underneath the economy and the markets. And now, with the likelihood that the economy will not be shutting down entirely should we end up with a second wave, the market is basically saying it’s ‘onward and upward.’”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 230 points, or 0.9%, to 26,259. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, gained 1.4%. The index has only fallen twice so far in June. Small company stocks were also notching solid gains. The Russell 2000 index was up 0.7%.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 0.72% from 0.70% late Monday. It tends to move with investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.

The World Health Organization said over the weekend that the pandemic is still in its ascendancy. The U.S., which is seeing rapid increases in cases across the South and West, has the most infections and deaths by far in the world, with 2.3 million cases and over 120,000 confirmed virus-related deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Still, investors have been placing more weight on economic data releases that suggest economies that have reopened are making strides to emerge from a deep recession.

On Tuesday, the Commerce Department said sales of new U.S. homes jumped 16.6% in May to an annual rate of 676,000, exceeding Wall Street’s forecasts. Several homebuilders rose. Century Communities was up 1.8%.

Further updates on the U.S. economy are expected toward the end of this week, when the government will issue data on consumer spending, weekly unemployment aid applications and durable goods orders.

European shares advanced after a measure of economic activity in the eurozone, the purchasing managers’ index, rose significantly in June from the month before. The index was just shy of the level that indicates the economy is growing again after a devastating plunge in the spring.

France’s CAC 40 gained 1.4%, while Germany’s DAX rallied 2.1%. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.2%.

Asian markets overcame some early turbulence caused by reported comments by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro suggesting the U.S. trade deal with China was in trouble. President Donald Trump later said the agreement was still on.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil was up 0.1% to $40.77 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, was up 0.5% to $43.28 per barrel.

The Associated Press

Vulnerable US Latino communities hard hit by COVID-19

GUADALUPE, Ariz. (AP) — A Hispanic immigrant working at a fast-food restaurant in North Carolina is rushed to the hospital after she contracts COVID-19. A sickened Honduran woman in Baltimore with no health insurance or immigration status avoids the doctor for two weeks and finally takes a cab to the hospital and ends up on oxygen.

As the coronavirus spreads deeper across America, it’s ravaging through Latino communities from the suburbs of the nation’s capital to the farm fields of Florida to the sprawling suburbs of Phoenix and countless areas in between.

The virus has amplified the inequalities that many Latinos endure, including jobs that expose them to others, tight living conditions, lack of health insurance, mistrust of the medical system and a greater incidence of preexisting health conditions like diabetes. And many Latinos don’t have the luxury of sheltering at home.


“People simply cannot afford to stop working,” said Mauricio Calvo, executive director of the Latino Memphis advocacy group in Tennessee.

In many areas, Latinos comprise a dramatically higher percentage of the positive COVID-19 tests compared to other racial and ethnic groups.

About 65% of positive tests in the county that is home to Chattanooga, Tennessee, are Latinos even though they make up just 6% of the population. With many infected families living in the same housing unit with no other place to go, Chattanooga officials are exploring a plan to provide alternative sites at hotels or other locations for residents who need to isolate but can’t afford to move out and live elsewhere.

The same disparities exist across the country.

Latinos account for 45% of coronavirus cases in North Carolina, where they make up only 10% of the population, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. In the Latino and Native American town of Guadalupe, Arizona, residents are testing positive at more than four times the rate of the entire county. The ZIP code with the most COVID-19 cases in Maryland borders the nation’s capital and is majority Hispanic.

Honduran native Arely Martinez, who now lives in Baltimore, delayed medical help for two weeks after getting a fever and headache, struggling to breathe and losing her sense of smell. Lack of insurance, her immigration status and misinformation about the pandemic kept her home, but she finally went to the hospital and tested positive for COVID-19.



“I had no medical guidance, and apart from that, I was afraid because of the comments from people that when you go to the hospital, they would end up killing you,” said Martinez, who spent two days in the hospital fretting about her three children while her husband left them alone to seek work.

Her husband tested negative for the virus, but her sister, who was fetching their groceries, became ill. Her children were never tested.

“Truthfully, they were the saddest moments of my life,” she said. “There was not a moment or an instant that I stopped asking God to give me a chance to live to see my children, to hug them, to take care of them.”

A growing body of evidence is forming around the virus’ toll on Latinos as researchers develop a more advanced data analysis about COVID-19 and race.

This disparity among Latinos is similar to a national trend in African American deaths. An Associated Press analysis has found black Americans make up 26% of the deaths in nearly 40 states that kept detailed death data, even though they comprise only 13% of the population.

Researchers are also pointing out another noteworthy trend emerging in Latino cases. Because Latinos are much younger on average than U.S. whites, and the virus kills older people at higher rates, researchers are using “age-adjusted” data to provide a more accurate picture of the disproportionate toll.

A Brookings Institution study this week examined federal data to show the age-adjusted COVID-19 death rate for African Americans is 3.6 times that for whites. The age-adjusted death rate for Latinos is 2.5 times higher than white Americans. A Harvard paper used similar metrics to determine “years of potential life lost,” finding that Latinos lost 48,204 years, compared with 45,777 for African Americans and 33,446 for non-Hispanic whites.

In North Carolina, Honduran native Lidia Reyes and her husband went without pay for three weeks after she lost her job at Subway during the pandemic. They sought help from loved ones and a local church to help pay the rent and keep food on the table for their son and daughter.

The 42-year-old Durham resident went back to work at the fast-food chain and got sick; she believes she was infected the day she neglected to wear a mask and gloves at work.

“The kids were really upset,” said Reyes, who is in the country illegally. “They wanted to always come in my room to be with me. We were all desperate in different ways, and I was definitely getting depressed with how everything was going.”

Though she’s survived to tell her story, two fears remain: The forthcoming medical bills and the lack of seriousness she believes some in her community have toward the virus.

Latinos initially were reluctant to get tested for the virus, prompting authorities to bring testing sites into their communities, including grocery stores.

In the Arizona town named for Mexico’s patron saint, Our Lady of Guadalupe, hundreds of people who live with family members in tiny adobe homes lined up in the scorching sun on May 28-29 for free tests at the main plaza. Spanish language interpreters helped people with consent forms.

Eleven percent of the people tested positive for COVID-19.

”We have families that don’t have running water, we have families that don’t have electricity,” Guadalupe Mayor Valerie Molina said. “We have a lot of community members who don’t venture out beyond Guadalupe and so we thought the best way to get them to test would be to bring testing to them.”

Health and community leaders say testing is especially important for Latinos because they have been returning to work in large numbers and lack paid sick leave.

“People continue going to work before they get really sick and tested,” said Pilar Rocha-Goldberg, executive director of El Centro Hispano, a North Carolina advocacy group.

Dr. Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, a family physician in Durham and director of health equity at Duke University, said more is needed to help Latinos get tested closer to where they live. And authorities are trying to come up with alternative ways to help residents self-isolate if they get sick or suspect they are infected and are awaiting test results. Chattanooga officials are exploring direct financial assistance to families and have a section of the county’s COVID-19 task force assigned to the Latino disparity issue.

“I think that this pandemic has really highlighted issues that have always plagued our community and we’ve been fighting to overcome,” said Dr. Michelle LaRue, senior manager for health and social services at CASA, an organization helping Latinos in Maryland. “You know, labor safety issues, language access issues, health insurance and health care issues.”

Both Martinez and Reyes said they wish they hadn’t waited to see a doctor.

“People are dying in our community,” Reyes said. “I want people to understand and take the situation seriously.”

Six weeks after leaving the hospital, Martinez remains weak and has trouble sleeping.

“I shouldn’t have taken the risk because I also frightened my children,” she said. “I couldn’t breathe, my children were scared ... and I had no one to take care of me.”

——

Garcia Cano reported from Baltimore and Anderson reported from Durham, North Carolina. Meghan Hoyer in Washington, Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, and David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, also contributed to this report.

The Associated Press

Doge's Palace reopens as tourists flock back to Venice

After three months of empty squares and alleys and gondoliers stranded on dry land, Venice sprang back to life on Saturday as tourists flocked back to the city for the reopening of the Doge's Palace.

Hundreds of Italians and foreigners lined up for more than 300 metres (yards) in Saint Mark's Square, in front of the Ducal Palace.

A local news agency said a thousand internet bookings had been recorded for the reopening day.

"There were people queuing at 8:00 am this morning and, to be honest, it's just what we were hoping for," Maria Cristina Gribaudi, president of the Venice Civic Museums Foundation, told AFP.

"It's a very strong emotion, like the first day of school," she explained.

Inside the palace, masks are compulsory, numerous signs encourage people to "keep their distance" and all the rooms are controlled to avoid overcrowding.

After months without tourists Saturday marked a clear change, with Venice bustling much as it would do on any ordinary spring weekend.

Souvenir shops have reappeared in Saint Mark's Square and almost all of the shops and restaurants -- including the historic Cafe Florian -- have reopened.

Around the Rialto Canal, visitors pushed their way through the tight alleys, and the famous gondolas and vaporetti, the city's water buses, were again loaded with passengers and going about their business on the canals.

"If the most spoken language is Italian, there are many Germans and, surprisingly, French," Ansa reported.

"We hope to have slow tourism in the future," said Gabriella Belli, director of the Foundation for the civic museums of Venice.

"This does not mean less tourism, it means better organised tourism."

The COVID-19 epidemic has killed more than 34,000 in Italy but as the number of new cases steadily falls so the country continues the process of deconfinement which began last month.

The country's many monuments, famous buildings, museums and emblematic places have almost all reopened, including St Peter's Basilica in Rome, the site of Pompeii, the leaning Tower of Pisa, and the cathedrals of Florence and Milan.

In a bid to retrieve the summer tourist season, Italy reopened its borders on June 3.

Agence France-Presse

Dow sinks 1,500 as virus cases rise, deflating optimism

Stocks are falling sharply on Wall Street as coronavirus cases increase again, deflating recent optimism that economy could recover quickly as lockdowns ease. The Dow fell more than 1,500 points and the S&P 500 was on track for its worst day in nearly three months. Many market watchers have been saying that a scorching comeback in the market since late March was overdone and didn’t reflect the dire state of the economy. A day earlier, the Federal Reserve said the road back to recovery would be long. Bond yields fell sharply, a sign of increasing caution among investors.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story is below:


Stocks are down sharply on Wall Street Thursday, pulling the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 1,500 points lower and placing the S&P 500 on track for its worst day in nearly three months.

The S&P 500 was down 4.7% in afternoon trading, extending its losses into a third straight day. The benchmark index is now on track for its first weekly drop in four weeks.

The selling, which gained momentum as the day went on, comes as recent optimism that the reopening of businesses would drive a relatively quick economic recovery fades amid rising coronavirus cases in many U.S. states and countries.

The pullback marks a reversal for the market, which rallied 44.5% between late March and Monday, a scorching rate that many skeptics said was unsustainable and didn’t reflect the dire condition of the economy. Only a day ago the Nasdaq closed above the 10,000-point mark for the first time.

The Federal Reserve dimmed some of the optimism investors have had about a swift economic rebound Wednesday, warning that the road to recovery from the worst downturn in decades would be long. The central bank also said it doesn’t foresee a rate hike through 2022.

That, coupled with the recent run-up in stock prices, set the stage for the wave of selling Thursday, said Sal Bruno, chief investment officer at IndexIQ.

“It’s not surprising to see a bit of a sell-off, given the furious rally we’ve had coming out of the lows, despite the fact that the economy was not doing great,” Bruno said. “The fact that (the Fed) is talking about keeping interest rates this low through 2022 is a little eye-opening for a lot of folks.”

The Dow was down 1,512 points, or 5.6%, to 25,477. The Nasdaq composite, which was coming off an all-time high, slid 4%. Small company stocks continued to bear the brunt of the selling. The Russell 2000 index was down 5.9%. European and Asian markets also fell.


Nearly all of the companies in the S&P 500 were down. Technology, financial, industrial and health care stocks accounted for much of the market’s broad slide. Energy stocks were the biggest losers as crude oil prices fell sharply. Bond yields fell and the price of gold surged as worried investors shifted money into the traditional safe-haven assets.

Delta Air Lines, Boeing and MGM Resorts International were among the biggest decliners in the S&P 500. Each was down more than 11%.

Emergency rescue efforts by the Fed and Congress helped arrest the market’s staggering 34% skid in February and March. Since then, the market had been riding a wave of investor optimism that the economy will bounce back by the end of the year, if not sooner, as businesses reopen and people go back to work. But confidence in that scenario is waning as infections and fatalities continue to climb in the U.S. and elsewhere.

In the U.S., Texas and Florida were among the states reporting jumps in the number of coronavirus cases after precautions were relaxed last month. The total number of U.S. cases has now surpassed 2 million.

Still, investors are waiting for more data to see whether the spike in COVID-19 cases are a sign of a possible second wave of the infection, said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management.

He’s focusing on updates to job numbers and consumer spending to gauge how well the economy is recovering.

“We think the recovery is largely underway, but there is still some considerable uncertainty on the path we have ahead,” Ripley said. “If we see some more follow-on of people coming back to work and consumer sentiment picking up, that will be a positive sign for a faster recovery.”

Anxious investors shifted more money into government bonds Thursday, sending yields broadly lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury yield slid to 0.67% from 0.74% late Wednesday, a big move. Last Friday it briefly moved above 0.90%.

Gold for August delivery climbed 1.2% to $1,740.60 an ounce.

Oil prices fell sharply. Benchmark U.S. crude oil for July delivery was down 8.4% at $36.26 a barrel. Brent crude oil for August delivery was off 7.8% at $38.48 a barrel.

Markets in Europe were broadly lower. France’s CAC 40 slid 4.7% and Germany’s DAX dropped 4.5%. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 4%. Stock markets in Asia closed lower.

The Labor Department said Thursday that about 1.5 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, another sign that many Americans are still losing their jobs even as the economy begins to gradually reopen. The latest figure marked the 10th straight weekly decline in applications for jobless aid since they peaked in mid-March when the coronavirus hit hard. Still, the pace of layoffs remains historically high.

Other jobs data have been more encouraging. A report on Friday showed that the U.S. job market surprisingly strengthened last month as employers added 2.5 million workers to their payrolls. Economists had been expecting them instead to slash another 8 million jobs.

That report helped stoke optimism among investors that the economy can climb out of its current hole faster than forecast. But the Fed estimated Wednesday that the economy will shrink 6.5% this year, in line with other forecasts, before expanding 5% in 2021. It also expects the unemployment rate at 9.3%, near the peak of the last recession, by the end of this year. The rate is now 13.3%.

The central bank said it would keep providing support to the economy by buying bonds to maintain low borrowing rates and forecast no rate hike through 2022, which could make it easier for consumers and businesses to borrow and spend enough to sustain an economy depressed by business shutdowns and high unemployment.

The Associated Press 

Britain starts mandatory self-quarantine for arrivals

Britain introduced a two-week quarantine on Monday for most people arriving from abroad to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus, sparking condemnation from the ailing aviation sector, which claims it could cost tens of thousands of jobs.

British residents and overseas visitors will have to comply with the 14-day self-isolation rules or face a £1,000 ($1,250, 1,125-euro) fine or prosecution.

Critics question why Britain, which has been hardest hit by COVID-19 in Europe and is only gradually easing a lockdown, is inflicting more pain on hotels and airlines by reducing travel from countries with fewer virus cases.

British Airways and budget carriers EasyJet and Ryanair have launched joint legal proceedings against the government over what they called a "disproportionate and unfair" step.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary told Sky News television on Monday the plan was "useless" and unenforceable, and said it would "devastate thousands of jobs in British tourism".

The chief executive of London's Heathrow, John Holland-Kaye, told the City AM newspaper it could lead to the loss of potentially 25,000 jobs at his airport -- a third of staff.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the new rules made sense because "the proportion of infections that come from abroad increases" as Britain's own caseload drops.

"We've got to take an approach that starts with caution," he told Sky News.

To enter Britain by plane, train, road or sea, travellers must provide details of their journey and the address where they will self-isolate.

How the quarantine will be implemented differs between Britain's devolved nations, and the measures will be assessed every three weeks.

Exemptions are being made in several cases -- including for lorry drivers, "essential" healthcare workers and people travelling from Ireland who have been there for at least two weeks.

- Travel corridor hopes -

At London's Heathrow Airport, where only two of the five terminals are operating due to reduced travel, the quarantine got a mixed reception.

"It's a good idea," said Sandy Banks, 45, returning to Britain with her three children from Jamaica via the United States. "Other countries are doing it."

But a 52-year-old Dutch lawyer living in London, who wished to remain anonymous, called it a "political thing".

"I just think it's a bonkers idea. More people are ill and dying in the UK; probably Europe should be protected from us."

Britain's official death toll is 40,542 -- second only to the United States.

Home Secretary Priti Patel told sceptical lawmakers in parliament last week the measure was "backed by the science, supported by the public, and essential to save lives".

But main opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer called it a "blunt instrument".

"Weeks ago other countries put quarantine in and we didn't, now as everybody's lifting it we are putting it in," he told LBC radio, adding he would prefer testing within airports.

As part of the gradual easing of lockdown restrictions, non-essential retail outlets will reopen from June 15. Restaurants and bars will follow with a limited service in early July.

But the devastated hospitality sector relies heavily on tourists, and business leaders fear the quarantine will mean much of the summer season will be lost.

It comes after heavily-hit Italy reopened its borders last week and other European states follow suit.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government is trying to arrange "travel corridors" with countries such as France and Spain that could see them lift their quarantine demands.

But officials are reportedly giving themselves until late June to strike these deals -- and the airlines behind the lawsuit say they cannot wait that long.

"These measures are disproportionate and unfair on British citizens as well as international visitors arriving in the UK," the airlines said in a joint statement.

The quarantine "will have a devastating effect on (the) UK's tourism industry and will destroy thousands of jobs in this unprecedented crisis", they said.

Agence France-Presse

Neymar mistakenly approved for $120 virus welfare payment: report

Neymar, the world's most expensive footballer, was approved to receive a $120 welfare payment meant for low-paid Brazilian workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic, in an apparent case of identity theft, a report said Thursday.

The Paris Saint-Germain star's name, date of birth and Brazilian ID number were used to register for the 600-real stimulus payment from the federal government, news site UOL reported.

The emergency payments are meant to help Brazilians employed in the informal sector -- such as cleaners or cooks -- whose jobs and incomes have evaporated with stay-at-home measures to contain the virus.

With a contract at PSG, estimated earnings of $95.5 million this year and the record for most expensive football transfer in history, at 222 million euros, Neymar does not qualify.

Yet according to UOL, the application in his name "was initially approved and scheduled for payment... before being frozen and placed 'under evaluation' due to indications it failed to meet the requirements."

The striker's communications staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.

UOL reported his staff said Neymar "obviously never applied for this benefit, and does not know who would have done so."

Brazil is one of the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. It has the third-highest death toll globally, at more than 34,000, behind only the US and Britain.

Neymar, 28, is riding out the pandemic at his luxury villa in Mangaratiba, a resort town outside Rio de Janeiro.

Agence France-Presse

Facebook in turmoil over refusal to police Trump's posts

The clash between Twitter and Donald Trump has thrust rival Facebook into turmoil, with employees rebelling against CEO Mark Zuckerberg's refusal to sanction false or inflammatory posts by the US president.

Some Facebook employees put out word of a "virtual walkout" to take place Monday to protest, according to tweeted messages.

"As allies we must stand in the way of danger, not behind. I will be participating in today's virtual walkout in solidarity with the black community," tweeted Sara Zhang, one of the Facebook employees in the action.

Nearly all Facebook employees are working remotely due to the pandemic.

"We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community," Facebook said in response to the AFP request for comment.

"We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership."

Facebook was aware some workers planned the virtual walkout and did not plan to dock their pay.

"Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind," Ryan Freitas, the design director of Facebook's News Feed, tweeted Sunday, adding that he was organizing about 50 other employees who share his view.


At the root of the discord is Twitter's unprecedented intervention last week when it tagged two Trump tweets about mail-in ballots with messages urging people to "get the facts."

Zuckerberg reacted by telling Fox News that private social media platforms "shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online." Trump retweeted the interview.

On Friday, Twitter responded once again to a Trump tweet, this time after he used the platform to warn protesters outraged by the death at police hands of an unarmed black man that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Twitter covered up the tweet with a message warning it "violated Twitter Rules about glorifying violence." Viewers had to click on the message to see the underlying tweet.

The message also was posted on Facebook, but Zuckerberg decided to let it stand unchallenged.

"I've been struggling with how to respond to the President's tweets and posts all day," he wrote Friday in a post.

"Personally, I have a visceral negative reaction to this kind of divisive and inflammatory rhetoric."

But, Zuckerberg went on to say that "our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies."

- Network in revolt -

Twitter and Facebook both have in place systems to combat disinformation and dangerous content -- appeals to hatred, harassment, incitement to violence and the like.

But Facebook exempts political personalities and candidates from these restrictions.

Zuckerberg's position has not gone down well with many of his employees.


"I don't know what to do, but I know doing nothing is not acceptable," Jason Stirman, a member of Facebook's research and development team, wrote on Twitter.

Other Facebook employees spoke out on Sunday.

David Gillis, a member of the design team who specializes in product safety and integrity, said he believed Trump's looting and shooting tweet "encourages extra-judicial violence and racism."

"While I understand why we chose to stay squarely within the four corners of our violence and incitement policy, I think it would have been right for us to make a 'spirit of the policy' exception that took more context into account," he wrote.

Nate Butler, a Facebook product designer, added: "I need to be clear – FB is on the wrong side of this and I can't support their stance. Doing nothing isn't Being Bold. Many of us feel this way."

- A presidential call -

To make matters worse, US media revealed Sunday that Zuckerberg and Trump spoke by telephone on Friday.

The conversation was "productive," unnamed sources told the Axios news outlet and CNBC. Facebook would neither confirm nor deny the reports.

The call "destroys" the idea that Facebook is a "neutral arbiter," said Evelyn Douek, a researcher at Harvard Law School.

Like other experts, she questioned whether Facebook's new oversight board, formed last month to render independent judgments on content, will have the clout to intervene.

On Saturday, the board offered assurances it was aware there were "many significant issues related to online content" that people want it to consider.

Facebook, meanwhile, is directly affected by Trump's counter-attack against Twitter.

The president signed a decree Thursday attacking one of the legal pillars of the US internet, Section 230, which shields digital platforms from lawsuits linked to content posted by third parties while giving them the freedom to intervene as they please to police the exchanges.

Agence France-Presse

Deadly Tropical Storm Amanda hits El Salvador, Guatemala

Tropical Storm Amanda triggered flash floods, landslides and power outages as it barrelled through El Salvador and Guatemala Sunday, killing 14 people, authorities said, warning of further heavy rain to come.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele declared a 15-day state of emergency to cope with the effects of the storm, which he estimated to have caused $200 million in damage, but which weakened later in the day as it moved into Guatemala.

Amanda, the first named storm of the season in the Pacific, unleashed torrents of floodwater that tossed vehicles around like toys and damaged about 200 homes, the head of the Civil Protection Service William Hernandez said.

The fatalities were all recorded in El Salvador, Interior Minister Mario Duran said, warning that the death toll could rise.

One person is still missing, senior government official Carolina Recinos added.

"We are experiencing an unprecedented situation: one top-level emergency on top of another serious one," San Salvador mayor Ernesto Muyshondt said, referring to the coronavirus pandemic.

He added that half of those killed died in the capital, and that 4,200 people had sought refuge in government-run shelters after losing their homes or being forced to leave because they were in high-risk areas.

In some flooded areas, soldiers worked alongside emergency personnel to rescue people.

"We lost everything, we've been left with nowhere to live," said Isidro Gomez, a resident of hard-hit southeastern San Salvador, after a nearby river overflowed and destroyed his home.

Another victim, Mariano Ramos, said that at dawn residents of his San Salvador neighborhood were slammed by an avalanche of mud and water. An elderly man died in the area, officials said.

El Salvador's environment ministry warned residents of the "high probability" of multiple landslides that could damage buildings and injure or kill people.

Nearly 90 percent of El Salvador's 6.6 million people are considered vulnerable to flooding and landslides due to its geography.

In neighboring Guatemala, officials said roads had been blocked by at least five landslides and some flooding was reported, but no evacuations were underway.

Even though Amanda weakened to tropical depression status, Guatemalan officials warned that heavy rain would continue, with swollen rivers and possible "landslides affecting highways ... and flooding in coastal areas."

Agence France-Presse