AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
Experimental COVID-19 vaccine is put to its biggest test
The biggest test yet of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine got underway Monday with the first of some 30,000 Americans rolling up their sleeves to receive shots created by the U.S. government as part of the all-out global race to stop the outbreak.
The glimmer of hope came even as Google, in one of the gloomiest assessments of the coronavirus's staying power from a major employer, decreed that most of its 200,000 employees and contractors should work from home through next June — a decision that could influence other big companies.
Final-stage testing of the vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., began with volunteers at numerous sites around the U.S. given either a real dose or a dummy without being told which.
“I’m excited to be part of something like this. This is huge,” said Melissa Harting, a 36-year-old nurse who received an injection in Binghamton, New York. Especially with family members in front-line jobs that could expose them to the virus, she added, “doing our part to eradicate it is very important to me.”
It will be months before results trickle in, and there is no guarantee the vaccine will ultimately work against the scourge that has killed about 650,000 people around the world, including almost 150,000 in the U.S.
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Pelosi, others hail John Lewis as ‘conscience’ of Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a solemn display of bipartisan unity, congressional leaders praised Democratic Rep. John Lewis as a moral force for the nation on Monday in a Capitol Rotunda memorial service rich with symbolism and punctuated by the booming, recorded voice of the late civil rights icon.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Lewis the “conscience of the Congress" who was “revered and beloved on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the Capitol.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised the longtime Georgia congressman as a model of courage and a “peacemaker.”
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” McConnell, a Republican, said, quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “But that is never automatic. History only bent toward what’s right because people like John paid the price.”
Lewis died July 17 at the age of 80. Born to sharecroppers during Jim Crow segregation, he was beaten by Alabama state troopers during the civil rights movement, spoke ahead of King's “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington and was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the nation's first Black president in 2011.
Dozens of lawmakers looked on Monday as Lewis' flag-draped casket sat atop the catafalque built for President Abraham Lincoln. Several wiped away tears as the late congressman's voice echoed off the marble and gilded walls. Lewis was the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Rotunda.
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Trump seeks political shot in the arm in vaccine push
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic put his political fate in grave jeopardy. Now he’s hoping to get credit for his administration’s aggressive push for a vaccine -– and crossing his fingers that one gets approved before Election Day.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited vaccine development sites on Monday, marking the beginning of the largest vaccine research trial yet. Their trips to North Carolina and Florida, respectively, come as the White House is grappling with its most prominent virus case since the crisis begin and a nationwide spike in the virus.
"We’re doing well on vaccines, we’re doing well on therapeutics. And now I’m heading to North Carolina to look exactly at that,” Trump said as he departed the White House.
Trump's standing in the polls, trailing former Vice President Joe Biden less than 100 days before the election, underscores the urgency to highlight vaccines and therapeutics –- which include the antiviral drug remdesivir and convalescent plasma.
The economic toll of the pandemic has undone the job gains of Trump's presidency and his administration has faced bipartisan criticism for its handling of efforts to test and contain the outbreak. Trump aides view the hunt for the vaccine as something they can still get right.
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As Congress fights, analysts warn economy needs help now
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Congress and the White House resume their efforts to agree on a new economic aid package, evidence is growing that the U.S. economy is faltering. And so is concern that the government may not take the steps needed to support hiring and growth.
“We’re in a pretty fragile state again," warned Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics, a consulting firm. “The economy needs another shot in the arm.”
With unemployment still at a high 11.1% and hiring potentially slowing in July, the economy is likely to weaken further without more government aid, economists say. Few agree with White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow's assertion on Sunday that the nation is on a V-shaped recovery path, in which the sharp recession that began in February would be followed by a quick rebound.
What's needed, most economists say, is continued extra aid for tens of millions of unemployed Americans, along with more funding for state and local governments and more grants for struggling small companies, many of which could go out of business.
Yet even with the viral outbreak intensifying and nearly half of Americans whose families have endured a layoff saying they fear those jobs are lost forever, Congress isn't anywhere close to agreeing on the outlines of a package even as a $600-a-week federal payment to the unemployed has expired.
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US won’t expel migrant children detained in Texas hotel
HOUSTON (AP) — The Trump administration has agreed not to expel a group of immigrant children it detained in a Texas hotel under an emergency declaration citing the coronavirus and will instead allow them to seek to remain in the U.S., the administration said Monday.
The move comes days after The Associated Press first reported on the U.S. government's secretive practice of detaining unaccompanied children in hotels before rapidly deporting them during the virus pandemic. Government data obtained by AP showed the U.S. had detained children nearly 200 times over two months in three Hampton Inn & Suites hotels in Arizona and two Texas border cities.
But the Trump administration has not said it will stop using hotels to detain children. The legal groups that sued Friday night said they still plan to fight the larger practice in court.
Their agreement only covers 17 children known to have been detained as of Thursday at the Hampton Inn in McAllen. After the hotel's owner said Friday it would end reservations of rooms used for child detention, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed the children from the hotel but refused to say where it had taken them.
Now, immigration authorities will transfer the children to shelters operated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where they will have access to lawyers and should eventually be placed with family sponsors as they pursue asylum cases or other immigration relief to try to remain in the country. The legal groups withdrew their request Sunday for a temporary restraining order.
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At least 2 MLB games postponed amid Marlins' virus outbreak
MIAMI (AP) — The Miami Marlins scrambled for roster replacements as they coped with a coronavirus outbreak. The New York Yankees had an unscheduled day off in Philadelphia while the home team underwent COVID-19 tests. The Baltimore Orioles were flying home from Miami without playing a game.
And Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez summed up the situation in a season barely underway.
"I’m going to be honest with you: I’m scared,” Martinez said.
Two major league games scheduled for Monday night were postponed after more than a dozen Marlins players and staff members tested positive for COVID-19 in an outbreak that stranded the team in Philadelphia.
The Marlins’ home opener against Baltimore was called off, as was the Yankees’ game at Philadelphia. The Yankees would have been in the same clubhouse the Marlins used last weekend.
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On Portland's streets: Anger, fear, and a fence that divides
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The party at the Salmon Street Springs fountain, a riverfront landmark in the heart of Portland, was just getting started.
Dozens of drummers beat out entrancing rhythms and a crowd of hundreds danced joyfully as the setting sun cast a soft pink glow on distant Mount Hood. Poster boards bearing the names of dozens of Black men and women killed by police stirred in a gentle breeze as the energy built to fever pitch and more and more people poured into the square.
Suddenly, 10-year-old Xavier Minor jumped into the center of the circle and started dancing with abandon. The emcee took note.
“Yo, Black kids are the future! Black kids are the future!” he shouted, until a beaming Xavier finally stepped out and into his father's proud embrace.
A few minutes later, as night fell, the music stopped — and the march to the federal courthouse began.
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Democratic National Convention to require masks, distancing
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Everyone attending the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee next month will have to wear a face mask, consent to daily testing for COVID-19, fill out questionnaires and maintain a physical distance from others.
Organizers of the convention released details of the coronavirus safety plan Monday, three weeks before the Aug. 17 start of the four-day event. The convention has been scaled down from original plans and now will be mostly online with only a few hundred people gathered at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee.
Attendees will have to self-isolated for a minimum of 72 hours before departing for Milwaukee or when first entering the convention's main venue if they're already in the city. Once at the convention, attendees must fill out a daily questionnaire indicating that they are not experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and have not had contact with anyone who is infected.
All convention guests, law enforcement, media, and staff must agree to daily COVID-19 testing, either at the Wisconsin Center or another offsite location. They must also agree to follow any other “reasonable restrictions that convention organizers may impose based on changing health conditions.”
While presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and everyone else will be required to wear a mask once inside, anyone making a speech will be allowed to remove theirs. The podium will be 20 feet from other people. Organizers are also encouraging attendees to wear a face shield or goggles to protect their eyes.
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Target joins Walmart in ending Thanksgiving store shopping
NEW YORK (AP) — Target is joining Walmart in closing its stores on Thanksgiving Day, ending a decadelong tradition of jump-starting Black Friday door buster sales.
The move, announced Monday, comes as stores are rethinking this year's Black Friday shopping bonanza weekend — along with other key retail days during the holiday season — as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic.
Stores always depended on big holiday crowds and work as much as a year in advance with manufacturers on securing exclusive items. Now, the virus has turned the holiday shopping model upside down. Stores have slashed orders and crowds are an anathema. With fears of a wave of virus cases in the fall, the biggest nightmare would be if retailers had to reclose during the most critical time of the year, analysts said.
“Historically, deal hunting and holiday shopping can mean crowded events, and this isn’t a year for crowds,” Minneapolis-based Target said in a corporate blog posted. It said its holiday deals would come earlier than ever — starting in October.
Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, announced its move last week.
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Guatemala teacher pedals classroom to students in pandemic
SANTA CRUZ DEL QUICHE, Guatemala (AP) — When the novel coronavirus closed Guatemala’s schools in mid-March, teacher Gerardo Ixcoy invested his savings in a secondhand, adult tricycle.
But this is not just transportation. It’s also a mobile classroom, with plastic sheets to protect against virus transmission, a whiteboard and a small solar panel that powers an audio player he uses for some lessons.
Each day, the 27-year-old pedals among the cornfields of Santa Cruz del Quiché to give individual instruction to his sixth-grade students.
On a recent day, 12-year-old Paola Ximena Conoz wiped her glasses as she waited for Ixcoy to set up just outside the door to her home. They greeted each other warmly — though without contact. Ixcoy deployed the mop that measures the distance between him and his students.
Standing behind the plexiglass window of his tricycle, he produced a pizza box.