AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
Death and denial in Brazil’s Amazon capital
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — As the white van approached Perfect Love Street, one by one chatting neighbors fell silent, covered their mouths and noses and scattered.
Men in full body suits carried an empty coffin into the small, blue house where Edgar Silva had spent two feverish days gasping for air before drawing his last breath on May 12.
“It wasn’t COVID,” Silva’s daughter, Eliete das Graças insisted to the funerary workers. She swore her 83-year-old father had died of Alzheimer’s disease, not that sickness ravaging the city’s hospitals.
But Silva, like the vast majority of those dying at home, was never tested for the new coronavirus. The doctor who signed his death certificate never saw his body before determining the cause: “cardiorespiratory arrest.”
His death was not counted as one of Brazil’s victims of the pandemic.
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Risks complicate reopenings as WHO warns 1st wave not over
BANGKOK (AP) — The risks of reigniting coronavirus outbreaks are complicating efforts to fend off further misery for the many millions who have lost jobs, with a top health expert warning that the world is still in the midst of a “first wave” of the pandemic.
“Right now, we're not in the second wave. We're right in the middle of the first wave globally," said Dr. Mike Ryan, a World Health Organization executive director.
“We're still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up,” Ryan told reporters, pointing to South America, South Asia and other areas where the number of infections is still on the rise.
Mindful of the risks, Americans settled for small processions and online tributes instead of parades Monday as they observed Memorial Day in the shadow of the pandemic.
A U.S. travel ban was due to take effect Tuesday for foreigners coming from Brazil, where the virus is raging through communities with no signs of abating. The ban, originally to take effect Thursday, was moved up. It does not apply to U.S. citizens.
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Worker shortage concerns loom in immigrant-heavy meatpacking
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — When Martha Kebede’s adult sons immigrated from Ethiopia and reunited with her in South Dakota this year, they had few work opportunities.
Lacking English skills, the brothers took jobs at Smithfield Foods' Sioux Falls pork plant, grueling and increasingly risky work as the coronavirus sickened thousands of meatpacking workers nationwide. One day half the workers on a slicing line vanished; later the brothers tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
“It was very, very sad,” Kebede said. “The boys teared up seeing everyone.”
The brothers — who declined to be identified for fear of workplace retaliation — are among roughly 175,000 immigrants in U.S. meatpacking jobs. The industry has historically relied on foreign-born workers — from people in the country illegally to refugees — for some of America's most dangerous jobs.
Now that reliance and uncertainty about a virus that's killed at least 20 workers and temporarily shuttered several plants fuels concerns about possible labor shortages to meet demand for beef, pork and chicken.
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Lebanon's migrant workers' plight worsens as crises multiply
BEIRUT (AP) — Long before the pandemic struck, they lived and worked in conditions that rights groups called exploitative — low wages, long hours, no labor law protections.
Now, some 250,000 registered migrant laborers in Lebanon — maids, garbage collectors, farm hands and construction workers — are growing more desperate as a crippling economic and financial crisis sets in, coupled with coronavirus restrictions.
Lebanon’s unprecedented foreign currency crisis means that many migrants have not been paid for months or that the value of salaries is down by more than half. Others have lost their jobs after employers dumped them on the streets or outside their embassies.
“We are invisible,” said Banchi Yimer, an Ethiopian former domestic worker who founded a group that campaigns for domestic workers' rights in Lebanon. “We don’t even exist for our governments, not just the Lebanese government.”
In just three days, she said, 20 Ethiopian domestic workers were abandoned by their sponsors and left outside the embassy. A photo she posted shows women with as little as a backpack or a purse, lined up along the walls of the embassy — some sitting on the floor.
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Latam Airlines seeks bankruptcy protection as travel slumps
BANGKOK (AP) — Latam Airlines, South America’s biggest carrier, sought U.S. bankruptcy protection Tuesday as it grapples with a sharp downturn in air travel sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing underscores the severity of the financial challenges facing the travel industry as a result of the lockdowns, quarantines and other measures taken by governments the world over to stem the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Passenger and cargo flights will continue to operate during the reorganization, and employees will still be paid, the Santiago, Chile-based airline said. Travelers with existing tickets and vouchers can still use them.
Chief Executive Roberto Alvo said Latam was "healthy and profitable" before the pandemic brought most of the world's flights to a halt.
“We are looking ahead to a post-COVID-19 future and are focused on transforming our group to adapt to a new and evolving way of flying, with the health and safety of our passengers and employees being paramount,” he said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy filing.
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Atlanta is home to 2 potential contenders for Biden's VP
ATLANTA (AP) — Neither public rivals nor personal friends, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Stacey Abrams spent years climbing parallel ladders at Atlanta City Hall and the Georgia Capitol.
They are now Georgia’s most influential African American women.
Bottoms, the 50-year-old Atlanta mayor, is a top surrogate for Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Abrams is the 46-year-old voting rights activist who nearly became the first black female governor in American history. Now, the pair occupy the same political intersection: Biden’s list of potential running mates.
That potential has highlighted the different styles of the two lawyers-turned-politicians. Abrams embraces the possibility of the vice presidency and, already having acknowledged her own presidential aspirations, openly touts how she’d help Biden win and govern. Bottoms, while not sidestepping the talk, plays the more traditional role of loyal party lieutenant.
While the possibility of being up for the same job could stoke conflict, Abrams, Bottoms and their associates instead frame their national profiles as a boost for black women.
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Shunned by his party, Iowa's Steve King fights for his seat
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Rep. Steve King is fighting for his political life — but not because he's compared immigrants crossing the border illegally to cattle. His Republican opponents in next week's primary aren't raking him over the coals for making light of rape and incest. His chief rival's ads don't mention the time he wondered when the term “white supremacist” became offensive.
Instead, the nine-term congressman known for his nativist politics is fighting to prove he can still deliver for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District. Since Republican leaders stripped him of his committee assignments, in a rare punishment, King has been dogged by questions over whether he's lost all effectiveness. Some longtime supporters are turning away, not because of his incendiary remarks but because they think he can no longer do the job.
“We all want to feel that we’re being represented in Washington, D.C., that we have a voice,” said Iowa state Sen. Annette Sweeney, a former King supporter.
Establishment Republicans in Iowa and Washington, some of whom share King's policy views and have long tolerated his provocative remarks, have largely abandoned the congressman, throwing their weight behind Randy Feenstra, a conservative state senator.
That sets up the June 2 primary, a five-way fight in a GOP-heavy district, as a test of whether the establishment can effectively police the party and distance itself from racist and far-right voices who critics say have been amplified in recent years.
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Stanley Ho, who built Macao's gambling industry, dies at 98
HONG KONG (AP) — Stanley Ho, the Macao casino tycoon who was considered the father of modern gambling in China, died Tuesday in Hong Kong. He was 98.
A family statement said he died peacefully in his sleep, but did not give a cause of death.
Known as the “King of Gambling,” the dashing billionaire and bon vivant secured a four-decade monopoly on casinos in Macao, then parlayed his home advantage to build an empire that still dominated the industry after it opened to foreign companies in 2002.
He was the former Portuguese colony’s richest person, a lavish spender and accomplished ballroom dancer who wielded great influence both in Macao and in neighboring Hong Kong while — according to U.S. authorities — maintaining ties to organized crime.
Tall, handsome and of mixed Chinese and European heritage, Ho fathered 17 children with four women. His extended family erupted in high-profile squabbles over his empire during his later years.
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California lays out pandemic rules for church reopenings
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rabbi Shalom Rubanowitz looks forward to reopening his synagogue doors — if his congregation can balance the laws of God and California during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, the state released a framework that will permit counties to allow in-person worship services. They include limiting worshipers to 100 or less, taking everyone's temperature, limiting singing and group recitations and not sharing prayer books or other items.
The Orthodox congregation of Shul on the Beach in Los Angeles County's Venice Beach will follow the guidelines, consulting with rabbinical authorities who place a high importance on preservation of life, Rubanowitz said.
“We can do it, it’s just a question of how,” he said, noting that Orthodox believers are barred from using technology or carrying many personal items on the Sabbath.
The path of reopening provides “a great deal of hope," he added. “That's what people need."
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5 things to know today - that aren't about the virus
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
1. HONG KONG LEADER SAYS CIVIL RIGHTS NOT AT RISK FROM CHINA Carrie Lam says there is “no need for us to worry” over legislation proposed by China signalling its determination to take greater control of the semi-autonomous territory.
2. VIRGIN ORBIT, WE HAVE A PROBLEM A test launch by a Richard Branson company of a new rocket to put satellites into space failed off the coast of Southern California shortly after the rocket was dropped from beneath a wing of a jumbo jet.
3. PIONEER OF MODERN GAMBLING IN CHINA DIE S Stanley Ho, the 98-year-old Macao casino tycoon known as the “King of Gambling,” was also an accomplished ballroom dancer and suspected by the U.S. of ties to organized crime.
4. BLAME IT ON THE WEATHER The planned launch Wednesday in Florida of a SpaceX rocket with astronauts aboard, a first for a private company, may be delayed by unfavorable meteorological conditions.