United States

Reuters reports: U.S. first lady Jill Biden met Ukrainian refugees in eastern Slovakia on Sunday, the last full day of her tour of Romania and Slovakia to visit U.S. servicemen deployed there and women and children who fled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden spoke to families, volunteers and local authority workers at a refugee centre in the eastern Slovak city …

The Associated Press reports: The dam at El Capitan Reservoir is seen Friday, April 8, 2022, in Lakeside, Calif. Constructed four generations ago, the massive rock and clay dam is capable of storing over 36 billion gallons of water — enough to supply every resident in San Diego for most of a year. Today, it’s three-quarters empty — intentionally kept …

NBC News reports: The U.S. on Wednesday surpassed 1 million Covid-19 deaths, according to data compiled by NBC News — a once unthinkable scale of loss even for the country with the world’s highest recorded toll from the virus. The number — equivalent to the population of San Jose, California, the 10th largest city in the U.S. — was reached …

NBC New York reports: After the I-Team revealed Russian diplomats abusing parking privileges and failing to pay $101,000 in outstanding NYC parking summonses, NBC New York has learned the U.S. State Department has held up more than two dozen registrations for vehicles belonging to the Russian Federation. The action will prevent Russia from renewing some of its U.S. diplomatic license …

Bloomberg News reports: Fiji’s High Court has given the green light for U.S. and local authorities to seize a $325 million megayacht whose ownership is in dispute, setting the stage for a legal showdown to determine whether the luxury vessel’s owner is sanctioned Russian gold billionaire Suleiman Kerimov as the U.S. claims. The Suva High Court on Monday granted the …

The New York Times reports: After a secret visit to Kyiv and a three-hour meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday pledged broad economic, military and humanitarian support for Ukraine’s government, saying the United States would stand with its ally until Russia was defeated. Drawing parallels with the American Revolution, the comments by Ms. Pelosi — who …

The New York Times reports: Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are rising in a majority of American states, in what appears to be the first widespread increase since the peak of the Omicron surge in January. Reports of new cases were nearly flat in the United States at the beginning of April, but as the month draws to a close, they …

Axios reports: The White House unveiled a proposed legislative package on Thursday that would allow the federal government to sell assets seized from Russian oligarchs over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and to use the proceeds for military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The U.S. has already seized million of dollars in assets from wealthy Russians with close ties to …

USA Today reports: Police in North Charleston (S.C.) are investigating a shooting outside of a youth league baseball field Monday night that sent parents, fans and players ducking for cover in the middle of a game. No injuries were reported. According to a police report obtained by USA TODAY Sports, officers heard dozens of gunshots at around 8:43 p.m., coming …

The Washington Post reports: The United States is finally “out of the full-blown explosive pandemic phase” that has led to nearly 1 million deaths from covid-19 and more than two years of suffering and hardship, Anthony S. Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, said Wednesday. “We’re really in a transitional phase, from a deceleration of the numbers into hopefully a …

The New York Times reports: By February 2022, nearly 60 percent of the population had been exposed to the coronavirus, almost double the proportion seen in December 2021, according to data released on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers analyzed blood samples collected from September 2021 to February 2022, looking for antibodies to the virus; …

NBC News reports: For the second year in a row, Covid was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S., according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Friday. In both 2020 and 2021, the only conditions that killed more people than Covid were heart disease, which caused 693,000 deaths last year, and cancer, at 605,000 deaths …

Axios reports: President Biden announced on Monday that he intends to nominate Bridget Brink as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. The U.S. has not had an ambassador to Ukraine since former President Trump removed Marie Yovanovitch from the position in 2019. The White House’s announcement follows Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr …

Reuters reports: The United States promised on Monday to reopen its embassy in Kyiv soon, as Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ukraine’s capital and hailed its success so far against Russia’s invasion. Both men said the fact they were able to come to Kyiv was proof of Ukraine’s tenacity in forcing Moscow to abandon …

The Washington Post reports: In 2020, 56 percent of Americans who died were cremated, more than double the figure of 27 percent two decades earlier, according to the Cremation Association of North America (CANA). By 2040, 4 out of 5 Americans are projected to choose cremation over casket burial, according to both CANA and the National Funeral Directors Association. Other …

Bloomberg News reports: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would visit Kyiv on Sunday, in what would be a risky show of support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion. “Tomorrow people from the U.S. are coming, I will meet the defense minister and the secretary of state, Mr. Blinken,” …

NPR reports: For decades, auto accidents have been the leading cause of death among children, but in 2020 guns were the No. 1 cause, researchers say. Overall firearm-related deaths increased 13.5% between 2019 and 2020, but such fatalities for those 1 to 19 years old jumped nearly 30%, according to a research letter in New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers …

Roll Call reports: The Biden administration announced a new program Thursday that would offer relief to Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion by allowing Americans to sponsor them for temporary admission to the U.S. Under the Homeland Security Department program, dubbed “Uniting for Ukraine,” American individuals and groups, including nonprofit organizations and churches, will apply to sponsor displaced Ukrainian citizens. The application …

The Washington Post reports: Within weeks, it’s likely that the 1,000,000th American will die of covid-19. The millionth death on record, that is — it’s likely that the number of deaths is undercounted. At the outset of the pandemic, after all, medical professionals didn’t know what they were looking for, and Americans were unprepared for the effects of the coronavirus …

Reuters reports: President Joe Biden pledged $800 million in more weaponry for Ukraine on Thursday and said he would ask Congress for more money to help bolster support for the Ukrainian military as it faces a fresh onslaught by Russia on its eastern flank. The Pentagon said that the new package would include 75 155mm long-range howitzers, 72 tactical vehicles …