Spring

Brazil approaches 100,000 deaths from COVID-19: ministry

Brazil reported 53,139 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 1,237 deaths from the disease caused by the virus in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Thursday. Brazil has registered 2,912,212 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 98,493, according to ministry data. It is the world's worst coronavirus outbreak after the United States.

AMC expects to reopen all international theaters in three weeks

Movie theaters across the world were shuttered since mid-March when several countries imposed strict lockdowns and social distancing measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The world's largest movie theater chain's plans come as studios push to make their movies available in living rooms sooner than the typical timeline of roughly 90 days after they debut in cinemas. Last week, AMC and Comcast Corp's Universal Pictures agreed to a major shift that will allow the studio's movies to be made available to U.S. audiences at home after just three weekends in cinemas.

U.S. prosecutors charge former Citgo executive in bribery probe

U.S. prosecutors charged a former Citgo Petroleum manager with accepting $2.5 million as part of a scheme to bribe officials with the U.S. refiner and its Venezuelan parent to win business contracts. Jose Luis De Jongh Atencio, 48, was indicted by a federal grand jury last month with money-laundering and conspiracy charges, according to an indictment unsealed on Thursday. De Jong is the 27th person charged in a U.S. investigation of bribery at Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.

Jussie Smollett's sister Jurnee breaks silence on his alleged attack: 'It's been f---ing painful'

Jurnee Smollett has spoken out for the first time about the scandal surrounding her brother Jussie Smollett.

Trump advisers urge delisting of U.S.-listed Chinese cos that fail to meet audit standards

Trump administration officials have urged the president to delist Chinese companies that trade on U.S. exchanges and fail to meet U.S. auditing requirements by January 2022, Securities and Exchange Commission and Treasury officials said on Thursday. The remarks came after President Donald Trump tasked a group of key advisers, including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, with drafting a report with recommendations to protect U.S. investors from Chinese companies whose audit documents have long been kept from U.S. regulators. It also comes amid growing pressure from Congress to crack down on Chinese companies that avail themselves of U.S. capital markets but do not comply with U.S. rules faced by American rivals.

ICE detained hundreds of Mississippi chicken plant workers. Now managers are charged

The indictments mark the first criminal action prosecutors have taken against company managers after ICE took close to 700 workers into custody last year during a massive raid on food processing plants.

SecArmy Pledges 'Every Resource' to Root Out Causes of Vanessa Guillen's Death

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told an audience at Fort Hood that he is determined to change the culture of sexual harassment.

Coronavirus updates: State Department issues new travel rules

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 710,000 people worldwide. Over 18.8 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.

Deputies say he killed a man at a Dania Beach motel. The victim was found in the bathroom.

Deputies say they have arrested a man wanted for a weekend murder at a motel in Dania Beach.

N.Y. county agrees to 'landmark' transgender jail reforms

The policy touches upon preferred names, clothing, searches, grooming items, housing and health care for transgender and gender-nonconforming inmates.

Justice Department to send agents to St. Louis and Memphis to fight crime

Federal law enforcement agents will be sent to St. Louis and Memphis, Tennessee, to help fight violent crime, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday. President Donald Trump last month blamed increases in violence in U.S. cities on left-leaning movements to "dismantle and dissolve" local police departments following the killing of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in June. U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement that federal agents being sent to St. Louis and Memphis will work with local law enforcement "to take the shooters and chronic violent criminals off of our streets."

Trump says Biden is 'against God'

President Trump attacked former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday by accusing him of being “against God.”

Trump loses bid to add fourth U.S. campaign debate with Biden in early September

President Donald Trump's re-election campaign on Thursday lost its bid for a fourth debate with Democratic candidate Joe Biden in early September. In rejecting the request, the Commission on Presidential Debates said it remains committed to the current schedule of three 90-minute debates beginning in late September. It said it would only add a fourth debate or move an existing debate to earlier in the month if both sides in the campaign for the Nov. 3 vote agreed to it.

A New Jersey landlord demanded sexual favors in exchange for housing in his federally funded properties, Justice Department says

The Justice Department is suing Joseph Centanni, saying he demanded tenants and prospective tenants to have sex with him for more than a decade.

Reporter shares powerful post on wearing braids on-air for 1st time

"The news director told me I wouldn't get a job with braids," Roberts said. "I'm not just speaking for myself when I say Black women feel like we need to conform to society's beauty standards in order to be accepted."

US appeals court denies bid to resurrect Bundy standoff case

A U.S. appeals court refused Thursday to resurrect the criminal case against states’ rights figure Cliven Bundy, family members and others stemming from a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents trying to round up Bundy cattle near the family ranch in Nevada. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in San Francisco denied prosecutors’ efforts to overturn U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro’s decision to stop a months-long trial in January 2018 for “flagrant” prosecutorial misconduct and her dismissal of the criminal indictment so it could not be re-filed.

Who is Letitia James? New York's first black AG who hopes to take down the NRA

As a public advocate, Letitia James made her name going after New York's landlords. As a candidate for attorney general, she made her campaign going after one of the city's most famous."This campaign was really never about me, or any of the candidates who ran," Ms James told supporters when accepting the party's nomination in 2018.

Quarantine 'checkpoint' opens at New York City's Penn Station to enforce travel rules

A few dozen travelers got off a train from Miami at New York City's Penn Station on Thursday and were greeted by a team of public health workers and mayoral office staff who handed them informational fliers about the state's new COVID-19 quarantine rules. The team, comprised of Mayor Bill de Blasio's public engagement unit and the city's COVID-19 Test & Trace Corps, were running a "checkpoint" starting at Penn Station on Thursday to ensure that visitors from any of the 35 states on New York's travel advisory were aware of the 14-day quarantine mandate.

'Unmerited humiliation:' Woman sues over CBD oil arrest at Disney World

A North Carolina woman arrested with possession of CBD oil at Disney World, which is legal in Florida, is suing the park and the sheriff's department.

After Isaias rocks East Coast, more storms on the way

Along the East Coast, where millions are still without power because of Tropical Storm Isaias, more rain is expected in the coming days. Nearly 1.6 million customers across New Jersey, New York and Connecticut have been affected by power outages. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday that it expects the months ahead to be some of the "most active" in decades.

New York attorney general sets her sights on disbanding the NRA

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday she has filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association.

AbbVie agrees to pay $24 million to resolve Humira California lawsuit

The Insurance Commissioner of California said the company also agreed to disclose that AbbVie, and not a medical provider, paid the registered nurses who are employed as so-called AbbVie Ambassadors to interact with patients about Humira. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said AbbVie has paid $24 million to California and the whistleblower, a registered nurse who brought the case to the department's attention in October 2016.

Reduced sentence after a guilty plea could end for 'bang to rights' criminals

Criminals who are “bang to rights” will no longer be given discounted prison sentences if they plead guilty under proposals being considered by the Government, the Telegraph understands. Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, is studying plans to end the current practice of automatically giving convicted criminals a third off their sentences if they plead guilty the first time they are asked in court. The move comes amid a public outcry after one of the teenage killers of PC Andrew Harper had his sentence reduced by eight years to 16 years because of his guilty plea to manslaughter and his age. Ministers fear that the third-off rule may be undermining confidence in the criminal justice system and is being exploited by offenders caught in the act but who know they can reduce their sentence by a third by pleading guilty. “If you get caught red-handed killing someone, say on camera, should you really get a third off for pleading guilty?” said a source. “The rule is designed to help victims so they don’t have to go through the stress of giving evidence. What it is not supposed to be is for criminals to exploit it by seeing they are ‘bang to rights’ and then game the system for their own benefit. “That’s where it is open to exploitation for the wrong reasons. It’s then benefiting the criminals rather than the victims.” It is understood the policy is likely to be initially focused on murder and manslaughter but could be extended to other serious offences. It was being considered before the sentencing of PC Harper’s killers. The rules, introduced in 2016, give judges a sliding scale, starting with a third-off, followed by one-fifth if the criminal pleads guilty later but before the first day of the trial and one tenth if they change their plea on the first day. It is a zero reduction for any time later.

Michelle Obama says she's suffering from 'low-grade depression' amid the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful for many people, including Michelle Obama. The former first lady opened up about her mental health in the newest episode of her eponymous podcast. Obama, 56, admitted on Wednesday that the pandemic -- along with the current administration's response -- has placed her on an emotional rollercoaster.

‘It just snowballed.’ Nearly 100 people brawl inside hotel near Disneyland, police say

People used makeshift weapons such as broomsticks and chair legs during the chaos, police say.

Supporters, opponents of Hindu temple meet in Times Square

A Midtown Manhattan celebration of a Hindu temple being built on disputed ground in India brought polarized groups into Times Square, where supporters of the landmark project were flanked by protesters calling it an offense to Muslims. Protesters organized under the name the Coalition to Stop Genocide in India held signs on the edges of the celebration reading, “BJP is Islamophobia,” referring to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party. Modi participated in the groundbreaking for the Hindu temple, which will be built where the Babri Masjid mosque stood, on Wednesday in the northeastern Indian city of Ayodhya.

Doctor delivers baby 25 years after delivering his mom

A doctor who delivered a baby girl 25 years ago has now delivered her newborn son. Dr. Bryan Cox of Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, delivered Lauren Cortez on March 23, 1995. Cortez's mom, Isabel Luna, has been his patient for over two decades.

Democrats demand Postal Service reverse changes slowing mail

Democratic congressional leaders are calling on the U.S. Postal Service to immediately reverse operational changes that are causing delays in deliveries across the country just as big volume increases are expected for mail-in election voting. The letter by Schumer and Pelosi came as the top Democrat on a Senate panel that oversees the Postal Service launched an investigation into the operational changes, which eliminate overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and mandate that mail be kept until the next day if distribution centers are running late.

After the FBI raided Jake Paul's mansion, speculation was rampant about his associate 'Armani' Izadi, who is an accused pimp and was also searched by the feds

In addition to Jake Paul's Calabasas home, FBI agents also searched the Las Vegas mansion of his associate, 'Armani' Izadi, an accused pimp.

Homeland Security chief says department is reviewing complaints excessive force used in Portland

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is reviewing "a number" of complaints that its agents used excessive force against anti-racism protesters in Portland, Oregon, though so far no one has been disciplined, the department's acting head said on Thursday. Acting Secretary Chad Wolf testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about the federal response to long-running protests in Portland, where state and city officials complained that the presence of federal officers inflamed protests.

U.S. Sen. Harris, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez offer environmental justice bill

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday introduced legislation to beef up federal accountability for pollution in minority communities disproportionately harmed by climate change. Harris, a leading contender to be Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's running mate, was running in the Democratic primary last year when she first floated the Climate Equity Act with Ocasio-Cortez https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-climatechange/harris-ocasio-cortez-float-plan-to-lift-low-income-communities-in-climate-plans-idUSKCN1UO259. President Donald Trump and Republicans have called it a socialist plan that would wreck the economy.

Trump claims Biden 'insulted the Black community' with remarks on Hispanic diversity

President Trump Joe Biden had “totally disparaged and insulted the Black community" by comparing African-American attitudes with those of Hispanics.

Alicia Keys is launching a cruelty-free collection with e.l.f. Beauty

Alicia Keys is a bonafide beauty in her own right, and now fans will be delighted to hear she's coming out with a line of beauty products. Beauty announced the company will team up with the award-winning singer-songwriter to create a new lifestyle beauty brand. "We are beyond thrilled to leverage our strengths to help realize Alicia's vision, as it not only aligns with our mission to make the best of beauty accessible, but infuses it with an even deeper dimension," said Tarang Amin, chairman and CEO of, e.l.f.

Amanda Kloots marks 1 month since Nick Cordero's death: 'With each passing day I miss you more and more'

Amanda Kloots paid tribute to her late husband Nick Cordero one month after his death on Wednesday. "Dear Nick, it's been one month since you've been gone," the fitness trainer wrote alongside a photo of herself with her husband. "I wish I could see you, hold you, kiss you, talk to you, hear your voice, get a hug, see you with Elvis," she continued, mentioning the couple's 1-year-old son.

France new COVID-19 cases spike again, uptick in ICU units

France's new COVID-19 infections rose by more than 1,600 over 24 hours for the second day running on Thursday, putting the country at levels not seen since late May, while the number of affected patients in intensive care units has also risen. At 1,604, the daily tally of new cases is lower than Wednesday's 1,695, but still not far from the May, 30 figure of 1,828 cases. The total number of cases has reached 195,633.