Former U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, convicted of misusing campaign funds, has been granted a delay in when he must surrender to start serving his 11-month sentence.

U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan in an order filed Thursday said that Hunter must surrender to a federal prison on or before Jan. 4. Online federal court records show the previous surrender date was set for May 29.

Prosecutors and Hunter's attorney said that the delay was appropriate "due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the unknown impacts the disease will have in the coming months."

Hunter, 43, pleaded guilty in December to a corruption charge after prosecutors said he and his wife "converted and stole" more than a quarter-million dollars in campaign funds for their own use over several years. 

Read the full story here.

Seattle is getting at least 20 linear miles of new open space after Mayor Jenny A. Durkan announced Thursday that streets closed to allow people to get some exercise amid stay-at-home orders will be permanently shut down.

"People have more ways to get out safely and get out and walk and bike," she said at a news conference.

The blocks are part of of the city's Stay Healthy Streets program, announced April 17. The closed streets are intended for pedestrians, bicyclists and people engaging in exercise while practicing social distancing. 

Read the full story here.

UNITED NATIONS — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the coronavirus pandemic keeps unleashing “a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering.”

The U.N. chief said Friday that “anti-foreigner sentiment has surged online and in the streets, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have spread, and COVID-19-related anti-Muslim attacks have occurred.”

Guterres said migrants and refugees “have been vilified as a source of the virus — and then denied access to medical treatment.”

“With older persons among the most vulnerable, contemptible memes have emerged suggesting they are also the most expendable,” he said. “And journalists, whistleblowers, health professionals, aid workers and human rights defenders are being targeted simply for doing their jobs.”

Guterres appealed “for an all-out effort to end hate speech globally.”

The secretary-general called on political leaders to show solidarity with all people, on educational institutions to focus on “digital literacy” at a time when “extremists are seeking to prey on captive and potentially despairing audiences.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials say fewer illegal immigrants are trying to enter the country from Mexico amid new enforcement rules imposed in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan says agents are encountering about half the number of migrants along the southwest border than in the month before President Donald Trump authorized the rapid expulsion of migrants under a March 21 public health order.

Total encounters in April were about 16,700.

The public health order was initially renewed for 30 days and is scheduled to expire this month. But Morgan and Deputy Commissioner Robert Perez suggested Thursday that the public health restrictions may have to stay in place longer even as the U.S. starts to ease quarantine restrictions.

Morgan also said border agents have encountered their first two migrants with confirmed cases of COVID-19. The first was from India and was captured near Calexico, California, on April 23. The second was a man from Mexico captured this week as he tried to enter the U.S. to seek medical attention for his illness.

American Samoa is a rare place where officials say coronavirus does not exist.

Iulogologo Joseph Pereira, chairman of American Samoa Coronavirus Task Force, said Thursday, "We still don't have a confirmed case."

The U.S. territory has suspended flights from Hawaii, declared a state of emergency and put a pandemic plan into action.

It initially sent test samples to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for analysis but now has its own machine to do that. "We are steadily conducting tests which so far have all come back negative," Pereira said.

A fourth member of a family has been charged in connection to the fatal shooting of a Michigan security guard after an argument about a face mask requirement for shoppers.

Brya Shatonia Bishop, 24, the sister of the man accused of firing at the guard at a Flint store is accused of tampering with evidence by wiping her phone, lying to investigators and accessory after the fact to a felony, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said Thursday.

"We think she helped them escape," Leyton said in an interview with Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV.

Michigan State Police and the U.S. Marshals Service are searching for Bishop's brother, Ramonyea Bishop, 23, and his stepfather, Larry Teague, 44, in connection with Friday's killing at a Family Dollar store.

Read the full story here. 

An off-duty Alabama police officer body-slammed a Walmart customer after she refused to wear a face covering and became irate, authorities said Thursday.

The woman, who was not publicly identified, was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and other alleged crimes, police in Birmingham said.

Sgt. Rod Mauldin said the incident occurred Tuesday at a Walmart in a Birmingham shopping district.

The woman became upset after a store employee asked her to wear a face covering as a coronavirus protection before entering, Mauldin said in a statement. She refused and became “disorderly,” yelling expletives at customers and employees, he said.

The officer used a “takedown measure” to gain control of the woman because of “other threat factors in the store,” Mauldin said.

Read the full story here. 

Airport medical screenings designed to keep coronavirus-stricken travelers from South Korea and Italy out of the United States in early March resulted in only 69 people being turned away, a House investigation found. 

The probe by the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy found the U.S. effectively outsourced the screenings to South Korea and Italy and resulted in "another opportunity the administration missed to limit the impact of coronavirus,” said committee chairman Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.  

The Trump administration issued a Level 4 travel advisory involving the two countries on Feb. 29th, as both were dealing with escalating coronavirus cases. Vice President Mike Pence said President Donald Trump had "directed the State Department to work with our allies in Italy and in South Korea to coordinate a screening, a medical screening, in their countries of any individuals that are coming in to the United States of America."

The House investigation found that between March 3rd and March 13th, just 13 passengers were barred from Italy and 56 were barred from South Korea. It also found that the officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not know how the screenings in Italy were being conducted and had no personnel overseeing the screenings. Passengers from both countries were not screened when they arrived in the U.S., the report found.

Krishnamoorthi said the findings show the government "disregarded valuable opportunities to slow the spread through enhanced entry screenings."

 

Latinos are testing positive to coronavirus at higher rates than any other demographic group in Illinois, alarming officials and experts who say that if the number of COVID-19 cases "continues to rise in Latino communities, so too will the rates of deaths."

Of the more than 28,200 Latinos who have been tested for coronavirus, at least 17,240 have been diagnosed with COVID-19. That's about 61 percent of all Latinos who have been tested, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said the rate is "more than three times our state average."

“The Latino community is being silently decimated by the coronavirus," Rep. Jesús "Chuy" García, D-Ill., told NBC News in a statement. "If we are serious about controlling the spread of COVID, our country cannot have a plan that ignores Latinos and the conditions we are living in during these times."

Read the full story here. 

As the NFL unveils its schedule of games, Commissioner Roger Goodell set ground rules for reopening facilities. Teams must comply with local governments and create “infection response” units, among other guidelines.

A video from a discredited scientist promoting a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories about the coronavirus went viral across every social media platform Thursday. It was initially pushed by anti-vaccination disinformation peddlers, and then picked up steam when it was promoted by minor celebrities.

In a matter of hours, the video became one of the most widespread pieces of coronavirus misinformation, drawing millions of views across major technology platforms. Its success underscores how misleading information about the coronavirus crisis continues to circulate, with some indications that growing fear and frustration are making conspiracy theories more appetizing to a larger audience.

The video, far more polished than other similar videos, comes as authoritative sources of information are finding it hard to compete with people who have years of experience in creating viral internet media.

Read the full story here. 

Frontier Airlines said Thursday it would begin implementing mandatory temperature checks on passengers prior to boarding, the first U.S.-based airline to announce such a measure. 

The temperature checks, which will begin June 1, are another added layer of protection, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said in a press release. Any passenger with a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher will be denied boarding. 

"This new step during the boarding process, coupled with face coverings and elevated disinfection procedures, will serve to provide Frontier customers an assurance that their well-being is our foremost priority and we are taking every measure to help them travel comfortably and safely," Biffle said. 

Although many U.S. airlines have imposed face mask requirements and social distancing measures, mandatory temperature readings have yet to become an industry standard. Air Canada announced Monday that it would be the first North American carrier to start infrared temperature checks.  

Red Rabbit, a school meal program provider based in New York City, has turned to mobile distribution to ensure students in underserved communities are still able to receive nutritious meals amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Previously the organization worked directly with charter and public schools in the area to develop healthy meal programs for students.

However, once schools shut down, the organization switched over to mobile distribution where each week members make stops in Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn and the Lower East Side to “deliver fresh, made-from-scratch meals.”  

The organization is also hosting Zoom Cooking Classes students and their families can sign up for on Instagram.

Disney announced a plan to begin a phased reopening of Disney Springs in Orlando, Florida, on May 20.

In a press release, Matt Simon, vice president of the resort, said "a limited number of shopping and dining experiences that are owned by third-party operating participants will begin to open during this initial phase."

There will be numerous new safety measures put in place in order to reopen including additional cleaning procedures, face cover requirements for both guests and cast members as well as limited-contact guest services. 

There will also be limited hours and parking capacity.

The remainder of Walt Disney World Resorts in Florida will remain closed. On Tuesday it was announced Disney Shanghai will reopen on May 11. 

Chinese officials accused U.S. leaders of pushing false claims and conspiracies about the origin of the coronavirus, calling it a ploy in President Trump's re-election narrative.

The current consensus by scientists and public health experts is that the only way to end the coronavirus' devastating effects on America's citizens and its economy is to develop, produce at scale and widely distribute an effective vaccine against COVID-19 as quickly as possible.

There are, of course, myriad scientific challenges inherent to that imperative, among them the virus' potential mutability, our lack of knowledge about whether antibodies provide protection against reinfection (and, if so, for how long), and the time it takes to discover an effective vaccine, test it, receive regulatory approval and begin commercial production.

But there is one more problem we've rarely had to consider: By pharmaceutical companies’ own estimates, no company has anywhere near the production capacity needed to meet the demand, once those effective vaccines (or treatments) have been found.

Read the full THINK piece here.

Amtrak is asking customers to wear masks, following the lead of multiple airlines from JetBlue to Spirit, in attempts to protect employees and slow the spread of COVID-19. 

"We strongly recommend customers follow CDC guidelines and wear facial coverings in public, including in our stations and on trains," according to new guidance on its website.

The railroad service, which operates routes across the U.S. and has been struggling to meet a profitability goal this year, said it plans to limit boarding capacity to just 50 percent and for a period of time will no longer accept cash.

The company is also trying to stop crowding on escalators and around trains by placing signs reminding people about social distancing guidance.  It also has enacted more thorough cleaning, according to its website.

The new guidelines go into effect Monday, May 11.

Ride-hailing platform Lyft announced Thursday that riders and drivers will be required to wear a face covering in order to book a ride. The new policy, which will launch on the Lyft app in the next few weeks, requires users to check boxes confirming they are symptom free and wearing a mask.

“If you do not certify that you will comply to those policies, you will not have access to the platform,” said Angie Westbrock, who leads Lyft’s coronavirus task force.

The app will prompt riders and drivers to commit to leaving the front seat of a vehicle empty, open vehicle windows and frequently wash hands. Drivers will also be prompted to clean “high touch” surfaces between rides. Lyft said it has invested $2.5 million in sanitation and mask supplies and ordered “hundreds of thousands of units” of hand sanitizer in an effort to help drivers keep vehicles clean. 

The policy applies to the U.S. and Canada, where Lyft operates, including in areas which may have less-stringent mask policies. Global rideshare giant Uber plans to announce a similar mask requirement in certain countries, including the United States, in the coming days, an Uber spokesperson said.

The coronavirus pandemic could kill 83,000 to 190,000 people in Africa in the first year and infect 29 million to 44 million if it is not contained, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

The projections are contained in a new WHO Africa study based on assumptions that no containment measures will be put in place, which has fortunately not been the case, WHO Africa head Matshidiso Moeti told reporters in a teleconference.

Read the full story here. 

Viruses are among the biggest threats to humanity, with the current pandemic showing how these pathogens can shut down countries, halt entire industries and cause untold human suffering as they spread through communities.

Viruses have also evolved in such a way that they are difficult to kill. What makes them, including the novel coronavirus, so tricky to cure?

Part of the problem is the nature of viruses themselves, which exist like freeloading zombies — not quite dead, yet certainly not alive.

“Viruses don’t really do anything — they’re effectively inert until they come into contact with a host cell,” said Derek Gatherer, a virologist at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. “But as soon as that happens, they switch on and come to life.”

Read more here.

WASHINGTON — The Republican National Committee added Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge to its convention team as a "senior advisor for health and safety planning.” The addition comes as the Republican Party has promised an in-person convention in Charlotte, N.C. this summer, but as the RNC has begun to consider alternative plans. 

“We are committed to hosting a safe and successful 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, and Dr. Runge’s background and expertise will be instrumental as we continue to map out our plans that ensure the health safety of all convention participants and the Charlotte community,” said RNC convention president and CEO Marcia Lee Kelly.

Last month, the RNC said was it moving "full steam ahead" in planning their August convention, but some involved in the planning now say the convention may look drastically different than past conventions. Some alternative considerations include only having delegates and alternate delegates attend the convention and to have less parties and gatherings on the sidelines of the convention. 

The virus that causes COVID-19 can be found in semen, Chinese researchers report in a small study that doesn’t address whether sexual transmission is possible.

Doctors detected the virus in semen from six of 38 men hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Four were still very sick with the disease while two were recovering.

Read more. 

A pastor in rural Illinois who has defied the state order against large gatherings during the coronavirus crisis says Gov. J.B. Pritzker is not going to stop him from preaching this Sunday.

“I will be in the pulpit preaching my heart out on Mother’s Day,” Stephen Cassell told NBC News.

But Cassell declined to specify whether his flock would be in the sanctuary of the Beloved Church in the tiny farm village of Lena like they were last Sunday. He said they got bomb and death threats after the church reopened for the first time since March 31. He said they held online services in the interim.

“I don’t believe there is such a thing as an online church,” Cassell said. “The definition of a church is a gathering. We had to forgo one of the core values of what we are.”

Read the full story here.

A 57-year-old man from El Salvador became the first person to die from COVID-19 in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.

Carlos Escobar-Mejia died Wednesday after first testing positive for the virus on April 24, ICE said in a statement. He was being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near California’s border with Mexico since January, which has the largest COVID-19 outbreak of any ICE detention facility.

Escobar-Mejia was diabetic, his family told the San Diego Tribune, which put him in the high risk category if he contracted the virus.

“This is a terrible tragedy, and it was entirely predictable and preventable,” Andrea Flores, deputy director of immigration policy at the ACLU, said in a news release. “For months, public health experts and corrections officials have warned that detention centers would be petri dishes for the spread of COVID-19 — and a death trap for thousands of people in civil detention.”

Over 700 detainees have tested positive for COVID-19 in ICE facilities, according to data on the agency’s website.

A Pentagon memo that says a COVID-19 diagnosis “permanently” disqualifies recruits from joining the military is actually “interim guidance” and recruits who have recovered from the disease may still be able to get a waiver that lets them sign up, according a defense official.

The official did not say how long the interim guidance would be in place.

The memo from the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command says that a “history of COVID-19, confirmed by either a laboratory test or clinician diagnosis, is permanently disqualifying.” The memo was issued Wednesday and was first reported by The Military Times.

Read the full story here.

Vice President Mike Pence delivered boxes of personal protective equipment outside a nursing home with COVID-19 patients in Virginia on Thursday - without wearing any himself. 

Pence put a box of equipment on the doorstep of the Woodbine Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Alexandria and waved inside before wheeling over more boxes and helping unload them. He was not wearing a mask or gloves while handling the packages. Other officials who were with him were also not wearing masks. 

Pence made headlines last week when he toured the Mayo Clinic, a hospital with a strict mask policy, without a face covering. Pence defended the decision afterward, telling reporters that he's confident he doesn't have the coronavirus because he and other White House officials are tested it for it regularly and he felt healthy.

Dr. Vin Gupta told NBC News last week, "The vast majority of individuals that we think are likely transmitters of the disease have no symptoms."  

Pence said during a Fox News town hall on Sunday night that not wearing a mask at the facility was a mistake. Pence's Thursday delivery came as the White House said President Donald Trump's personal valet has tested positive for the virus. A White House spokesman said Pence has tested negative since the revelation. 

    

The White House sent back guidelines it received from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month on how businesses, schools and other organizations should reopen with a request for revisions, two administration officials said.

The White House coronavirus task force, which is headed by Vice President Mike Pence, viewed the CDC’s advice as overly restrictive and in some cases thought it undercut the White House’s three-phase guidelines for opening up the country, released in mid April, the official said.

The White House's guidelines on reopening and easing social distancing are broad and leave much of the decision-making to governors. Those guidelines say states should see a 14-day decrease in coronavirus cases before reopening but do not set a specific timeline for doing so.

"Issuing overly specific instructions — that CDC leadership never cleared — for how various types of businesses open up would be overly prescriptive and broad for the various circumstances states are experiencing throughout the country," a task force official told NBC News, noting that the White House guidelines advise states to open up in safe and responsible ways based on their own data and response efforts.

Read the full story here.

The official New York state death toll from coronavirus has now topped 20,000, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.

The number reached 20,597 because of 231 new deaths and because past fatalities from nursing homes and other adult care facilities have now been confirmed as caused by coronavirus and added to the state total.

The total of new deaths announced each day continues to decline, though the 231 new deaths announced Thursday are just one less than the number reported Wednesday. The governor called the state's gradual decline in new fatalities "slow" and "painful."

The governor also released more results from the state's ongoing antibody testing program, and said indications so far are that health-care workers are less likely to be infected than the general public.

He said that in New York City, 19.9 percent of those tested for coronavirus antibodies have come back positive. but for the healthcare worker population that number was 12.2 percent, with a similar pattern in the city's suburbs.

 

Brandon Truett's parents surprised him with a celebratory billboard near his South Carolina hometown, congratulating him for finishing his University of Chicago PhD in English.

"My dad was thinking of ways to celebrate because he knew the graduation was canceled," Truett said. "I always think I'm the extra one, but he really topped me on this one."

Truett said he defended his dissertation, the last assignment before becoming a PhD, on a video conference, which allowed his parents to watch. He said his father, who rented the billboard in South Carolina, would not have been able to attend his defense because of his demanding work schedule.

"My dad has always been supportive, but this is the culminating gesture," said Truett, who added his father is currently reading his 250-page dissertation on visual art and the Spanish Civil War.

One of President Donald Trump’s personal valets at the White House has tested positive for the coronavirus and the president was “not happy” when he found out on Wednesday, a White House official said.

The valet works in the West Wing and serves Trump his meals, among other duties. Valets do not wear masks, the official said.

Read more here.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday announced the state has launched a program to buy excess agricultural products in the state and donate them to food banks.

"At a time when people are hungry, it makes no sense for food or milk to go to waste," Cuomo said. "We will bring products from 2,100 upstate farms to 50 food banks, providing 20,000 households with food."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday said the state is extending its moratorium on evictions for people facing coronavirus-related hardship for an additional 60 days — until at least Aug. 20. 

The state is in addition banning fees for late or missed payments during the moratorium period, he said.

"We are also allowing renters facing COVID-related hardship to use their security deposit as payment and repay the deposit over time," the governor said.

Graduates at Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School received their diplomas in a nearly-empty auditorium Wednesday. Friends, family and relatives were not allowed to attend because of the state's social distancing mandates.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott today eliminated jail confinement as a punishment for people who violate his coronavirus executive orders. 

In a statement, Abbott said the change is retroactive to April 2 and supersedes local orders. 

He said the revision should lead to the release of Shelley Luther, who was arrested and sentenced to seven days in jail for opening her salon in violation of coronavirus shutdown orders.

“Throwing Texans in jail who have had their businesses shut down through no fault of their own is nonsensical, and I will not allow it to happen,” Abbott said in the statement. “As some county judges advocate for releasing hardened criminals from jail to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it is absurd to have these business owners take their place.” 

The luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, the second major retailer after J.Crew to seek reorganization this week as the industry buckles under widespread store closures.

“Like most businesses today, we are facing unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has placed inexorable pressure on our business,” said Geoffroy van Raemdonck, chairman and CEO of Neiman Marcus Group, in a statement.

Leading up to the pandemic, the company reported a loss of $31.2 million in July, compared with a net loss of $19.9 million the previous year.

Market conditions have been brutal for the retail industry over the last several weeks. Like other retailers, Neiman Marcus stores have been closed since mid-March as state governors issued stay-at-home orders to stem infections. The company furloughed almost all of its 14,000 employees on March 30. 

Read the full story here.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday that he's putting together a task force to combat domestic and gender-based violence during the coronavirus pandemic.

The group will include 20 leaders to assist those who may need shelter, legal services and counseling. 

"We need people to stay home for everyone's safety, but we also have to find a way to disrupt this problem because it's unacceptable," the mayor said at his new conference. "It's unacceptable that anyone would be in danger in their own home. We do not allow that in New York City." 

New York City is ramping up its antibody testing and plans to test roughly 70,000 people over the next two weeks, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Thursday. 

The city is "launching an antibody survey to understand COVID-19 spread and provide New Yorkers with more clarity," the mayor's press secretary, Freddi Goldstein, said in a tweet.

There initially will be a testing site in each of the city's five boroughs, with each site providing tests free to 1,000 people a day. The initiative starts next week and is by appointment only. 

Results will take 24 to 48 hours.

Antibody tests are intended to show whether a person's immune system has developed antibodies, which would indicate they were exposed to the coronavirus at some point. There have been questions about the accuracy of some antibody tests. 

New York City is making progress in its fight against the spread of the coronavirus with declines in the number of patients admitted to hospitals and intensive care units.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday that 79 people were admitted to hospitals for COVID-19, down from 109 people on May 4. The number of patients admitted to intensive care declined to 567 from 599. 

"It's not perfect progress, but it's damn close," the mayor said. 

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin extended the Russian capital’s strict lockdown until May 31, according to an order announced Thursday. 

Industrial and construction enterprises can return to work on May 12, but the remainder of the city's social and economic life will remain frozen.

Moscow residents will still need passes to leave their homes for most activities — save for grocery shopping, walking pets and taking out the trash.

And as of May 12, residents will also face a new requirement to wear masks when going to buy groceries or ride public transport.

Sobyanin said a recent spike in new cases was the result of expanded testing, and that hospitalizations remain stable.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has rebuffed a plea from Germany to reconsider halting funding for the World Health Organization over its handling of the outbreak, according to a German newspaper.

The German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Thursday that Pompeo responded to a letter from German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, insisting that the U.S. was “deeply committed to working with the international community to fight the coronavirus pandemic” despite the funding freeze.

Pompeo said that the U.S. has been the largest single contributor to WHO over the years despite what he described as “a string of mismanaged pandemic responses” by the Geneva-based agency, which he accused of “public kowtowing to the Chinese Communist Party regime.”

Germany’s Foreign Ministry confirmed an exchange of letters between Maas and Pompeo but declined to elaborate. The U.S. Embassy in Berlin said it would not comment on diplomatic communications.

Spain will hold a day of mourning for those who died from coronavirus once people are allowed to move freely again, Minister of Health Salvador Illa said on Thursday.

Illa was speaking during a daily news conference, where he also said that while much was not known about the virus, the government was sure its transmission was linked to the mobility of people. He said “once the streets can be walked freely again," the government will declare a national day of mourning with a tribute to follow.

Most of the country is currently in “Phase 0” of their lockdown lifting, where some small stores are allowed to reopen, and people are allowed to leave their homes to exercise within set times.

Around 3 million more workers filed for unemployment benefits for the first time last week, down slightly from 3.8 million the previous week.

More than 33 million Americans have now filed for initial jobless claims since the coronavirus pandemic ripped through the economy, according to data released Thursday by the Department of Labor.

Continuing claims, or the number of people receiving ongoing benefits, is now at more than 22 million, far surpassing the recessionary peak of 6.6 million.

Thursday's jobless-claims number comes before the closely watched monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which will be released Friday morning.

In an interview with Savannah Guthrie on NBC's "TODAY" show Thursday morning, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari, said Friday's official unemployment rate "will probably be something like 16 or 17 percent — but it will understate how bad the damage has been. I think the real number is probably around 23 or 24 percent. It's devastating."

However, he added, "I don't think we're actually headed for another Great Depression," predicting instead a "a long, gradual recovery" whose pace will be dictated by the coronavirus.

The World Health Organization is “deeply troubled” by increased reports of domestic violence in Europe, including Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Ireland, Russian, Spain, and the U.K., Dr. Hans Kluge said in a news briefing on Thursday. 

Kluge, the head of the WHO Europe office, said although data was scarce, countries across Europe are reporting up to a 60 percent increase in emergency calls by women subjected to violence by their intimate partners in April this year compared to last. He also noted that online inquiries to violence prevention support hotlines have jumped about five times.

Citing data from the U.N. Population Fund, Kluge said “if lockdowns were to continue for six months, we would expect an extra 31 million cases of gender-based violence globally."

Kluge said governments and local authorities should consider it a moral obligation to ensure services are available to vulnerable communities. Reported numbers are still only a small measure of the actual problem, since people suffering from abuse often decline to report it, he said. 

Apple said Thursday that it was awarding $10 million to a maker of nasal swabs and other materials for collecting samples for Covid-19 tests in a move aimed at boosting the swab maker's production to 1 million collection kits per week by early July.

The two companies said the award would help Murrieta, California-based COPAN Diagnostics expand into a larger facility and create 50 new jobs in Southern California. In addition to providing the funding, Apple said it would help COPAN Diagnostics design and source new equipment from York, Pennsylvania-based K2 Kinetics and Waukesha, Wisconsin-based MWES, both makers of industrial robotics systems.

The U.K. government has confirmed that nearly 400,000 gowns ordered from Turkey have been impounded after it was found that they do not meet British safety standards. The news, first reported by the U.K. newspaper The Daily Telegraph, comes after the government has faced a wave of criticism for not procuring adequate amounts of personal protective equipment, or PPE, for medical workers.

The shipment of gowns from Turkey was initially announced by the government when addressing the shortage of PPE available in the country. The shipment was delayed, but arrived in London last month on a Royal Air Force plane. The gowns are now reportedly being kept in a government warehouse after inspectors found they were faulty.

“We are working night and day to source PPE internationally and domestically and brought together the NHS, industry and the armed forces to create a comprehensive PPE distribution network to deliver critical supplies to the frontline," a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said. 

The U.S. also received a shipment of supplies from Turkey on April 29, including medical gowns, which was greeted by a delegation from the Turkish Embassy as well as State and Defense Department officials at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. No issues have been reported with that shipment.

Air France-KLM forecast a "prolonged negative impact on passenger demand" in a statement on Thursday, after the company lost 1.8 billion euros, or $1.9 billion, in the first quarter.

"We're not seeing a return to 2019 levels until, at a minimum, 2022 — an absolute minimum," Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith said according to Reuters. Current forecasts indicate that Air France is expecting European borders to reopen in September at the earliest, resulting in a 40 to 50 percent decrease in activity compared to the same period in 2019.

The partner airlines expect that the second quarter of this year will be far worse, with traffic down 95 percent. Air France has implemented protective measures in its flights to keep activity going, notably the mandatory wearing of masks to take effect from May 11.

The largely black and white painting shows a child holding aloft a doll in a superhero cape and an apron with a red cross. The toy nurse's right fist thrusts forward in a flying Superman pose.

Banksy’s latest piece, which went on display at Southampton General Hospital in the south of England on Wednesday, marks the spirit of gratitude for healthcare workers that has swept across Britain during the coronavirus pandemic.

Read the full story here.

Britain's Prince George wants to do his sister Charlotte's school projects instead of his own work, his mother Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, said Thursday in an interview with ITV. 

Kate appeared on the show "This Morning" to launch a photography project designed to capture "the spirit, the hopes, the fears and the feelings" of the U.K. during the coronavirus crisis. In collaboration with London's National Portrait Gallery, the "Hold Still" will crowd-source 100 of the best photos submitted by the public to provide "a snapshot of the people of the U.K. at this time." 

"That’s the power of photography, it can capture a moment and tell a story," said Kate, the wife of Queen Elizabeth II's grandson, Prince William. She added that her three children check in daily with family members they can't see in person, and that they are having "in some ways a lot more contact than perhaps we would have done before." 

Black people in Britain are more than four times as likely to die from coronavirus than white people, according to data published Thursday by the U.K.’s Office of National Statistics, which analyses population data for England and Wales.

The analysis showed that even when accounting for socio-economic factors along with age and health, black people are still 1.9 times more likely to die from coronavirus. People of Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, or mixed ethnicity also had what the ONS calls a “statistically significant” rise in risk of death from coronavirus, versus those of white ethnicity.

“These results show that the the difference between ethnic groups in COVID-19 mortality is partly a result of socio-economic disadvantage and other circumstances, but a remaining part of the difference has not yet been explained,” the report said.

China is open to cooperating with the World Health Organization on a virus tracing investigation, Hua Chunying, a Chinese political spokesperson said at a press conference on Thursday. Chunying emphasized, however, that the country is opposed to an investigation where China is already presumed to be guilty. 

"China remains open to all kinds of cooperation with WHO on issues including virus tracing, as long as it is conducive to better cope with major infectious diseases," she said. China opposes that the United States and other countries can't wait for a "presumed international investigation of guilt" on the issue of traceability, she added. Recently, U.S. officials have offered differing claims on the virus' origins.

On Wednesday, the head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, said the organization was in talks with China to send a follow-up mission to the country to investigate the animal source of the pandemic. This comes just days after the WHO said China had not invited the organization to take part in an investigation into the origins of the virus.

Russia's number of total confirmed cases of coronavirus overtook France and Germany on Thursday, reaching 177,160 infections. There was also a new record for the daily number of confirmed infections, with official government numbers showing 11,231 new cases, the fifth day in a row with more than 10,000.

These milestones come a day after President Vladimir Putin asked regional leaders to prepare plans for a gradual easing of lockdown starting May 12. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said Thursday 300,000 people have likely been infected in Moscow, despite an official tally of 92,676 cases in the city. 

Sobyanin said the growth in new cases is due to expanded testing, which has allowed for the identification of more asymptomatic cases. 

London will fast-track the construction of new cycle lanes to facilitate a predicted ten-fold increase in biking as a result of the coronavirus crisis, Mayor Sadiq Khan announced. The city's public transit system will only be able to run at a fifth of pre-crisis capacity due to social-distancing requirements, the mayor said, adding that if just a fraction of transit journeys are taken in cars instead, "London risks grinding to a halt, air quality will worsen, and road danger will increase."

The "streetspace" program will see temporary bike lanes installed quickly on some of London's busiest roads and sidewalks widened to allow more space for pedestrians to socially distance. The new lanes could be made permanent, the mayor indicated. 

London is the latest city to turn to more space for cycling and walking as a result of the coronavirus crisis. New York, Milan and Paris have already announced big plans to turn over street space to walking and cycling. Columbia University’s Purnima Kapur — until recently the executive director of the New York City Department of City Planning — suggested that city planners could now find they have the political will to push through progressive changes that would have seemed too radical just a few months ago.

South Korea ended its stringent social distancing policies Wednesday after halting the spread of the coronavirus. But although sports fans will soon be allowed to return to stadiums and as museums and libraries began to reopen, life remains far from normal.

Thermal scanners at theme parks, shopping for makeup while wearing masks and constant tracking of people's whereabouts through apps and credit card data are markers of the new post-pandemic world in the country leading the way in its response to the virus.

"Everyday distancing does not mean returning to life before COVID-19," Kim Kang Lip, vice minister of health and welfare, said Tuesday at a news briefing. "It means building new social norms and a culture based on exercising social distancing."

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Frontier Airlines is dropping plans to charge passengers extra to sit next to an empty middle seat after congressional Democrats accused the airline of trying to profit from fear over the new coronavirus.

“We recognize the concerns raised that we are profiting from safety and this was never our intent,” Frontier CEO Barry Biffle said late Wednesday in a letter to three lawmakers. “We simply wanted to provide our customers with an option for more space.”

Biffle said the airline will rescind the extra fee, which Frontier called More Room, and block the seats from being sold.

Earlier in the day, Democrats had railed against Frontier's plan to charge passengers at least $39 per flight to guarantee they would sit next to an empty middle seat. The offer was to begin with flights Friday and run through Aug. 31.

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BANGKOK — The millions of unemployed in Thailand because of the coronavirus include elephants dependent on tourists to feed their voracious appetites. With scant numbers of foreign visitors, commercial elephant camps and sanctuaries lack funds for their upkeep and have sent more than 100 of the animals trudging as far as 100 miles back to their homes.

The Save Elephant Foundation in the northern province of Chiang Mai has been promoting the elephants’ return to the greener pastures of home. The foundation supports fundraising appeals to feed animals still housed at tourist parks, but also believes it is good for them to return to their natural habitat where they can be more self-sufficient.

The situation is critical. London-based World Animal Protection says as many as 2,000 tame elephants are at risk of starvation because their owners are unable to feed them.

Since last month, more than 100 of the animals have marched from all over Chiang Mai to their homeland of Mae Chaem, which is dotted with villages where members of the Karen ethnic minority live and traditionally keep elephants.

The federal government said Wednesday people should return coronavirus relief payments that were sent to the deceased.

The IRS issued the formal guidance on its website Wednesday, and the Treasury Department also tweeted about what it called the inadvertent payments.

Congress authorized payments of $1,200 to individuals as part of a massive relief package due to the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus epidemic. Many were based on past tax returns, and people have reported that relatives who have since died got that money.

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