VOL. 44 | NO. 25 | Friday, June 19, 2020
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week as the benchmark 30-year home loan reached a new all-time low.
NEWSMAKERS
Metro Nashville Public Schools is re-organizing its leadership structure with a plan to streamline operations and save $1 million in next year’s budget. The reorganization has resulted in the consolidation or elimination of multiple positions and the creation of two new positions to better serve the students and staff of MNPS.
BRIEFS
Margaret Dolan, who became Launch Tennessee president and CEO in Oct. 2018, is stepping down to join the private sector with a company that is focused on innovations in impact investing.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
While many aspects of car design can seem commoditized, storage space is one place where automakers can still get creative. These extra spots to put your stuff can make a big difference in your daily driving.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Financial fallout from the pandemic is hitting millennials hard, and many will soon turn to their parents for help, if they haven’t already.
CAREER CORNER
One of the hardest parts of the job interview process comes in the form of a very simple question: “How much do you make?” The question typically comes up in the first screening call with the human resources recruiter. It is also asked on the online job application.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
A few days after buying a sweater at Macy’s, Erin Chisman returned to get the same one in a different color, only to realize it was 50% off. Upon seeing the new price tag, the Wisconsin-based business owner was determined to save.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee State Museum is set to reopen on July 1, with temperature checks and masks required for all employees and guests.
ELECTION 2020
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that it will not block a judge's order offering a by-mail voting option to all eligible voters during the coronavirus pandemic while the state continues to appeal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service's famous motto — "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers" — is being tested like never before, by challenges that go well beyond the weather.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SPRING HILL (AP) — General Motors said Wednesday it will lay off 680 workers at its Tennessee assembly plant and eliminate the facility's third shift, moves the company says are due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can deport some people seeking asylum without allowing them to make their case to a federal judge.
WASHINGTON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sought to recruit hackers at conferences in Europe and Asia who could provide his anti-secrecy website with classified information, and conspired with members of hacking organizations, according to a new Justice Department indictment announced Wednesday.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — Google says it will start paying some publishers for their news content, in a move that could pave the way for reduced tensions between the internet search giant and the beleagured news industry.
TECHNOLOGY
BEIJING (AP) — The United States is willing to help other countries finance purchases of next-generation telecom technology from Western providers so they can avoid Chinese tech giant Huawei, which Washington sees as a security threat, an American official said Thursday.
BANKING
STOCKHOLM (AP) — A big Scandinavian bank is suspected of having failed to stop money laundering, the latest in a series of banks from the region to get caught handling dirty money.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Disney is postponing the mid-July reopening of its Southern California theme parks until it receives guidelines from the state, the company announced Wednesday.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Qantas plans to cut at least 6,000 jobs and keep 15,000 more workers on extended furloughs as Australia's largest airline tries to survive the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The two U.S. warships in the Middle East weren't aiming to break a record.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy shrank at a 5.0% rate in the first quarter with a much worse decline expected in the current three-month economic period, which will show what happened when the pandemic began spread across the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of laid-off workers seeking U.S. unemployment benefits dipped only slightly last week, and the economy shrank in the first three months of the year — evidence of the ongoing economic damage being inflicted by the viral pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to American factories for big-ticket goods rebounded last month from a disastrous April and March as the U.S. economy began to slowly reopen.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Hotel owner and developer Danny Gaekwad survived steep drops in business after the 9/11 attacks and the recession of the late 2000s, but nothing prepared him for the revenue tailspin that followed lockdowns and travel restrictions in March to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is directing the Department of Agriculture to provide U.S. lobster fishermen with financial assistance to make up for lost income from Chinese tariffs.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — With a policing overhaul stalled in the Senate, House Democrats are returning to Washington for a daylong debate and vote on their sweeping proposal to address the global outcry over the death of George Floyd and other Black Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Yearning for change, a group of progressive Black Democratic congressional hopefuls is rushing toward the national stage, igniting rank-and-file enthusiasm in a party dominated by aging white leaders.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24
MEDIA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee newspaper has fired its advertising manager after a full-page advertisement from a religious group predicting a terrorist attack in Nashville next month appeared in its pages.
ENVIRONMENT
BERLIN (AP) — Germany is banning the sale of single-use plastic straws, cotton buds and food containers, bringing it in line with a European Union directive intended to reduce the amount of plastic garbage that pollutes the environment.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered the dismissal of the criminal case against President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, turning back efforts by a judge to scrutinize the Justice Department's extraordinary decision to drop the prosecution.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has approved the nomination of a Mississippi judge to a federal appeals court, the 200th federal judge named by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Republican-controlled chamber. It's the highest number of judicial nominees confirmed at this stage of a presidency in four decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal prosecutor is prepared to tell Congress on Wednesday that Roger Stone, a close ally of President Donald Trump, was given special treatment ahead of his sentencing because of his relationship with the president.
TECHNOLOGY
A conservative social media user whose far-right memes have been praised and reposted by President Donald Trump has been kicked off Twitter for repeated copyright violations.
Google is tweaking its privacy settings to keep less data on new users by default.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Flicking a dismissive jab at President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a plan Wednesday to expand the Obama-era health law, even as Trump's administration is about to file arguments in a Supreme Court case to strike down "Obamacare."
U.S. dental offices are quickly bouncing back, but it won't be business as usual. Expect social distancing, layers of protective gear and a new approach to some procedures to guard against coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration won a court ruling Tuesday upholding its plan to require insurers and hospitals to disclose the actual prices for common tests and procedures in a bid to promote competition and push down costs.
REAL ESTATE
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are likely to see more "for rent" signs in the coming months as many businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic abandon offices and storefronts and potentially end a long boom in the nation's commercial real estate market.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
HOUSTON (AP) — Hospital administrators and health experts warned desperately Wednesday that parts of the U.S. are on the verge of becoming overwhelmed by a resurgence of the coronavirus, lamenting that politicians and a tired-of-being-cooped-up public are letting a disaster unfold.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The coronavirus has upended the way cities and states market themselves as summer travel destinations, and some tourism officials are just emerging from an especially awkward position: telling potential visitors to stay away.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The next few weeks are critical to tamping down a disturbing coronavirus surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress on Tuesday — issuing a plea for people to avoid crowds and wear masks just hours before mask-shunning President Donald Trump was set to address a crowd of his young supporters in one hot spot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government's top public health leaders on Tuesday shot down assertions by President Donald Trump that the coronavirus pandemic is under control and the U.S. is excelling in testing for the virus.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street's recent rally hit a snag Wednesday as new coronavirus cases in the U.S. climbed to the highest level in two months, dimming investors' hopes for a relatively quick economic turnaround.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new private sector report is warning anew of continuing damage to the economy if Washington doesn't deliver several hundred billion dollars in budget relief to states and local governments amid the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund has sharply lowered its forecast for global growth this year because it envisions far more severe economic damage from the coronavirus than it did just two months ago.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's nominee to be the CIA's chief watchdog is pledging independence, saying he will perform his role "in an unbiased and impartial manner, free of undue or inappropriate influences" by Trump or anyone else.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr will testify before the House Judiciary Committee for the first time next month, the Justice Department said Wednesday, as two of his employees testified that he has politicized the department and allowed special treatment for Roger Stone, a friend of President Donald Trump.
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo's president and nine other former separatist fighters were indicted on a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes charges, including murder, by a court investigating crimes against ethnic Serbs during and after Kosovo's 1998-99 independence war with Serbia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Barack Obama warned Democrats against being "complacent or smug" about the presidential race at a grassroots fundraiser Tuesday for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, calling on viewers to learn the lessons from 2016 and not take the election for granted.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican policing bill hit a roadblock Wednesday as Senate Democrats voted against it as inadequate, leaving the parties to decide whether to negotiate a compromise or walk away despite public outcry over the killings of Black Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's brother is asking a New York City judge to prevent the president's niece from publishing a tell-all book, which is expected to be released later this month.
TUESDAY, JUNE 23
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has started offering high school equivalency exams online, another option while many in-person testing locations remain closed due to COVID-19.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Board of Regents has appointed a new president of the College of Applied Technology in Murfreesboro.
COURTS
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri appeals court has reduced a talcum powder verdict against Johnson & Johnson by more than half, even while ruling that the company knowingly sold a product that caused cancer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans overwhelmingly want clear standards on when police officers may use force and consequences for officers who do so excessively, according to a new poll that finds nearly all Americans favor at least some level of change to the nation's criminal justice system.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A day before Geoffrey S. Berman was axed from his job as head of the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan, he refused to sign onto a letter crafted by senior officials in Washington lambasting New York's mayor for putting COVID-19 restrictions on religious gatherings.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes rose a surprisingly strong 16.6% in May with the reopening of major parts of the country potentially fueling activity in the housing market.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nearly 50 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at a Nashville jail, where all 502 inmates and approximately 100 staff will now be tested, sheriff's officials said Tuesday.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday he is cautiously optimistic there will be a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year or early 2021, but warned that the next few weeks will be critical to tamping down coronavirus hot spots around the country.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Technology companies were high on the leaderboard again Tuesday as Wall Street extended its recent winning streak and headed for its third monthly gain in a row.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon said Tuesday that its carbon footprint rose 15% last year, even as it launched initiatives to reduce its harm on the environment.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is tweeting that an initial trade agreement with China is still on after a top White House adviser's comments seemed to suggest it was over, spooking markets late Monday.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German economic experts say output won't completely bounce back to pre-virus levels until 2022 after a sharp plunge of 6.5% this year, describing the pandemic recession and recovery as taking the shape of a "pronounced V."
BERLIN (AP) — The former CEO of German payment service provider Wirecard has been arrested, accused of inflating the company's balance sheet in an accounting scandal that centers on a missing sum of 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion), prosecutors in Munich said Tuesday.
BEIJING (AP) — Standing in front of shelves laden with colorful backpacks, a saleswoman promoted bags on the Canton Trade Fair's website without knowing whether anyone was watching as the world's biggest sales event opened in cyberspace to avoid the coronavirus pandemic.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Barack Obama raised more than $4 million from 120,000 individual donors ahead of his first fundraiser for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence and a half-dozen other senior advisers to President Donald Trump have repeatedly voted by mail, according to election records obtained by The Associated Press. That undercuts the president's argument that the practice will lead to widespread fraud this November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden's campaign said Monday that the presumptive Democratic nominee would commit to participating in three debates, and slammed a push by President Trump's advisers for an additional debate as an "effort to change the subject."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nonpartisan commission that sponsors the formal election year presidential debates announced Tuesday that an October debate that had been set for Michigan will now take place in Florida.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Regrouping after a humbling weekend rally, President Donald Trump faces another test of his ability to draw a crowd during a pandemic Tuesday as he visits Arizona and tries to remind voters of one of his key 2016 campaign promises.
ATLANTA (AP) — When some Georgia voters endured a pandemic, pouring rain and massive waits earlier this month to cast their ballot, President Donald Trump and other Republicans blamed local Democrats for presiding over chaos.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal prosecutor is prepared to tell Congress on Wednesday that Roger Stone, a close ally of President Donald Trump, was given special treatment ahead of his sentencing because of his relationship with the president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is hitting an impasse on policing legislation, as Senate Democrats on Tuesday opposed a Republican proposal as inadequate, leaving the parties to decide whether to take on the hard job of negotiating a compromise or walk away despite public outcry over the killings of Black Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he'll issue an executive order to protect monuments that are coming under new scrutiny as America wrestles with racism during the unrest sparked by the police killing of George Floyd.
MONDAY, JUNE 22
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Tour promoter Live Nation has announced its first-ever drive-in concerts series in the U.S. for July, months after the live music industry has been on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville entered another phase of reopening Monday amid a rise in the trend of new COVID-19 cases, but officials say the city will stay in the phase for at least a month.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Comedian D.L. Hughley announced he tested positive for COVID-19 after collapsing onstage during a performance in Nashville, Tennessee.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple on Monday provided a glimpse at upcoming software changes designed to make the iPhone even easier to use and also announced a long-anticipated shift to a new type of chip to power its line of Mac computers.
REGION
One of the South's largest grocery store chains is announcing a recall of some salads sold in its stores.
MEDIA
A Tennessee newspaper said Sunday it is investigating what its editor called a "horrific" full-page advertisement from a religious group that predicts a terrorist attack in Nashville next month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday that it is designating the U.S. operations of four Chinese media outlets as "foreign missions" in an action that could force some of their journalists to leave the country and further worsen diplomatic relations.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Black lawmakers came back to the Capitol earlier this month with a request for their white colleagues: Advance public policy to send modest signals that say, "Yes, Black lives do matter."
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday preserved an important tool used by securities regulators to recoup ill-gotten gains in fraud cases.
BRENTWOOD (AP) — A Tennessee woman has been charged in a wrong-way crash that killed a police officer, authorities said.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Existing home sales in the U.S. plunged 9.7% in May. It was the third straight monthly decline and further evidence of the harm the virus pandemic has done to the housing market.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday the United States has done "too good a job" on testing for cases of COVID-19, even as his staff insisted the president was only joking when he said over the weekend that he had instructed aides to "slow the testing down, please."
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about a Mexican-made hand sanitizer gel that it said is dangerous because it contains large amounts of poisonous methanol, or wood alcohol.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Visitors are able to enter the White House complex without having their temperatures checked for the first time since mid-March, although several other coronavirus precautions remain in place.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
A rally in technology companies helped stocks overcome a shaky start Monday, extending Wall Street's solid gains from last week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday that it was extending a ban on green cards issued outside the United States until the end of the year and adding many temporary work visas to the freeze, including those used heavily by technology companies and multinational corporations.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — American whiskey distillers have watched more than $300 million in export revenues evaporate in the two years since becoming entangled in a trade dispute between the Trump administration and the European Union, according to estimates in a new report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans' outlook on the national economy has improved somewhat from its lowest points during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, but a new poll suggests Democrats and Republicans are living in alternate economic realities amid the sharpest recession in the nation's history.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration has relented to public pressure and pledged to provide more details about which small businesses received loans from a $600 billion-plus coronavirus aid program. But government watchdogs say even more transparency is needed to get an accurate picture of who was helped, and who was left out.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence and a half-dozen other senior advisers to President Donald Trump have repeatedly voted by mail, according to election records obtained by The Associated Press. That undercuts the president's argument that the practice will lead to widespread fraud this November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump falsely said at his rally Saturday night that Democratic rival Joe Biden apologized for opposing his restrictions on travel from China early in the coronavirus pandemic. Scrambling to explain an unusually thin rally crowd, his campaign wrongly pinned blame on blockades by protesters for driving the masses away.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The ballot is deployed to replace the bullet, to decide peacefully who will lead, to resolve divisive issues and to empower individual citizens.
FRIDAY, JUNE 19
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal utility is putting plans on hold to build a dry coal ash landfill at a Tennessee power plant.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tuition and fees at Tennessee's community colleges and applied technology colleges will not increase for the upcoming academic year, the Board of Regents said Friday.
STATE GOVERNMENT
MEMPHIS (AP) — Tennessee's jobless rate in May fell in comparison with a record increase the month before, as more than 300,000 people continued to receive unemployment payouts during the new coronavirus outbreak, state officials said Thursday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee announced Thursday that he will sign a proclamation recognizing Juneteenth, the cultural holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved black people in the United States.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Amid nationwide unrest and a global pandemic that wrecked the state budget, Tennessee lawmakers wrapped up a legislative session early Friday by advancing an anti-abortion proposal that includes some of the strictest restrictions in the country.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Automaker BMW says it will drop 6,000 jobs through early retirements and turnover, as the auto industry adjusts to a sharp drop in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nursing home residents account for nearly 1 in 10 of all the coronavirus cases in the United States and more than a quarter of the deaths, according to an Associated Press analysis of government data released Thursday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street careened through all the forces that have pushed and pulled it through the week, at first rising on Friday amid hope for the economy and then falling on worries about worsening coronavirus levels in some states, all before ending with modest losses.
NEW YORK (AP) — A unprecedented number of U.S. companies are giving employees off for Juneteenth on Friday, raising hopes that the day commemorating the end of slavery could someday become a true national celebration.
PARIS (AP) — France's highest administrative court has upheld a fine of 50 million euros ($56 million) Google was ordered to pay for not being "sufficiently clear and transparent" with Android users about their data protection options.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Employers added jobs in 46 states last month, evidence that the U.S. economy's surprise hiring gain in May was spread broadly across the country — in both states that began reopening their economies early and those that did so only later.
TOKYO (AP) — The roller coasters are back running in Tokyo but with requests to not scream. Restaurants are offering more take-out and outdoor seating. Major retailer Uniqlo's new "cool and dry" mask, three for 990 yen ($9), sold out Friday shortly after it was put on the shelves.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders found that a quick deal on the bloc's future long-term budget and a multibillion-euro post-pandemic recovery plan remained beyond their reach Friday as the coronavirus ravages their economies.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former national security adviser John Bolton created a "mess" of his own making by moving to publish his book without receiving final authorization that the manuscript was free of classified information, Trump administration lawyers argued Friday in urging a judge to block the book's release.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration Friday moved forward with a rule that rolls back health care protections for transgender people, even as the Supreme Court barred sex discrimination against LGBT individuals on the job.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says that mail-in voting presents the greatest threat to his reelection hopes and he suggested that legal efforts in several states launched by his allies might decide November's election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Undeterred by this week's Supreme Court ruling, President Donald Trump said Friday he will renew his effort to end legal protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the United States as children.
LONDON (AP) — Twitter has slapped another label on a tweet by President Donald Trump, this time warning that a video he shared was doctored and escalating the social media company's crackdown on one of its most widely followed users.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House fight with former national security adviser John Bolton is the latest chapter in a lengthy history of Washington book battles, yet it will likely define future cases between the U.S. government and former employees determined to write tell-alls.
WASHINGTON (AP) — John Bolton's claim in an explosive new book that President Donald Trump urged China's Xi Jinping to help him win reelection could undermine his campaign's effort to portray Democratic rival Joe Biden as soft on Beijing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Portraits honoring four former House speakers who served in the Confederacy were removed Thursday after Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that the men "embody the violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy."
WASHINGTON (AP) — In vowing to pull thousands of American troops from Germany, President Donald Trump is following a pattern of disruptive, sometimes punitive, moves against allies that have dismayed his fellow Republicans and cast doubt across the globe about the future of partnering with the United States.
THURSDAY, JUNE 18
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt says running back Tim Jordan is no longer on the team after he was arrested May 30 in Florida on gun and marijuana charges.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The police chief of Tennessee's capital city has announced he will retire amid calls for his resignation and a wave of protests nationwide over policing.
BRENTWOOD (AP) — A Tennessee police officer was killed in a head-on crash early Thursday morning, authorities confirmed.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A state and federal lawsuit was dismissed against a Tennessee senator, whose medical company was accused of excessively billing health programs.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee House continued to simmer Wednesday after Republicans spiked a resolution the night before for a young black woman shot and killed this year. Speaker Cameron Sexton even kicked off the morning session by telling leaders of both parties to meet with him afterward.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In two major decisions this week on LGBT rights and immigration, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump somewhat surprising defeats.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected President Donald Trump's effort to end legal protections for 650,000 young immigrants, the second stunning election-season rebuke from the court in a week after its ruling that it's illegal to fire people because they're gay or transgender.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Senate has approved the nomination of a 38-year-old judge and ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to serve on a top federal appeals court, despite Democrats' objections that he's inexperienced and biased against the Obama-era health care law.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence says the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic is "a cause for celebration," but a new poll finds more than half of Americans calling it fair or poor.
NEW YORK (AP) — When the coronavirus roared into New York, chef Anna Klinger wouldn't let it put a fork in her restaurant.
LONDON (AP) — As the race intensifies for a vaccine against the new coronavirus, rich countries are rushing to place advance orders for the inevitably limited supply to guarantee their citizens get immunized first — leaving significant questions about whether developing countries will get any vaccines in time to save lives before the pandemic ends.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Europe grappled Thursday with local spikes in coronavirus infections as the continent's lockdown restrictions eased, after hundreds of cases were found at one meatpacking plant in Germany and Greece had to impose a total seven-day lockdown on one village.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street held at a near standstill on Thursday, with indexes split as caution about rising coronavirus infections in hotspots around the world washed over hopes for a coming economic recovery.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The reopening of businesses shut due to the coronavirus pandemic is fueling optimism on Wall Street that the U.S. economy is on the path to recovering from a steep recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three months after the viral outbreak shut down businesses across the country, U.S. employers are still shedding jobs at a heavy rate, a trend that points to a slow and prolonged recovery from the recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — About 1.5 million laid-off workers applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, a historically high number, even as the economy increasingly reopens and employers bring some people back to work.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank has handed out 1.31 trillion euros ($1.46 trillion) in long-term, ultra-cheap credit to hundreds of banks as part of its emergency support aimed at cushioning the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on businesses and workers.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England unveiled another big stimulus for the U.K. economy as it tries to limit the scale of the coronavirus recession, which it now thinks will be "less severe" than it thought last month.
PARIS (AP) — European countries are slamming the Trump administration's withdrawal from negotiations over a major tax on big tech companies.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facebook has removed campaign ads by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that featured an upside-down red triangle, a symbol once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners, communists and others in concentration camps.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are deeply unhappy about the state of their country — and a majority think President Donald Trump is exacerbating tensions in a moment of national crisis, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she is ordering the removal from the Capitol of portraits honoring four previous House speakers who served in the Confederacy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The new chief of U.S.-funded global media is facing a conservative backlash over his decision to fire the heads of two international broadcasters, adding to concerns about the direction of the agency, which oversees the Voice of America and other outlets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facebook said Thursday that it is working to help Americans vote by mail, including by notifying users about how to request ballots and whether the date of their state's election has changed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump "pleaded" with China's Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit to help his reelection prospects, according to a scathing new book by former Trump adviser John Bolton that accuses the president of being driven by political calculations when making national security decisions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A network of deep-pocketed progressive donors is launching a $59 million effort to encourage people of color to vote by mail in November, a step many Democrats view as crucial to turning out the party's base during the coronavirus pandemic.