US recovery from pandemic recession is showing momentum
WASHINGTON (AP) - Powered by consumers and fueled by government aid, the U.S.
economy is achieving a remarkably fast recovery from the recession that ripped through the nation last year on the heels of the coronavirus and cost tens of millions of Americans their jobs and businesses.
The economy grew last quarter at a vigorous 6.4% annual rate, the government said Thursday, and expectations are that the current quarter will be even better.
The number of people seeking unemployment aid - a rough reflection of layoffs - last week reached its lowest point since the pandemic struck. And the National Association of Realtors said Thursday that more Americans signed contracts to buy homes in March, reflecting a strong housing market as summer approaches.
Economists say that widespread vaccinations and declining viral cases, the reopening of more businesses, a huge infusion of federal aid and healthy job gains should help sustain steady growth.
For 2021 as a whole, they expect the economy to expand around 7%, which would mark the fastest calendar-year growth since 1984.
As American consumers have stepped up their spending in recent months, they have consumed physical goods far more than they have services, like haircuts, airline tickets and restaurant meals: Spending on goods accelerated at an annual pace of nearly 24% last quarter; services spending rose at a rate below 5%.
But now, that disparity will likely shift as more restaurants and entertainment venues reopen and people look to spend more on experiences and less on tangible items.
On Friday, for example, Disneyland will reopen, with limited capacity, to California residents.
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Brazil tops 400,000 virus deaths amid fears of renewed surge
SAO PAULO (AP) - Brazil on Thursday became the second country to officially top 400,000 COVID-19 deaths, losing another 100,000 lives in just one month, as some health experts warn there may be gruesome days ahead when the Southern Hemisphere enters winter.
April was Brazil´s deadliest month of the pandemic, with thousands of people losing their lives daily at crowded hospitals.
The country´s Health Ministry registered more than 4,000 deaths on two days early in the month, and its seven-day average topped out at above 3,100.
That figure has tilted downward in the last two weeks, to less than 2,400 deaths per day, though on Thursday the Health Ministry announced another 3,001 deaths, bringing Brazil's total to 401,186.
Local health experts have celebrated the recent decline of cases and deaths, plus the eased pressure on the Brazilian health care system - but only modestly.
They are apprehensive of another wave of the disease, like those seen in some European nations, due to a premature resumption of activity in states and cities combined with slow vaccination rollout.
Less than 6% of Brazilians have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to Our World in Data, an online research site.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who is now being investigated by a Senate panel over his administration's handling of the crisis, has repeated he will be the last to get a shot and he has attacked mayors and governors who enforce restrictions to control the virus' spread.
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Biden turns to Georgia to begin pitch for huge spending plan
DULUTH, Ga.
(AP) - In the closing days of his presidential campaign, Joe Biden swung through the Georgia town where Franklin Delano Roosevelt coped with polio, making the case that government can be a force for good. Now, 100 days after taking office, Biden has returned to the state trying to sell voters on his ambitious vision.
The president hoped on Thursday to rally supporters behind his $4 trillion plans to rebuild America's aging infrastructure and vastly expand the government's social safety net.
As the nation takes steps to move past the devastating pandemic, he argues that now is the time for the government to spend more on its citizens and raise taxes on the extremely wealthy to cover the cost.
The Georgia trip is part of an effort to gain momentum for the massive - and expensive - agenda Biden articulated during his first address to a joint session of Congress.
It's a dramatic shift from nearly four decades of politics in which leaders from both parties have spoken of a need to contain government
"In another era when our democracy was tested, Franklin Roosevelt reminded us-In America we do our part," Biden told lawmakers Wednesday night.
"That´s all I´m asking. That we all do our part."
There's special significance in Biden's decision to make Georgia his first stop after the address. He was the first Democratic presidential contender to carry the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.
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EXPLAINER: What to know about the Giuliani investigation
NEW YORK (AP) - The long-running federal investigation into Rudy Giuliani's dealings in Ukraine moved back into public view Wednesday when federal agents seized electronic devices from the former mayor's home and office.
The search was the latest development in an inquiry that overlapped with the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump, who was accused of pressuring the leaders of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son.
The probe involves a complex web of international characters who dealt with Giuliani as he tried to stir up support for a Ukrainian investigation of the Bidens.
Federal prosecutors haven't disclosed which elements of Giuliani's work are the focus of their probe, currently being led by Audrey Strauss, the U.S.
attorney for the Southern District of New York.
But at least one part is an examination of whether Giuliani failed to disclose to the U.S. government work he did on behalf of foreign entities.
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Hamas rejects delay of Palestinian elections as 'coup'
JERUSALEM (AP) - The Islamic militant group Hamas has rejected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas´ decision to cancel the first elections in 15 years, calling it a "coup" with no popular support.
In his announcement early Friday, Abbas cited a dispute with Israel over voting in east Jerusalem, but delaying the elections will likely spare his divided Fatah party another embarrassing defeat.
Hamas, which had been expected to perform well in the May 22 elections, had earlier said that voting in east Jerusalem should take place without Israel´s permission. It slammed the decision to delay the vote in a brief statement issued early Friday.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP´s earlier story follows below.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said early Friday that the main factions have agreed to delay the first elections planned in 15 years, citing a dispute with Israel over voting in east Jerusalem.
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Free rides and beer: Incentives are added to vaccine drive
Free beer, pot and doughnuts.
Savings bonds. A chance to win an all-terrain vehicle. Places around the U.S. are offering incentives to try to energize the nation´s slowing vaccination drive and get Americans to roll up their sleeves.
These relatively small corporate promotion efforts have been accompanied by more serious and far-reaching attempts by officials in cities such as Chicago, which is sending specially equipped buses into neighborhoods to deliver vaccines.
Detroit is offering $50 to people who give others a ride to vaccination sites, and starting Monday will send workers to knock on every door in the city to help residents sign up for shots.
Public health officials say the efforts are crucial to reach people who haven't been immunized yet, whether because they are hesitant or because they have had trouble making an appointment or getting to a vaccination site.
"This is the way we put this pandemic in the rearview mirror and move on with our lives," said Dr.
Steven Stack, Kentucky´s public health commissioner.
Meanwhile, more activities are resuming around the U.S. as case numbers come down. Disneyland is set to open Friday after being closed for over a year, while Indianapolis is planning to welcome 135,000 spectators for the Indy 500 at the end of May.
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'I'm still exhaling': Swing-state voters on Biden's 100 days
ELM GROVE, Wis.
(AP) - Standing on the sidelines of her son's soccer practice in this upscale suburb, Laura Hahn looked skyward for answers when asked how she would rate President Joe Biden's first 100 days in office.
Overall, Biden is doing well, she said after a few minutes of thought.
But she acknowledged her judgment is as much a feeling of relief as an analysis of accomplishments.
"I´m still exhaling," Hahn said, referencing the tumultuous tenure of President Donald Trump. "It´s been exhausting."
At the 100-day marker, polls show most Americans are like Hahn, giving the new president positive marks for his early performance.
But in this pocket of swing-state Wisconsin, where a surge in suburban Milwaukee helped put Biden in the White House, interviews with voters show that support for the Democratic president often falls short of adulation. Biden continues to get credit for bringing stability to the coronavirus crisis - and for not being Trump - but there are signs that goodwill only goes so far.
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Young women, grown up without Taliban, dread their return
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Inside Ms.
Sadat´s Beauty Salon in Afghanistan´s capital, Sultana Karimi leans intently over a customer, meticulously shaping her eyebrows. Make-up and hair styling is the 24-year-old´s passion, and she discovered it, along with a newfound confidence, here in the salon.
She and the other young women working or apprenticing in the salon never experienced the rule of the Taliban over Afghanistan.
But they all worry that their dreams will come to an end if the hard-line militants regain any power, even if peacefully as part of a new government.
"With the return of Taliban, society will be transformed and ruined," Karimi said.
"Women will be sent into hiding, they´ll be forced to wear the burqa to go out of their homes."
She wore a bright yellow blouse that draped off her shoulders as she worked, a style that´s a bit daring even in the all-women space of the salon. It would have been totally out of the question under the Taliban, who ruled until the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. In fact, the Taliban banned beauty salons in general, part of a notoriously harsh ideology that often hit women and girls the hardest, including forbidding them education and the right to work or even to travel outside their home unaccompanied by a male relative.
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Indians turn to black market, unproven drugs as virus surges
NEW DELHI (AP) - Ashish Poddar kept an ice pack on hand as he waited outside a New Delhi hospital for a black market dealer to deliver two drugs for his father, who was gasping for breath inside with COVID-19.
But the drugs never arrived, the ice that was intended to keep the medicines cool melted and his father died hours later.
As India faces a devastating surge of new coronavirus infections overwhelming its health care system, people are taking desperate measures to try to keep loved ones alive.
In some cases they are turning to unproven medical treatments, in others to the black market for life-saving medications that are in short supply.
Poddar had been told by the private hospital treating his father, Raj Kumar Poddar, that remdesivir, an antiviral, and tocilizumab, a drug that blunts human immune responses, were needed to keep the 68-year-old man alive.
Like most hospitals and pharmacies in the Indian capital, stocks had run out.
Desperate, Poddar turned to a dealer who promised the medicines after taking an advance of almost $1,000.
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5 arrested in violent robbery of Lady Gaga's dogs
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The woman who returned Lady Gaga´s stolen French bulldogs was among five people arrested in connection with the theft and shooting of the music superstar´s dog walker, Los Angeles police said Thursday.
Detectives do not believe that the thieves initially knew the dogs belonged to the pop star, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.
The motive for the Feb. 24 robbery, investigators believe, was the value of the French bulldogs - which can run into the thousands of dollars.
The dog walker, Ryan Fischer, is recovering from a gunshot wound and has called the violence "a very close call girls in delhi with death" in social media posts.
He was walking Lady Gaga's three dogs - named Asia, Koji and Gustav - in Hollywood just off the famed Sunset Boulevard when he was attacked.
Video from the doorbell camera of a nearby home shows a white sedan pulling up and two men jumping out. They struggled with Fischer and one pulled a gun and fired a single shot before fleeing with two of the dogs, Koji and Gustav.
The video captured Fischer´s screams of, "Oh, my God! I´ve been shot!" and "Help me!" and "I´m bleeding out from my chest!"