Epidemics
Pastor Marsha Hawkins-Hourd, a community leader in St. Louis, drives past a man standing on a sidewalk in a neighborhood known to locals as a gathering spot for drug use on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. Hawkins-Hourd describes the vacant buildings in the neighborhood as a symbol of addiction and a community thrown away. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
In pandemic, drug overdose deaths soar among Black Americans

By Claire Galofaro 3 hrs ago

Ohio proposals would let high schoolers redo pandemic year

By Kantele Franko 4 hrs ago
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The pandemic made Jake Gregg's senior year of high school very different than anticipated. He got by enough to graduate, but now the 19...

FILE - In this Friday, June 4, 2021 file photo, people have drinks by the Tagus river in Lisbon as the sun sets. Two months after Portugal began to ease a prolonged lockdown, the Lisbon region is going into reverse due to a surge driven by the coronavirus’ delta variant, which now accounts for more than 7 in 10 new infections in the capital. The country reported 1,556 new infections Thursday, June 24, 2021 — the highest number since Feb. 20. Just over 1,000 of them were in the Lisbon region. Officials say hospital admissions are increasing at a “worrying” level. Portugal was the worst-hit country in the world, in terms of weekly infections, in January. But an extended lockdown contained the spread. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)
Portugal in reverse as delta variant grips Lisbon, cases up

By Barry Hatton 6 hrs ago

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2021 file photo, Ana Paula de Santos poses for a photo inside a room that she occupies with her husband in a building that used to house a factory, amid the new coronavirus pandemic, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. De Santos, who worked as a maid, has been unable to work because of COVID-19 and says that she can't afford the cost of living after the Brazilian government cut off financial aid to poor families affected by the pandemic. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)
Brazil scrambles to help the poor, while they barely hang on

By Marcelo Silva De Sousa 6 hrs ago

FILE - In this May 19, 2021 file photo, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky testifies during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Biden administration has extended the nationwide ban on evictions for a month to help tenants who are unable to make rent payments during the coronavirus pandemic but says this is expected to be the last time it does so. Walensky extended the evictions moratorium from June 30 until July 31. The CDC said Thursday it's "intended to be the final extension of the moratorium.” (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via AP)
CDC extends eviction moratorium a month, says it's last time

By Ashraf Khalil And Michael Casey 8 hrs ago

FILE - In this Oct. 26, 2020, file photo, Japan's Emperor Naruhito wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus attends to formally open an extraordinary Diet session at the upper house of parliament in Tokyo. Naruhito appears to be “extremely worried” about the possibility the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics could trigger the spread of the coronavirus as feared by many people, head of Japanese imperial palace said Thursday, June 24, 2021 with the games coming up in one month. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)
Palace: Japan emperor 'worried' about Olympics amid pandemic

By Mari Yamaguchi 9 hrs ago

People wearing face masks stand along a street in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, June 24, 2021. Spain is easing its COVID-19 pandemic rules, permitting people to stop wearing masks outdoors and allowing sports fans back into stadiums. Almost a year after face masks became mandatory indoors and outdoors, people from Saturday will no longer be required to wear them outside as long as they can stay at least 1.5 meters (5 feet) apart. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
The Latest: US to send Afghanistan 3 million vaccine doses

By The Associated Press 11 hrs ago

FILE - In this file photo dated Friday, April 9, 2021, a woman walks past a poster depicting a scene from the famed movie " Roman Holiday" with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn wearing surgical masks as riding a Lambretta scooter in Rome. The return of international travel is key to economic recovery across Europe, particularly for countries that rely more heavily on tourism, according to figures released Thursday June 24, 2021, from the World Travel and Tourism Council. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, FILE)
As pandemic restrictions wane, hopes rise for Europe travel

By Urooba Jamal 11 hrs ago

German business sentiment rises as pandemic ebbs

12 hrs ago
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's businesses are more optimistic than they've been in almost three years, according to a closely watched survey by Munich's Ifo institute...

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades talks to Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Malta Prime Minister Robert Abela and Bulgaria's President Rumen Radev and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, from right, during an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, June 24, 2021. At their summit in Brussels, EU leaders are set to take stock of coronavirus recovery plans, study ways to improve relations with Russia and Turkey, and insist on the need to develop migration partners with the countries of northern Africa, but a heated exchange over a new LGBT bill in Hungary is also likely. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)
Merkel: Europe 'on thin ice' amid delta virus variant rise

By Samuel Petrequin And Frank Jordans 14 hrs ago

Pastor Marsha Hawkins-Hourd, a community leader in St. Louis, drives past a man standing on a sidewalk in a neighborhood known to locals as a gathering spot for drug use on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. Hawkins-Hourd describes the vacant buildings in the neighborhood as a symbol of addiction and a community thrown away. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
In pandemic, drug overdose deaths soar among Black Americans

Claire Galofaro 15 hrs ago

Polish tourist Maciej Pol Ogrodnik and his wife Izabela pose after an interview, in Antalya, southern Turkey, Saturday, June 19, 2021. Hotels in Turkey's Antalya region, a destination beloved by holidaymakers, are preparing to finally resume operations as they expect the return of international tourists after months of setbacks caused by the pandemic that halted travel. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Turkey welcomes back tourists, hopes to recoup losses

By Mehmet Guzel And Zeynep Bilginsoy 15 hrs ago

People queue outside a COVID-19 testing station in Wellington, New Zealand, Thursday, June 24, 2021. After enjoying nearly four months without any community transmission of the coronavirus, New Zealanders were on edge Wednesday after health authorities said an infectious traveler from Australia had visited over the weekend. (Mark Mitchell/NZ Herald via AP)
'Scary' Sydney virus cluster blamed on delta variant grows

16 hrs ago

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Calls for extension of eviction ban as new deadline looms

By Ashraf Khalil And Michael Casey 24 hrs ago

Overdose deaths set record in pandemic year in Maine

By David Sharp Jun. 23, 2021 04:55 PM EDT
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The number of people who died from drug overdoses during the pandemic year rose to an all-time high in Maine, surpassing 500 for the...

A woman gets a shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at an inoculation center operated by the Portuguese armed forces at Lisbon University's sports stadium, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. The Lisbon region's recent surge in COVID-19 cases is powering ahead, with new infections pushing Portugal's number of daily cases to a four-month high, as a report by health experts found fault with the government's pandemic response. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Lisbon drives virus surge as Portugal is chided for failings

By Barry Hatton Jun. 23, 2021 12:52 PM EDT

A medical worker wearing protective gear escorts a man, suspected of having coronavirus, at a hospital in Kommunarka, outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, June 21, 2021. Russia's national coronavirus taskforce on Saturday reported 17,378 new infection cases, more than double the daily tally from early June - more than half of them in Moscow, where the infection numbers have tripled this month. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
As infections soar, Siberian region imposes 2-week lockdown

Jun. 23, 2021 12:36 PM EDT

Editorial Roundup: U.S.

By The Associated Press Jun. 23, 2021 11:53 AM EDT
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: June 22 The Kansas City Star on hubris and COVID...

FILE - In this March 2, 2018 file photo, Televangelist Jim Bakker, right, walks with his wife Lori Beth Graham after a funeral service at the Billy Graham Library for the Rev. Billy Graham, in Charlotte, N.C. Jim Bakker and his southwestern Missouri church will pay restitution of $156,000 to settle a lawsuit that accused the TV pastor of falsely claiming that a health supplement could cure the coronavirus. Missouri court records show that a settlement agreement was filed Tuesday, June 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton File)
Jim Bakker, his church settle lawsuit over COVID-19 claims

By Jim Salter Jun. 23, 2021 11:30 AM EDT

Nurse Jody Berry draws a syringe full of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic at Mother's Brewing Company in Springfield, Mo., on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. As the U.S. emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, Missouri is becoming a cautionary tale for the rest of the country: It is seeing an alarming rise in cases because of a combination of the fast-spreading delta variant and stubborn resistance among many people to getting vaccinated. (Nathan Papes/The Springfield News-Leader via AP)
Unvaccinated Missourians fuel COVID: 'We will be the canary'

By Heather Hollingsworth Jun. 23, 2021 11:10 AM EDT