Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, on Wednesday criticized the U.S. for blocking an Iranian request for a loan from the International Monetary Fund. "I regret that … the United States are opposing the International Monetary Fund to take this decision," he said during a virtual press conference at the end of a video…
WASHINGTON — Three of the nation’s wealthiest universities rejected federal stimulus funding from the Education Department on Wednesday amid a growing backlash stoked by the Trump administration against schools with multibillion-dollar endowments getting a slice of the economic rescue money. Harvard, Princeton and Stanford each announced they would give up millions of dollars they were…
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats and the Trump administration have reached a deal on a new round of coronavirus aid, though staffers working on the bill cautioned negotiations were not complete. The New York Democrat said that he believed the Senate would pass legislation delivering nearly a half trillion dollars to small businesses,…
Shake Shack plans to return a $10 million loan it received under an emergency small business rescue program, amid a growing backlash against big businesses that got the money before $350 billion in funding lapsed last week. The burger chain was just one of several large restaurant operators and publicly traded companies that secured tens…
American nursing homes will now be required to report coronavirus cases directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as to patients and their families, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said Sunday. The directive from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mark a significant change in practice. The CDC has not formally…
The $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill was just the beginning of a Washington lobbying bonanza — but lobbyists are rushing to get a piece of the action in case it evaporates with a cratering economy. Lobbyists are hustling to influence the rules dictating how the first bundle of stimulus money will be spent, and looking…
President Donald Trump is ready to move past the coronavirus — and his most fervent followers are choosing who to blame. While the president spent the week teasing guidelines for restarting the country’s economy and belittling some states with strict lockdown measures, vocal Trump supporters coalesced around the people that they are blaming for getting…
President Donald Trump defended a sharp drop in commercial laboratory coronavirus testing as a positive development Thursday despite public health experts’ warnings that the U.S. needs millions of additional tests each week to safely reopen the country. “In recent days we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of tests performed by hospitals and academic…
Sen. Joe Manchin will endorse Joe Biden for president, putting to bed any thought that he might not support the Democratic presidential nominee this time around. The conservative West Virginia Democrat said in an interview on Thursday that he’s working with Biden, the presumptive nominee, on an endorsement that will come in tandem with a…
Nearly three-quarters of Americans agree on at least one thing about the coronavirus, according to a new poll: The worst is yet to come. A Pew Research Center survey finds that the majority of Americans don’t see an end in sight for the pandemic, with 73 percent of those polled saying that when it comes…
The only hospital in Grand Island, Neb., is full. The mayor has asked for a statewide stay-at-home order that the GOP governor insists isn’t needed. More than one-third of those tested for coronavirus in the surrounding county are positive — and there aren’t enough tests to go around. Grand Island is the fourth-biggest city in…
Amid a rising death toll, a brewing constitutional clash with governors, and news reports criticizing the White House’s early inaction in combating the coronavirus outbreak, President Donald Trump took about 40 minutes out of his day Tuesday to meet and shoot the breeze with recovered patients at the White House. As cameras rolled and bulbs…
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that he is halting funding to the World Health Organization while his administration reviews the group’s handling of the coronavirus, accusing it of bungling the response and failing to communicate the disease’s threat. The move follows weeks of Trump’s escalating attacks on the U.N. health organization as he has…
Blood tests that measure a person’s antibodies to the coronavirus could be a powerful tool to determine when it’s safe to reopen the country. But concerns about the accuracy and availability of the tests — which detect whether a person has ever been exposed to the virus, and are different from the tests used to…
Banks are beginning to open the spigot of the $350 billion small business rescue package that has suffered constant operational breakdowns since its hurried launch by the Trump administration on April 3, increasing the sense of urgency for Congress to replenish funding in the coming days. JPMorgan Chase on Tuesday was the first of the…
A single weekend retweet from Donald Trump — as he’s done thousands of times during his presidency — kicked up a storm of outrage and concern about the president’s state of mind, his reliance on public health experts and his path ahead for digging the nation out of a coronavirus shutdown. Trump on Sunday evening…
President Donald Trump insisted Monday that he alone could declare the United States reopen for business, continuing a contradictory line of messaging toward the nation’s governors as they have taken on greater responsibilities to combat the coronavirus pandemic in the face of federal inaction. “For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the…
ALBANY, N.Y. — Six Northeast governors will form a working group to come up with a plan to restart the regional economy, they announced on Monday. Speaking on a conference call, the governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island agreed that it was essential to work together in developing plans…
WASHINGTON — A friend and donor to President Donald Trump who the president had said was in a coma and seriously ill after becoming infected with the coronavirus has died. Stanley I. Chera’s death Saturday was reported by The Real Deal, which covers the New York real estate industry. The publication cited unidentified sources who…
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — OPEC, Russia and other oil-producing nations on Sunday finalized an unprecedented production cut of nearly 10 million barrels, or a tenth of global supply, in hopes of boosting crashing prices amid the coronavirus pandemic and a price war, officials said. The cartel and other nations agreed to allow Mexico to…