Latest Health & Wellness headlines

Marco collapses, sets stage for Laura to hit US as hurricane

Tropical Storm Marco began falling apart Monday, easing one threat to the Gulf Coast but setting the stage for the arrival of Laura as a potentially supercharged Category 3 hurricane with winds topping 110 miles per hour and a storm surge that could swamp entire towns.

India’s virus caseload tops 3 million as disease moves south

India’s coronavirus caseload topped 3 million on Sunday, with the country leading the world in new infections as the disease marched through impoverished rural areas in the north and the wealthier but older populations of the south.

Rublas Ruiz feels it’s his calling to care for patients in the COVID-19 ICU. “This is what I was meant to do.”

Miami ICU nurse: I have never in my life seen so many deaths

Their final breaths are tormented. Rublas Ruiz has seen too many of them — the last gasps of 17 men and women who died of the coronavirus.

Belarus blocks over 50 news websites amid large protests

Authorities in Belarus have blocked more than 50 news media websites reporting on how the country has been shaken by two weeks of protests demanding that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko resign after 26 years in power.

Cases surge in Lebanon in aftermath of explosion

Nearly 11,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the country this year, with around half confirmed since the explosion.

Trump says Democrats’ convention was ‘gloomiest’ in history

President Donald Trump sought to put a more positive light on his presidency Friday after four days of bashing at the Democratic National Convention, saying that where Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden sees “American darkness,” he sees “American greatness.”

France sticks to school openings despite jump in infections

France’s president insisted Thursday that the country will send millions of students back to school starting Sept. 1, despite the biggest weekly spike in confirmed coronavirus cases since the height of its national outbreak in March and April.

Florida deaths from coronavirus top 10,000 amid school reopening fight

Deaths in Florida from the coronavirus surpassed 10,000, while teachers and state officials argued in court over whether in-person schools should reopen this month.

Biden’s convention focus: Experience to fix Trump’s chaos

Joe Biden is drawing on party elders at the Democratic National Convention, making the case that he and his party are uniquely positioned with experience and expertise to repair chaos that President Donald Trump has created at home and abroad.

Sharp rise in virus cases in Lebanon after deadly port blast

Lebanon is facing a surge in coronavirus cases after a devastating blast at the Beirut port earlier this month killed scores and wounded thousands, prompting medical officials on Monday to call for a two-week lockdown to try to contain the pandemic.

Universities scramble to deal with virus outbreaks

North Carolina’s flagship university canceled in-person classes for undergraduates just a week into the fall semester Monday.

Police: At least 18 shot, with 4 dead, across Cincinnati

At least 18 people were shot, including four killed, as gunfire erupted in several places around the city overnight, authorities said Sunday.

Specialists warn Spain is losing the 2nd round in virus fight

Not two months after battling back the coronavirus, Spain’s hospitals have started seeing patients who are struggling to breathe returning to their wards.

Puerto Rico Supreme Court upholds second round for primaries

Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the votes cast during a botched primary over the weekend are valid and that a second round of voting will be held this Sunday at centers that never opened or did not remain open for the required eight hours.

UK slashes official virus death toll by more than 5,000

The British government on Wednesday changed the way it compiles coronavirus deaths, a move that reduced the country’s official death toll by more than 5,000.

Kentucky attorney general meets with Breonna Taylor’s family

Attorney General Daniel Cameron met with Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, and other family members ‘‘to personally express his condolences,” according to a news release.

Europe is aghast, alarmed as US tops 5m cases

With confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe.

Georgia school shifting online after infections reported

A Georgia high school plans to start the week with all classes shifting online after nine students and staff tested positive for the coronavirus when the school year opened last week with most students attending in-person.

Puerto Rico halts primary voting in centers lacking ballots

Puerto Rico on Sunday was forced to partially suspend voting for primaries marred by a lack of ballots as officials called on the president of the US territory’s elections commission to resign.

Azar leads highest-level US delegation to Taiwan in decades

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar arrived in Taiwan on Sunday in the highest-level visit by an American Cabinet official since the break in formal diplomatic relations between Washington and Taipei in 1979.

Motorcyclists drive down Main Street during the 80th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally on Friday in Sturgis, South Dakota.

‘Everybody’s still partying’ at massive S. Dakota biker meetup

The coronavirus may be changing the world, but there aren’t many signs of the pandemic at the massive annual motorcycle rally being held this week at a small city along Interstate 90 in western South Dakota.

Pandemic fears are causing some who have trained to be census enumerators to not show up for work.

Census Bureau dropouts complicate door-knocking efforts

Bob Garick was looking forward to being a field supervisor during the door-knocking phase of the 2020 Census, but as the number of new coronavirus cases in Florida shot up last month, he changed his mind.

Africa passes 1 million confirmed virus cases; true number far more

Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed 1 million, but global health specialists say the true toll is likely several times higher, reflecting the gaping lack of testing for the continent’s 1.3 billion people.

Saki Morioki, 5, watched paper lanterns floating along the Motoyasu River in front of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also known as the Atomic Bomb Dome, on Thursday in Hiroshima, Japan. The official public lantern event was cancelled due to the coronavirus, but a small group of city residents released some lanterns.

Survivors mark 75th anniversary of world’s 1st atomic attack

Survivors of the world’s first atomic bombing gathered in diminished numbers near an iconic, blasted dome Thursday to mark the attack’s 75th anniversary, many of them urging the world, and their own government, to do more to ban nuclear weapons.

Sri Lanka parliamentary election expected to back Rajapaksas

Sri Lankans voted Wednesday to elect a new Parliament that is expected to give strong support to the powerful and popular Rajapaksa brothers.

Tropic storm Isaias whips up eastern US, killing at least 4

At least six people were killed as Tropical Storm Isaias spawned tornadoes and dumped rain Tuesday along the U.S. East Coast after making landfall as a hurricane in North Carolina, where it caused floods and fires that displaced dozens of people.

UN chief says 1 billion students affected by virus closures

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday the coronavirus pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education in history, with schools closed in more than 160 countries in mid-July, affecting over 1 billion students.

WHO advance team ends visit to China to probe COVID origin

The World Health Organization said Monday an advance team looking into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak has concluded its mission in China, and the United Nations health agency is preparing the deployment of a larger group of specialists to the suspected outbreak zone.

John Hume, who worked to end N. Ireland violence, dies at 83

Mr. Hume was a visionary politician who won a Nobel Peace Prize for fashioning the agreement that ended violence in his native Northern Ireland.

He’s back: Trump to re-up virus briefings amid lagging polls

President Trump is set to once again take center stage in the government’s coronavirus response after a White House debate over how best to deploy its greatest and most volatile asset — him — played out in public as his poll numbers falter.

A passenger wore a face mask aboard a London Underground train in London on Friday.

World notebook

UK’s Johnson nudges workers back to office as lockdown eases

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday that people will no longer be told to work from home and avoid public transit in a major easing of lockdown restrictions — even as he said the government was “preparing for the worst” in case of a new coronavirus spike this winter.

Brazil tops 2 million coronavirus cases, with 76,000 dead

Since late May, three months after Brazil’s first reported case of the coronavirus, it has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.

Two women walked past campaign posters in Skopje, North Macedonia on Thursday.

North Macedonia: Complex coalition talks to follow election

North Macedonia’s pro-Western Social Democrats said Thursday they were ready to start complicated power-sharing negotiations after winning a narrow election victory in a poll held up for months by the COVID-19 pandemic.

New peak of 71K US overdose deaths in 2019 dashes hopes

Nearly 71,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, a new record that predates the COVID-19 crisis, which the White House and many experts believe will drive such deaths even higher.

France says ‘merci’ to virus heroes on poignant Bastille Day

Medics in white coats replaced uniformed soldiers as stars of France’s Bastille Day ceremonies Tuesday, as the usual grandiose military parade in Paris was recalibrated to honor medics who died fighting COVID-19, supermarket cashiers, postal workers, and other heroes of the pandemic.

US Senator Joe Manchin spoke to reporters outside of the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, W. Va.

Fired VA staffer admits to murdering 7 patients with insulin

A former staffer at a veterans hospital in West Virginia pleaded guilty Tuesday to intentionally killing seven patients.

WHO boss slams ‘mixed messages’ from leaders on coronavirus

The World Health Organization’s chief on Monday slammed some government leaders for eroding public trust by sending mixed messages on the coronavirus and warned that their failures to stop their countries’ spiraling outbreaks mean there would be no return to normal “for the foreseeable future.”

Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp (center) signed legislation last year banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat could be detected A federal judge is permanently blocking the so-called “heartbeat

Federal judge voids Georgia ‘heartbeat’ abortion restriction

A federal judge on Monday permanently blocked Georgia’s 2019 “heartbeat” abortion law, finding that it violates the US Constitution.

Coronavirus surge in Eastern Europe prompts new restrictions

Countries in Eastern Europe are facing rising waves of coronavirus infections, leading to riots in Serbia, mandatory face masks in Croatia, and travel bans or quarantines imposed by Hungary.

Florida reports largest, single-day increase in COVID cases

Florida shattered the national record Sunday for the largest single-day increase in positive coronavirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic, adding more than 15,000 cases .

Leaders, survivors mark 25 years since Srebrenica massacre

Virtually joined by world leaders, the survivors of Bosnia’s 1995 Srebrenica massacre on Saturday remembered the victims of Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since World War II and warned of the perpetrators’ persistent refusal to fully acknowledge their responsibility.

AP source: Feds feared Epstein confidante might kill herself

Federal officials were so worried Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell might take her own life after her arrest that they took away her clothes and sheets and made her wear paper attire while in custody, an official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen back in federal prison

President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, was returned to federal prison Thursday, after balking at certain conditions of the home confinement he was granted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Allies, China rebuke US pullout from WHO

Top US allies on Wednesday denounced the planned pullout of the United States from the World Health Organization, with the Italian health minister calling it “wrong” and a political ally of Germany’s chancellor warning that the withdrawal could make more room on the world stage for China.

NYC mayor: Schools will reopen in fall with hybrid learning

Most New York City students will return to their physical schools two or three days a week and learn online the rest of the time under a plan announced Wednesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said schools can’t accommodate all their students at any one time and maintain safe social distancing.

UN states reach deal on declaration marking 75th anniversary

The 193 members of the United Nations reached agreement on a declaration to commemorate this year’s 75th anniversary of the world organization, recalling the UN’s successes and failure and vowing to build a post-pandemic world that is more equal, works together, and protects the planet.

Justice Department moves ahead with execution plan next week

The Justice Department is plowing ahead with its plan to resume federal executions next week for the first time in more than 15 years, despite the coronavirus pandemic raging both inside and outside prisons and stagnating national support for the death penalty.

Trump leans on schools to reopen as virus continues its spread

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump demanded on Tuesday that schools reopen physically in the fall, pressing his drive to get the country moving again even as the coronavirus pandemic surged through much of the United States and threatened to overwhelm some health care facilities.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (left) and Nicole Washington, a trustee at Florida A&M University Trustee (center) participated in a meeting Tuesday hosted by President Trump about how to safely reopen schools during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Trump says he will pressure states to reopen schools in fall

President Trump on Tuesday launched an all-out effort to reopen schools this fall.

New rules: Foreign pupils must leave US if classes go online

International students will be forced to leave the United States or transfer to another college if their schools offer classes entirely online this fall, under guidelines issued Monday by federal immigration authorities.