BUSINESS
Tom Hanks, who survived COVID-19, calls graduates ‘the chosen’
The Oscar-winning actor delivered a surprise virtual speech Saturday to the graduates of Wright State University’s Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures. The video was posted shortly before the ceremony began.
BUSINESS
Treasury says April-June borrowing will be a record $2.99 trillion
The amount is more than five times the government’s previous record borrowing for a quarter, $569 billion, set in the depths of the 2008 financial crisis. It also dwarfs the $1.28 trillion the government borrowed in the bond market for all of 2019.
BUSINESS
Novak Djokovic appears to break confinement rules in Spain
Djokovic posted a video on Instagram showing him exchanging shots with another man at a tennis club in the coastal city of Marbella, where the Serb has reportedly stayed.
BUSINESS
Malls, movies and more: A look at reopenings by state in US
Texas, Oklahoma, and Montana are among states newly allowing restaurants to reopen. Malls, movie theaters and other venues are reopening in several states. Some states have outlined phased reopenings: North Carolina’s governor said he hopes to start such a process after this week if virus trends allow.
TRENDS
First audio Pulitzer prize goes to 'The Out Crowd'; Check out all Pulitzer 2020 winners here
The initial Pulitzer ceremony, which was scheduled for April 20, was pushed to give Pulitzer Board members who were busy covering the pandemic more time to evaluate the finalists.
WORLD
Prince guitar, McCartney Beatles lyrics come up for auction
The auctioneer calls the instrument, with the artist's “love” symbol on the neck and gold hardware, “one of the most important guitars from the early years of Prince’s career ever to come to auction.” It's projected to fetch between $100,000 and $200,000, the auction house said.
WORLD
Author says prequel to 'Twilight' series will arrive August 4
Meyer had kept her fans in suspense all weekend with a countdown clock on her site that promised a major announcement. The site soon crashed Monday morning, but the book was also announced by Meyer's publisher, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
BUSINESS
Ferrari slashes 2020 earnings forecast of COVID-19 pandemic
The company reported an 8 percent drop in first-quarter net profit to 166 million euros as revenues dipped just 1 percent to 932 million euros amid a 5 percent increase in deliveries to 2,738 units.
BUSINESS
J.Crew files for Chapter 11 as pandemic chokes retail
More retail bankruptcies are expected in coming weeks with thousands of stores still shuttered, though states have begun a staggered restart of their economies.
WORLD
World leaders pledge billions for coronavirus vaccine research
People in many countries across the globe, and notably in Europe this week, are cautiously returning to work but authorities remain wary of a second wave of infections, and a vaccine is the only real golden bullet to allow something like normal life to resume.
WORLD
NASA begs spectators for astronaut launch: Please stay home!
It will be the first launch of astronauts from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in nine years — ever since the last space shuttle flight in 2011. It also will be the first attempt by a private company to fly astronauts to orbit.
WORLD
Patter of tiny paws: Giant panda gives birth at Dutch zoo
The mother, Wu Wen, and her cub “are staying in the maternity den and are doing well,” Ouwehands Zoo said in a statement.
BUSINESS
Bangladesh factories resume work, risking new coronavirus cases
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association says only 850 factories had opened by Thursday, using a limited number of workers who live nearby.
BUSINESS
A coronavirus drug seems to work. What’s next?
Talk turned Thursday to how quickly the federal Food and Drug Administration might act on Gilead Sciences’s remdesivir after preliminary results from a major study found it shortened the recovery time by an average of four days for people hospitalized with COVID-19.
BUSINESS
Outsiders consider possibility of chaos in North Korea
Some said it would happen after fighting ended in the Korean War in 1953. Others thought it would be during a 1990s famine or when national founder Kim Il Sung died in 1994. And when the death of his son, Kim Jong Il, thrust a little-known 20-something into power in 2011, some felt the end was near.
BUSINESS
Q&A: With rock-bottom prices, will the oil industry recover?
US oil production might not return to the same levels it enjoyed before the coronavirus hit, and 2019 may have been the peak of global oil consumption, Burkhard said.
BUSINESS
Airbus says virus aviation crisis still at 'early stage'
Even after virus-related travel restrictions eventually ease, Chief Executive Guillaume Faury acknowledged it will take a long time to persuade customers to get back on planes. Just how long, he can’t predict.
BUSINESS
Southwest Airlines posts 1st quarterly loss in almost a decade
The airline said trip cancellations have pulled back from a peak in March but remain at levels that Southwest has never seen, as customers scrap plans to travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
BUSINESS
China silent amid global calls to give Africa debt relief
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have announced immediate relief measures, including freeing up billions in debt payments and expectations for help from China are high across resource-rich Africa, but Beijing has remained silent.
BUSINESS
Is it safe to order take-out during the pandemic?
Unlike some germs, there’s no indication the coronavirus can spread through food, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
BUSINESS
No joke: Tupac Shakur needs unemployment benefits
The Lexington man’s name was brought up by Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday night as he spoke about how the state is trying to process all unemployment claims filed in March amid the coronavirus pandemic by the end of April.
BUSINESS
In rural US, fears of virus seem far away as stores reopen
That’s because it’s largely business as usual in the town of 1,800 people. Nonessential stores could reopen as a statewide shutdown ended this week, but most shops in Roundup — the pharmacy, the hardware store, two small grocers — were essential and never closed.
BUSINESS
Q&A: With rock-bottom prices, will the oil industry recover?
The price of benchmark U.S. crude oil closed at $12.34 a barrel Tuesday. At the start of the year, the price was around $60.
WORLD
AP-NORC poll: Rising support for mail voting amid pandemic
The survey also found a partisan divide on support for no-excuse absentee voting, the system in place in most states, including almost all the top presidential battlegrounds, even as a majority of Americans say they favor that practice.
