US stocks mostly fall as tech rally peters out

NEW YORK -- A rally in tech shares ran out of steam Tuesday, as US stocks mostly retreated amid worries over higher Treasury bond yields that offset investor appetite to keep buying equities.

European and Asian stocks pushed higher, following up on Monday's session in New York, which saw the tech-focused Nasdaq surge.

The Nasdaq eked out a 0.1 percent gain on Tuesday, but both the Dow and S&P 500 retreated.

"Today it's a sober mindset," said Interactive Brokers strategist Steve Sosnick.

He added that Monday's rally in tech shares was probably "overenthusiastic" in light of rising bond yields.

Stocks have been under pressure in August, most recently due to a spike in Treasury bond yields to multi-year peaks, on expectations that interest rates will stay higher for longer.

Markets are looking ahead to an address on Friday by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for clues on future monetary policy.

Powell "likely will continue to emphasize the Fed's laser-focus on taming inflation, even with the central bank's benchmark funds rate already at the highest level in 22 years," said a note from Charles Schwab.

There is also still unease among traders about the Chinese economy, with another small cut in interest rates doing little to allay fears of a painful slowdown.

While authorities have pledged a series of measures to get the post-Covid recovery back on track, there has been little detail and they are facing growing calls to unveil more wide-ranging stimulus.

Adding to the problems are fears about the country's property sector. A number of major developers, including Country Garden and Evergrande, are on the ropes with vast debts and struggling to meet interest obligations.

"Policy easing announcements intended to invigorate market confidence have fallen short of their desired impact," said SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes.

Agence France-Presse

US mourn victims of racist mass shooting at store

NEW YORK - Shocked residents of Buffalo, New York gathered Sunday at vigils and church services to mourn 10 people shot and killed by an alleged white supremacist teenager in an act one official described as "domestic terrorism, pure and simple."

The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Payton Gendron, was arrested at the scene, a grocery store in a heavily Black neighborhood after police rushed to respond to emergency calls. 

He had driven from his home town of Conklin, more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) away, police said.

Gendron was arraigned late Saturday on a single count of first-degree murder and held without bail, the Erie County district attorney's office said.

The shooter was wearing body armor, carried an assault rifle and live-streamed the attack, police said, adding that of the 10 dead and three wounded, 11 were African Americans.

'MILITARY STYLE EXECUTION'

Residents gathered outside the store for the vigil, while New York Governor Kathy Hochul, the state's Attorney General Letitia James and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown addressed a service at the city's True Bethel Baptist Church.

In alternately angry and mournful tones, speakers denounced the latest eruption of racist violence and the ready availability of high-power guns in what has become a sadly familiar scene across America.

Hochul, herself a Buffalo native, described the crime as a "military-style execution" -- she said the shooter carried an AR-15 assault weapon -- and said racist messaging was "spreading like wildfire."

Hochul called on officials of both political parties to "make sure these people crawl back into their holes and stay there."

Speaking on ABC, she described social media as "instruments of this evil," saying they allowed racist themes to "spread like a virus." 

The attack evoked memories of some of the worst racist attacks in recent US history, including the 2015 killing by a young white man of nine worshippers in a Black church in South Carolina, and the 2019 attack by a white man in Texas that claimed 23 lives, most of them Hispanic.

Attorney General James, who is Black, described Saturday's attack as "domestic terrorism, plain and simple" and said the shooter would be prosecuted "to the fullest extent of the law."

'MOTHER AND MISSIONARY'

The gunman shot four people in the store's parking lot, three of them fatally, before going inside.

Among those killed inside the store was a retired police officer working as an armed security guard. He was able to fire several shots at the assailant before being shot, police said.

When police arrived, the shooter put the gun to his neck, but was talked down and surrendered.

The victims were ordinary shoppers and store workers.

One, according to a Twitter post, was a 77-year-old "mother, grandma & missionary" who "loved singing, dancing & being with family" and who for 25 years had run a weekly pantry to feed the poor. 

At a Sunday vigil in Buffalo's Elim Christian Fellowship church, pastor T. Anthony Bronner urged both prayer and political action in response to an attack.

"Some of us are very angry this morning," he said, but "we respond in prayer -- and we respond on our feet."

The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime "and a case of racially motivated violent extremism," Stephen Belongia, special agent in charge of the FBI's Buffalo field office, told reporters.

Media reports linked the shooter to a 180-page manifesto that described a white supremacist ideology and laid out a plan to target a mainly Black neighborhood.

In addition to mentioning the South Carolina church shooting, the gunman reportedly said he had been "inspired" by the gunman who killed 51 people in a New Zealand mosque in March 2019. 

A semi-automatic weapon used in Saturday's shooting also had a racial epithet written on its barrel, according to local daily The Buffalo News, citing a local official.

In a video call to True Bethel Baptist Church, New York Senator Charles Schumer called racism "the poison of America" and said, "We must tackle the scourge of gun violence and finally ban the weapons of war from our streets."

But in the face of a strong pro-gun lobby, past efforts by the US Congress at tightening the nation's gun laws have generally fallen short -- even after some of the most horrific shootings.

The United States suffered 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35 percent compared to 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest data.

Local media said Gendron had pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. If convicted he would face a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole.

Agence France-Presse

At least 13 injured in Brooklyn subway shooting

At least 13 people have been injured in a shooting incident at a subway station in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, where "several undetonated devices" were recovered, authorities said Tuesday.

A New York police spokeswoman told AFP officers responded to 911 call of a person shot in the Brooklyn subway at 8:27 am (1227 GMT).

The city's fire department gave a toll of "13 injuries at this time," while ABC News quoted police sources as saying at least five people were shot in the incident at the 36th Street subway station.

The police department tweeted that there were "NO active explosive devices at this time." 

"Please stay clear of the area" the NYPD tweeted, urging witnesses to contact a police tip line with any information.

New York governor Kathy Hochul said she had been briefed on the "developing" situation.

"First responders are on the scene and we will work with @MTA & @NYPDnews to provide updates as the investigation continues," she tweeted.

ABC News reported that police were investigating whether a smoke device was detonated, and that police are hunting for the suspect. 

According to NBC, citing NYPD officials and senior law enforcement officials, a man in a gas mask and orange construction vest may have tossed a smoke canister on the platform to distract the rush hour crowd. 

Mass casualty shootings happen with relative frequency in the United States, where firearms are involved in approximately 40,000 deaths a year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

The incident came just a day after US President Joe Biden announced new gun control measures, increasing restrictions on so-called "ghost guns", the difficult-to-trace weapons that can be assembled at home.

Lax gun laws and a constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms have repeatedly stymied attempts to clamp down on the number of weapons in circulation, despite greater controls being favored by the majority of Americans.

Three-quarters of all homicides in the US are committed with guns, and the number of pistols, revolvers and other firearms sold continues to rise.

Agence France-Presse

Apple closes all New York City stores amid rising COVID-19 cases

Apple Inc said on it had closed all of its 7 New York City retail stores due to an increase in COVID-19 cases as the Omicron variant rages across the United States.

Customers will be able to pick up online orders at the stores, an Apple spokesperson said.

The closed stores include outlets at Fifth Avenue, Grand Central and SoHo.

Earlier this month, Apple said it had temporarily closed three stores in the United States and Canada after a rise in COVID-19 cases and exposures among the stores' employees.

For the same reason, Apple also mandated that all its customers and employees wear masks at its US retail stores.

Globally, concerns over the Omicron variant have prompted major companies to tighten their protocols.

Increasing cases has also resulted in reinstatement of a nationwide vaccine-or-testing COVID-19 mandate for large businesses which covers 80 million American workers by a U.S. appeals court earlier this month. Opponents of the move have rushed to the Supreme Court to ask it to intervene.

-reuters- 

5 cases of Omicron variant confirmed in New York state: governor

NEW YORK—The state of New York has confirmed 5 cases of the coronavirus Omicron variant, Governor Kathy Hochul said Thursday, bringing the total number of US detections of the new strain to 8.

"New York State has confirmed 5 cases of the Omicron variant," Hochul said in a Twitter post aimed at reassuring residents of the nation's fourth most populous state that the detections were not unexpected.

"Let me be clear: This is not cause for alarm. We knew this variant was coming and we have the tools to stop the spread," she said.

"Get your vaccine. Get your booster. Wear your mask."

It was not immediately clear whether the new cases were in or near New York City -- the country's most populous metropolitan area -- and whether they were detected in people who had recently returned from traveling outside the country.

Eight cases have so far been confirmed in the United States, with at least one, in Minnesota, involving a person with no recent international travel history, signaling the strain is already circulating inside the country.

Hochul's figures followed the announcement by President Joe Biden that he is bolstering his administration's campaign against COVID-19 as the winter takes hold.

The new measures include requiring all inbound international travelers be tested within 1 day of flying, and an extension of mask mandates on public transportation through mid-March.

Agence France-Presse

Block by block, LEGOLAND New York prepares to open

NEW YORK -- After spending a lot of time indoors through the year-long coronavirus pandemic, families in the New York area will soon have one of the first new theme parks in years to visit as restrictions are eased, with LEGOLAND preparing to launch its latest resort.

Located in Goshen, some 95 km north of New York City, LEGOLAND New York is in the final stages of construction, and plans a phased-in opening this summer in order to comply with social distancing guidelines.

"We are the first theme park to be built in the Northeast in decades and really I think particularly with the challenges in the last year, people are looking to get out," said Matt Besterman, public relations manager for LEGOLAND New York. "They're looking to have a safe and fun place to play."

Besterman said the company hopes to make the theme park cashless and contactless in order for everyone to feel safe.

As coronavirus cases have dropped alongside the vaccine rollout, restrictions on businesses are being lifted, with New York City set to be "back fully" on July 1, its mayor said on Thursday. 

Features of the new theme park include a LEGO Factory Adventure Ride, which has never appeared before at a LEGO-themed park and takes visitors on a ride through a Lego 'factory' where the bricks are people-sized.

The first LEGOLAND park was opened in Denmark in the 1960s to show off the company's LEGO models. It later expanded to others parts of Europe and Asia, and has two existing parks in the United States, in California and Florida.

As well as rides, LEGO models are a feature of the parks, and the New York one will feature some 15,000 models.

-reuters-

'Joints for jabs': Free marijuana for vaccinated New Yorkers

NEW YORK - New Yorkers who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 were able to get an unlikely freebie Tuesday: a marijuana joint.

Activists celebrating the recent legalization of recreational pot in New York state handed out free doobies in Manhattan to anyone with proof they had received at least one vaccine shot.

"This is the first time we can sit around and legally hand people joints," said Michael O'Malley, one of the organizers of the "Joints for Jabs" giveaway in Union Square.

"We're supporting the federal effort to roll out vaccinations. And we're also trying to get them to federally legalize weed," he told AFP.

Organizers chose April 20 as the date as a way to mark 4/20, an annual day of celebration amongst cannabis fans.

Marijuana activists also handed out free weed in Washington DC.

Several dozen, relaxed looking people formed an orderly queue as the distribution of joints in New York began at 11:00 am (1600 GMT). 

One woman held a sign that read "pro-vaxx, pro-weed." The giveaway was due to last until 4:20 pm.

They only had to wait ten minutes at most in the spring sunshine. They showed their vaccination card, in paper or via phone, gave their email address and a joint was theirs.

There seemed to be little verification required to prevent someone from queuing twice.

"We are not really being very careful," admitted O'Malley.

Sarah Overholt, 38, left with two joints in her pocket after showing vaccination cards belonging to herself and her 70-year-old mother.

For Overholt, marijuana and the vaccine are essential.

"I smoke every day and I am a better person if I smoke, trust me," she said with a smile.

"Everybody should get vaccinated. It should not be weed that is getting them there. But if it works, then it works," added Overholt, who received her first vaccine shot on March 25 and gets her second on Thursday.

Alex Zerbe, a 24-year-old a trader who came from his nearby office, agreed. He has already had both doses and said he smokes a joint once or twice a day.

"I can get a joint anyway, but (the giveaway) is just cool you know," Zerbe told AFP.

By 11:30 am, between 150 and 200 joints had already been distributed, out of some 1,500 rolled in advance by a handful of volunteers. 

On March 31, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation allowing adults 21 and over to purchase cannabis and grow plants for personal consumption at home.

Several US brands, particularly in food and drink, have launched various incentives for vaccinated patrons in recent weeks, from donuts to hot dogs and beer, in an attempt to counter vaccine

Agence France-Presse

Suspect in attack on 65-year-old Filipina woman to face New York judge

NEW YORK—A New York man charged with assaulting a 65-year-old Asian woman in a hate crime was scheduled to appear before a Manhattan Criminal Court judge on Monday, as community activists demonstrated outside.

Police have identified Brandon Elliot, 38, as the man seen in a video kicking the woman to the ground and then kicking her head several times on March 29 near Times Square in Manhattan.

Elliot, on lifetime parole after serving a prison term for murdering his mother, was arraigned last week on two charges of second-degree assault as a hate crime and one count of first-degree attempted assault as a hate crime.

He was arrested at his New York City residence on March 30, police said.

"This attack would not have happened if he was not released," said Phil Wong, president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York, in front of the courthouse.

The New York Times identified the victim as Vilma Kari, an immigrant from the Philippines, citing a law enforcement source. An NYPD spokesman declined to confirm her identity. According to the Times, Kari suffered a fractured pelvis.

Hate crimes reported against Asian Americans increased 149% in 2020 in 16 major U.S. cities compared with 2019, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump often referred to the coronavirus as the "China virus" and the "China plague."

Concern over such crimes was heightened when six Asian women were among eight people shot dead last month at Atlanta-area spas. A 21-year-old man was charged with the murders. Police have yet to determine a motive.

(Reporting by Roselle Chen; Editing by Richard Chang)

-reuters-

COVID-19 in New York is spreading again

Students exit a school following the announcement to close New York City public schools, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to rise in Brooklyn, New York, United States on Thursday. The US death toll from the virus rose to its highest in six months, averaging 1,162, with the total death toll now at 241,704.

-reuters-

New York to mark 9/11 anniversary amid the coronavirus pandemic

NEW YORK - With crime on the rise, shops and apartments increasingly vacant and homeless people on the sidewalks, New York on Friday will mark the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and a bitter fight with the White House.

The city will hold its annual ceremony in memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the bloodiest terrorist attack in US history, punctuated by a minute's silence at the exact moments that Al-Qaeda jihadists crashed two hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center towers.

Instead of reading out the roll call of the dead, this year the families of victims have recorded themselves. But they will still be present at the "Ground Zero" memorial.

The site museum will also open for the first time since the novel coronavirus brought the city to a standstill in March. 

Almost two decades after the attacks, September 11 remains synonymous with New York's heroism and resilience. 

City leaders have emphasized the latter in the past months as the COVID-19 infection rate -- which killed 23,00 people here, the early epicenter of the disease in the United States -- has been lowered to under one percent.

New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday reminded New Yorkers that their resilience is likely to be tested once again by the social and economic "after-effects" of the pandemic.

- Offices empty until 2021? -

Gale Brewer, president of borough of Manhattan, recognizes that the island renowned for its hustle and energy now faces an array of problems.

Some of these stem directly from the coronavirus pandemic: almost all the white collar workers, such as bankers, traders and insurance employees, have been working from home since March. This has emptied Manhattan's business hubs, leaving thousands of small stores and restaurants without customers.

Boris Tulchinskiy, a 26-year-old software engineer, misses Manhattan but expects to "keep working from home" in neighboring New Jersey until July 2021.

If the more than 60 million tourists who visit New York every year have gone, so too have New Yorkers, fleeing the city by the thousands. 

At least 35,000 people have moved out of Manhattan, judging by requests for absentee ballots for November's presidential elections, Brewer said.

Many businesses are now shuttered: between 2017 and 2020, the number of vacant commercial spaces has almost doubled, up by 78 percent, she said.

Homeless people are now more visible due to the closure of numerous shelters for health reasons, and the transfer of almost 13,000 to live in less contagious conditions in Manhattan's vacant hotels.

The rise in homicides and shootings -- up 47 percent and 166 percent in August, compared with the previous year -- is one of the more striking aspects of the crisis hitting the city.

Even if it is still far below the endemic levels of crime that plagued the city in the 1970s and 80s, New York, which prided itself on being one of the world's safest cities, has now slipped back to 2012 crime levels, the New York Times reported.

- Trump wants to 'kill New York' - 

"I can't tell you how many phone calls I get from people especially in New York City, who are literally worried about the degradation of New York City," governor Cuomo said Tuesday.

Even as the city shows signs of revival -- which include museums reopening in late August and restaurants welcoming diners inside in late September -- its full recovery could take up to three years, Brewer said, citing the estimates of realtors.

In the meantime, and less than two months from one of the most bitterly fought presidential contests in history, the crisis has become the focus of a dispute with Republican President Donald Trump.

The native New Yorker, who made his name in real estate, insists that the rise in crime in the Democratic bastion is due to the incompetence of its leaders. On Tuesday, he once again accused the mayor and the governor of "destroying" the city.

New York officials in turn slammed Trump's refusal to free up billions in emergency federal funds to help the city through the worst of the crisis.

"Trump is actively trying to kill New York City. It is personal. I think it's psychological," Cuomo said. "He is trying to kill New York City."

Agence France-Presse

The Latest: California tops New York for most virus cases

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s confirmed coronavirus cases have topped 409,000, surpassing New York for most in the nation.

Johns Hopkins University data shows California has about 1,200 more cases than New York.

However, New York’s 32,520 confirmed deaths outnumber California’s tally of nearly 8,000 deaths.

California is by far the most populous U.S. state, at nearly 40 million people, while New York has about 19.5 million.

Scientists say reported coronavirus cases vastly underestimate the true number of infections because of the small number of tests.

A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study says COVID-19 cases were more than 10 times higher than reported in most U.S. regions from late March to early May. It’s based on COVID-19 antibody tests performed on routine blood samples in 16,000 people in 10 U.S. regions that showed many with the virus antibody.

(The item has been corrected to show New York state has 32,520 confirmed deaths, according to a tally be Johns Hopkins University.)

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— Brazil president still tests positive for virus

— Trump says virus in US will get worse before it gets better

— Crisis hits Lebanon’s hospitals, among the best in Mideast

— Silent spread of virus keeps scientists grasping for clues

— California’s confirmed coronavirus cases have topped 409,000, surpassing New York for most in the nation. However, California has nearly 8,000 deaths compared to New York’s 32,000.

— With the coronavirus rebounding in parts of Spain, it appears Catalonia and other regions have not adequately prepared to trace new infections in what was supposed to be an early detection system to prevent a new cascade of cases.

— More than one in five people in Delhi have been infected with the coronavirus, according to a study, indicating that most cases in the Indian capital region have gone undetected.

 Associated Press

Facing a crisis, New York hopes to reinvent itself again

NEW YORK -- People fleeing town, widespread joblessness, a rising crime rate: the coronavirus pandemic has plunged New York into crisis, deeply concerning for many, but for others a chance for this famously dynamic city to reinvent itself.

"We may be going through one of the most painful and exceptional moments in our history," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday. "We may be going through profound social dislocation." 

The epidemic has claimed more than 23,000 lives in America's economic capital, making it the hardest-hit Western metropolis. 

Despite a sharp drop in the number of cases since May, the city has limited its reopening amid fears that a surge of infections felling southern and western states could strike New York.

With tourism evaporating, office towers nearly deserted, many stores shuttered, unemployment at 20 percent, and city services trimmed: this metropolis of 8.5 million people, synonymous with crowds and consumerism, has become a muted version of its former self.

For the reopening of schools in September, city officials are planning on a maximum of three days of in-class time a week, frustrating parents desperate to return to normal work schedules. 

And the crime rate, in decline since the mid-1990s, is surging: police have tallied 634 shootings and 203 murders since January, respective rises of 60 percent and 23 percent from the same 2019 period.

Against that background, many New Yorkers have fled the city, leaving thousands of vacant apartments behind. Manhattan real estate rental prices declined slightly in this year's second quarter for the first time in 10 years, according to the StreetEasy real estate website. 

- 'A perfect storm' -

"This is a perfect storm, in some ways, of bad events," said Kenneth Jackson, a Columbia University professor who specializes in the city's history. 

For Jackson, who left Manhattan for the countryside as the pandemic struck, today's situation is reminiscent of the dark period in the 1970s and 1980s when New York, facing financial bankruptcy, was ravaged by crime and an exodus to the suburbs. 

But like many New Yorkers, Jackson tries to keep matters in perspective. New York, after all, survived the cholera epidemics of the 19th century and the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, after which some predicted that people would no longer want "to work in a tall building."

And people are not fleeing urban hubs as they were in the 1970s. 

"There's been a rebirth of central cities," Jackson said, as US crime rates have fallen sharply and the quality of urban life has improved, with more personal, professional and entertainment opportunities.

- 'Adjusting to the realities' -

Thirty-year-old Kyle Scott, an online real estate specialist, agreed. 

He and his wife, a pediatrician, had left New York two years ago for a pleasant suburb, before growing disillusioned. 

While in the suburbs "there's so much more space, you have such a better family life and much better sort of quality of living," he said, "you don't have the same benefits that the city has to offer."

Now back in New York, and parents of a seven-month-old baby, they plan to stay in the city that "always reinvents itself" -- hoping a decline in real estate prices will allow them to own their first apartment.

Eva Kassen-Noor, an urban planning professor at Michigan State University, believes New York "will adjust to the realities that the epidemic is here."

Already, certain changes which environmentalists once thought unattainable have become reality: the number of cyclists, already on the rise in New York for years, has exploded. More than 100 miles (160 kilometers) of roads have been, or will soon be, closed to cars. 

Meanwhile, nearly 9,000 restaurants opened outdoor terraces in recent weeks, after city authorities streamlined the approval process to help compensate for the loss of indoor dining.

Scott Ellard, who owns the well-known 55 Bar jazz club in Greenwich Village, is currently negotiating to have his street converted to a pedestrian zone. He hopes to use the outdoor space for the club's reopening after a painful four-month closure. 

"We are doing whatever we can," he said. "Who the hell wants to close?" 

"You spend time building a reputation for a place; it would be a shame to let all that history go."

Jackson, the Columbia University professor, said he is sure the city will come back and will gladly return to his Upper East Side apartment.

"No later than the summer of 2021," he said, "...there will be clear signs that the city is recovering."

Agence France-Presse

New York introduces laws to combat police brutality

NEW YORK, United States - The state of New York on Friday adopted a series of laws designed to put an end to police brutality against the African-American community, a sign of the impact that nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd are having.

Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo officially signed 10 laws that the two houses of the state legislature passed earlier in the week.

Among the measures is a law forbidding chokeholds being used by law enforcement officers that was named in memory of Eric Garner, a black man suffocated by New York police in 2014.

The state also repealed legislation that designated as "confidential" any document pertaining to professional evaluations of police officers, including records of disciplinary proceedings.

In the future, the public, including members of the media, will be able to access such records through freedom of information requests, without requiring a court order.

After Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers on May 25, the city police department revealed that Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed him by kneeling on his neck for nearly 9 minutes, had been the subject of 18 abuse complaints in his 20 years on the job.

The details of the complaints have not been revealed.

Floyd's death sparked widespread protests across the United States.

Cuomo also announced on Friday he would be signing an executive order obliging the state's almost 500 police departments to "develop a plan that reinvents and modernizes police strategies and programs in their community."

The measures address some of the key issues raised in the massive protests across the country, such as racial inequality, the excessive use of force by police, and transparency in the process of filing complaints against officers.

Any of the departments that have not adopted their new plan by April 2021 will lose their state funding, Cuomo said at a press conference, flanked by Democratic leaders of the state assembly and civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

"These bills mean some substantive change, so that we won't be sitting here going over this after the next situation," said Sharpton.

He said the threat of withholding funding from police departments that fail to implement change "is a model for where we ought to be, dealing with 21st century civil rights in this country."

Agence France-Presse

New York under curfew as looters hit luxury stores

NEW YORK, United States - New York was under a curfew that would last until early Tuesday morning, officials said, after looters raided stores in central Manhattan, targeting some of the city's top retailers.

Upmarket fashion store Michael Kors on Fifth Avenue was among the luxury outlets hit, along with Nike, Lego and electronics shops across Midtown, before the 11:00 pm to 5:00 am curfew came into effect, AFP journalists said.

Groups of young people moved from block to block around the district, usually bustling with tourists but deserted due to the coronavirus, with entire streets blocked by police.

Images from local NY1 television showed some young people running out of a Best Buy electronics store before being apprehended by the police.

Stores in the south of Manhattan suffered a similar fate, according to an AFP photographer.

The New York Times reported that the flagship Macy's department store had also been targeted by looters.

Police did not immediately confirm this, simply saying that "numerous stores were hit" and arrests made "in the hundreds" across the city.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said a lot of stores around Madison Avenue had been hit and the situation was "really not acceptable."

As a result, he said the curfew would start from 8:00 pm on Tuesday, instead of 11:00 pm.

"The city is fully under control, and overwhelmingly calm and peaceful," he nevertheless insisted on NY1.

- 'Time to go home' -

The imposition of the curfew had been announced a few hours earlier by the mayor and New York state governor Andrew Cuomo after protests and looting during the weekend -- notably in the trendy SoHo district.

The mayor tweeted late Monday that "protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful today" but that some people were out to damage property and steal.

"We support peaceful protest in this city. But right now it's time to go home," de Blasio said.

"Some people are out tonight not to protest but to destroy property and hurt others -— and those people are being arrested. Their actions are unacceptable and we won't allow them in our city."

New York, the economic capital of the United States, and around 40 other cities across the country have imposed curfews after violent protests against police brutality triggered by the death of African-American George Floyd in Minnesota.

Just after 11:00 pm, around a hundred people held a peaceful demonstration in front of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the scene of major protests in recent days, taking a knee in tribute to victims of police brutality, according to an AFP journalist.

Police observed them from a distance but did not arrest anyone despite the curfew.

While looters hit New York, in Washington, President Donald Trump said he was "dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property."

Mayor de Blasio, a Democrat, denounced Trump's "bellicose words" and "divisive rhetoric."

"I don't think it's a statement from the last few hours that has caused all this. I think it's what he's done for years that has contributed," he said. 

Agence France-Presse

Chris Rock, Rosie Perez appear with New York Gov. Cuomo, urge mask wearing

(Reuters) - Comedian Chris Rock and actress Rosie Perez made a surprise appearance at New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily news conference to underscore his message that the public should wear masks to help curb the coronavirus pandemic.

The celebrities, both of whom grew up in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, said they would take part in public service campaigns urging New Yorkers to take the pandemic seriously, wear masks and take other steps to prevent the spread of the sometimes fatal virus.

Rock said he was seeing about 40 percent of people in Brooklyn wearing masks.

“It’s the kids who really aren’t wearing a mask, and you know, it’s sad,” he said. “It’s sad that our health has become, you know, a sort of political issue ... It’s a status symbol, almost, to not wear a mask.”

Perez briefly spoke in Spanish.

“To mi gente, wear a mask, please,” she said. “The numbers in our communities are staggering. This is not a joke. This is not a hoax. This is real.”

Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by David Gregorio

-reuters-

Professional clubs can return to New York facilities

NEW YORK -- New York officials said Sunday that American professional sports teams can return to their training facilities in the state that was slammed the hardest of all by the coronavirus pandemic.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement, saying that sports are allowed to restart in America's most deadly state but it will be limited to just training facilities to begin with and then only behind closed doors. 

There have been over 1.6 million cases and 97,000 deaths in the US, including close to 30,000 deaths in New York.

"Starting today, all the New York professional sports leagues will be able to begin training camps," Cuomo said during a news conference on Sunday. 

"I believe that sports that can come back without having people in the stadium, without having people in the arena -- do it! Do it!" 

New York is by far the hardest hit state but officials say new infections are now on the downward trend.

New York serves is home to several professional sports teams, with two in the NBA (New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets), three in the NHL (New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres), two in Major League Baseball (New York Yankees, New York Mets) and the NFL's Buffalo Bills.

MLB, NBA and NHL are all working on plans to start or resume their respective seasons. 

"Work out the economics, if you can. We want you up. We want people to be able to watch sports," Cuomo said. "To the extent people are still staying home, it gives people something to do. 

"It's a return to normalcy. So we are working and encouraging all sports teams to start their training camps as soon as possible. And we'll work with them to make sure that can happen."

Agence France-Presse

Son kills dad on Zoom call with 20 others: US police

A 32-year-old Long Island man was arrested and charged with murder Thursday after the man fatally stabbed his father while he was on a Zoom video chat with about 20 people, authorities said.

The father, Dwight Powers, 72, had been participating in the Zoom call at his home in Amityville, a village in the town of Babylon about 40 miles east of Manhattan, just after noon Thursday when he was attacked by his son, Thomas Scully-Powers, the Suffolk County Police Department said in a statement.

People on the call reported seeing Powers in the meeting with them and then suddenly realizing that he was no longer on screen, a spokesman for the Suffolk County police said. Some participants in the meeting may have witnessed part of the attack, the spokesman said, adding that the police had been given a description of the son by people who were on the Zoom call.

The spokesman declined to comment on the type of meeting that was being held.

Newsday reported that there had been about 20 other people on the video call, which the police confirmed later Thursday night.

“They just noticed him fall off the screen and then they heard heavy breathing,” Detective Lt. Kevin Beyrer of the Suffolk County police homicide squad told Newsday. “It was horrible that they had to witness this.”

Several participants in the conference called 911, and the police found and arrested Scully-Powers in less than an hour, authorities said. The police spokesman said it had taken officers longer to locate Scully-Powers because people in the meeting did not know where Powers lived.

Beyrer told Newsday that the motive in the stabbing was still being investigated but that there was no indication that it was related to the coronavirus pandemic. It was not clear how many times Powers had been stabbed by his son, he added.

Scully-Powers was injured when he jumped out a second-story window of the home where he and his father both lived and was transported to a hospital to recover, police said. Online records indicate that the home is an apartment in a senior living community.

As of late Thursday, the area surrounding the complex was blocked off to traffic by police vehicles. Caution tape separated the street from nearby parking lots.

Police said Scully-Powers had been charged with second-degree murder and would be arraigned after being discharged from the hospital. 

-Matt Stevens, The New York Times-

New COVID-19 cases in New York coming from people leaving home - gov

NEW YORK - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday the state's new confirmed COVID-19 cases are predominantly coming from people who left their homes to go shop, exercise or socialize and not from essential workers.

"That person got infected and went to the hospital or that person got infected and went home and infected the other people at home," he said during his daily news conference on the coronavirus.

State data showed that the number of new cases statewide has fluctuated between 2,100 and 2,500 per day. The number of new cases decreased to 2,419 on Saturday from 2,762 on Friday.

Cuomo said he theorized last week that new cases were coming from essential workers.

"That was exactly wrong," he said. "The infection rate among essential workers is lower than the general population and those new cases are coming predominantly from people who are not working and they are at home."

The state's budget director, Robert Mujica, said officials expect to "learn a lot more" about the genesis of new cases from contact tracing over the next week.

The state just began contact tracing, which will involve several hundred people, he said.

Cuomo said the five regions that have already opened were required to have a certain number of tracers proportionate to their populations.

"The tracing operation is tremendously large and challenging," he said.

-reuters-

Fifth of New Yorkers infected with coronavirus, antibody test suggests

More than one in five New Yorkers may have already had the new coronavirus, a testing sample showed Thursday, suggesting infections are much higher than confirmed cases suggest.

Widespread testing -- including for antibodies -- is viewed as key to American states being able to lift stay-at-home orders and reopen their shuttered economies.

The presence of antibodies means a person has already been infected with the virus and might mean they are immune, meaning they could likely return to work without catching the illness again.

A total of 3,000 customers at supermarkets across the state of New York were randomly tested for coronavirus antibodies this week, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.

Almost 14 percent of them registered positive, he told reporters. In New York City, 21 percent of tests came back positive.

Those would translate to roughly 2.6 million people statewide and around 1.7 million people in the Big Apple as having already had the new coronavirus.

Those numbers are way above the 263,460 declared cases across New York state, the epicenter of America's outbreak, where the virus has killed more than 15,500 people.

"It's vital for any state, I believe, to first get a baseline study of where you are on the infection rate," Cuomo said.

There are uncertainties about the accuracy of antibody tests and the sample was small. But Cuomo noted that, if the data played out across the state it would mean that the death rate for COVID-19 there was only 0.5 percent.

That is much lower than the US average and the worst-affected countries in Europe, which are based on confirmed cases.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Belgium has a known-case mortality rate of 14.9 percent, France 13.6 percent and the United States 5.5 percent.

Agence France-Presse

US CDC reports 661,712 coronavirus cases, 33,049 deaths

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 661,712 cases of new coronavirus, an increase of 29,164 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 1,978 to 33,049.

The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 pm ET on April 16, compared with its count a day earlier. 

The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states. 

This, as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday launched a blistering attack on President Donald Trump's response to the coronavirus crisis, accusing him of "passing the buck" to the states and favoring big business over communities hardest hit.

Cuomo, who had previously kept his criticism of Trump in check, unleashed a flurry of broadsides following a reporter's question about the president's comments suggesting New York had asked for too much aid that was never fully used.

The governor said the president should "maybe get up and go to work" instead of watching TV and accused him of favoring the airline industry and other business cronies in a recent bailout package that Cuomo said left little for the states.

Cuomo said that he had been quick to praise the president when the state was in dire need of hospital beds and ventilators and that his requests for help with those were motivated by the White House's own dire projections for the virus.

"We built more beds than we needed," Cuomo, said pointing to initial federal projections on the impact of the virus which predicted that as many as 2.2 million people could die. "Our only mistake was believing your numbers and your projections."

Cuomo, whose state is at the epicenter of the US outbreak, accounting for nearly half of the country's deaths, said the president had repeatedly refused to help states with ramping up testing because it was "too complicated."

He said he needs federal funding to significantly ramp up testing capacity and to fill a $10-$15 billion budget shortfall that is hampering the state's ability to fund such efforts on its own. He criticized the aid packages passed by Congress to date for a lack of funds to hard-hit states like New York.

"Is there any funding so I can do these things that you want us to do? 'No,'" Cuomo told a daily briefing on the coronavirus. "That is passing the buck without passing the bucks."

He spoke one day after the Trump administration outlined plans for a phased reopening, starting with the states least affected by the virus.

'ZERO, ZILCH, NADA'

"The federal government has passed three bills to address this crisis. Of those three bills the state governments have gotten precisely zero, zilch, nada in unrestricted aid," Cuomo said.

"Okay, it's up to the states, but then don't ask the states, don't give them this massive undertaking that has never been done before and then not give them any resources to do it."

In a separate briefing, Governor Phil Murphy of neighboring New Jersey said he had been in constant contact with the White House to get "the right testing infrastructure and regime in place," a prerequisite for reopening the state.

Murphy avoided Cuomo's combative rhetoric, calling his teleconference on Thursday with Trump and other White House officials "a good discussion."

On Thursday, Cuomo extended the closure of businesses and schools in his state until at least May 15, but he has started to plan on a phased reopening that would hinge on keeping hospitalizations and other key metrics on a downward trend.

Cuomo said on Friday that a total of 17,316 people were hospitalized across New York because of COVID-19, down from 17,735 a day earlier and the lowest since April 5. Intubations and admissions to intensive care units also fell, he said.

Cuomo said that about 2,000 infected people were newly admitted to hospitals on Thursday, hovering at a high level, while the state recorded an additional 630 deaths, up from 606 deaths the previous day.

New Jersey, which is second after New York in coronavirus cases and fatalities, reported 323 new deaths on Friday for a total of 3,840, and 3,250 new confirmed cases for a total of 78,467.

But the rates of increase in the spread of the virus have "dropped dramatically" over the past several weeks, Murphy said. "This is what we've been working toward, and what we must keep doing," he added.

Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) wheel a man out of the Cobble Hill Health Center nursing home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on April 17, 2020, during an ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Lucas Jackson, Reuters