AP-Breaking
Virus, Mideast turmoil stifle Eid al-Fitr celebrations
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr in a subdued mood for a second year Thursday as the COVID-19 pandemic again forced mosque closings and family separations on the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.In the embattled Gaza Strip, the call to prayer echoed over pulverized buildings and heaps of rubble as Israeli warplanes continued to pound the territory in the worst outbreak of violence since the 2014 war.Hamas, the Islamic militant group ruling Gaza, urged the faithful to mark communal prayers inside their homes or the nearest mosques and avoid being out in the open.It is all airstrikes, destruction and devastation, said Hassan Abu Shaaban, who tried to lighten the mood by passing out chocolates to passersby.Worshippers wearing masks joined communal prayers in the streets of Indonesia s capital, Jakarta. The world s most populous Muslim-majority nation allowed mosque prayers in low-risk areas, but mosques in areas where there was more risk of the virus spreading closed their doors, including Jakarta s Istiqlal Grand Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia.Indonesians and Malaysians were banned for a second year from traveling to visit relatives in the traditional Eid homecoming.In Bangladesh, however, tens of thousands of people were leaving the capital, Dhaka, to join their families back in their villages for Eid celebrations despite a nationwide lockdown and road checkpoints. Experts fear a surge in cases in a country grappling with a shortage of vaccines and fear of Indian variants of the coronavirus spreading.I understand that we all miss our relatives at times like this, especially in the momentum of Eid, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in televised remarks. But let s prioritize safety together by not going back to our hometowns.Despite the similar ban a year ago, the number of daily cases in Indonesia had picked up by 37% three weeks after the holiday. Similar patterns followed other holidays in the country that has counted 1.7 million infections and more than 47,600 fatalities from COVID-19.The Jakarta governor also ordered malls, restaurants and leisure destinations usually packed during the holiday period to shut.With no congregational prayers at mosques, no family reunions, no relatives bearing gifts and cookies for children, Eid is not a grand event anymore, Jakarta resident Maysa Andriana said. The pandemic has changed everything... this is too sad! she said.While police set up highway checkpoints and domestic flights and other modes of transportation were suspended, anxiety lingers that people will defy the prohibition. Television reports showed city dwellers hiding on disguised trucks or fishing boats and officers at roadblocks being overwhelmed by desperate motorists.We followed the government decision that banned us visiting my parents for Eid last year, it s enough! Nothing can stop me now, said factory worker Askari Anam, who used alleys and shortcuts to avoid being stopped from visiting his hometown.Of course I m worried, he said when asked about possibly contracting the virus. But I leave it to God.Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin expressed concern of a virus spike and feared people would travel despite the ban.In the southern Philippines, coronavirus outbreaks and new fighting between government forces and Muslim insurgents in one province prevented people from holding large public prayers. Instead, most hunkered down in their homes, while in Maguindanao province, many families displaced by recent fighting marked the holiday in evacuation camps.In Malaysia, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin unexpectedly announced another nationwide lockdown from Wednesday until June 7 to curb a spike in cases. Inter-state travel and all social activities are banned, which means that like in Indonesia, Muslims cannot visit each other or family graves.Muhyiddin acknowledged that many are angry with the lockdown but defended the need for drastic measures, saying hospitals have almost reached their capacity.Malaysia reported 4,765 cases on Wednesday, pushing its tally to 453,222, nearly fourfold from the start of the year. Deaths also rose to 1,761.Is this government tyrannical? But I am not a tyrant, Muhyiddin said, Imagine if you have guests over, then the virus will spread. ... If the guest visits 10 homes, then 10 families will be infected with COVID-19 and in the end as soon as (Eid) ends, the number of positive cases in the country could jump to tens of thousands daily.____Associated Press writers Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this report.
NYC mayoral race heats up with 6 weeks to go before primary
NEW YORK (AP) With less than six weeks to go, the Democratic primary that may decide the next mayor of New York City has reached a new stage of unpredictability.Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang is clinging to front-runner status while City Comptroller Scott Stringer fights off a sexual misconduct allegation.Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a former police officer and founder of a law enforcement reform group, has seen his standing rise amid concern over a spike in shootings during the coronavirus pandemic including gunfire that injured three bystanders in Times Square.And The New York Times has given its coveted endorsement to a candidate who has been polling in the mid-single digits: Kathryn Garcia, a former city sanitation commissioner and veteran of several other city departments.The race to succeed the term-limited Mayor Bill de Blasio, also a Democrat, chugged along for months with many New Yorkers too consumed by the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 presidential election to notice.But it is grabbing more attention now, with the June 22 Democratic primary looming, television advertisements starting to air and candidates increasingly meeting voters in person after a year of campaigning online because of the pandemic.Eight top-tier candidates, of the more than two dozen who entered the race, were set to participate in their first televised debate Thursday.In addition to Yang, Adams, Stringer and Garcia, they are civil rights attorney Maya Wiley, former Citigroup executive Ray McGuire, former Obama housing secretary Shaun Donovan and former nonprofit executive Dianne Morales.Adding to the complexity, the primary will be New York City s first mayoral race to be determined by ranked choice voting, a system that lets voters pick up to five candidates and rank them in order of preference.Under the system, a candidate who trails in an initial round of vote tallying could still win the race, if enough people selected them as their second choice.Yang has narrowly led in most polls, lifted by supporters who like his proposal for a universal basic income, but has has been criticized by the left.U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed him this week over a tweet in which he said he was standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks from the militant group Hamas, but didn t mention Palestinian victims of retaliatory Israeli strikes.Adams, 60, edged Yang for the first time in a poll of 500 likely Democratic voters, first reported on by Politico.Adams is campaigning as both a tough-talking former police detective and a Black man who was himself victimized by police brutality as a youth and later founded the reform group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement.We re not going to recover as a city if we turn back time and see an increase in violence, particularly gun violence, Adams said at a Times Square campaign event after Saturday s shooting.It remains to be seen whether Adams message resonates in a city that was convulsed by Black Lives Matter protests following last year s murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police but is fearful of crime and disorder after a year of lockdown.The biggest twist in the race has involved a misconduct allegation against Stringer, who has held elective office since 1993 as a state Assembly member, Manhattan borough president and now city comptroller.Stringer, 61, appeared to be gaining ground when lobbyist Jean Kim accused him in late April of unwanted groping and sexual advances when she was working on his unsuccessful campaign for public advocate in 2001.Stringer denied the allegation and said the two had had a brief, consensual relationship.Elected officials and organizations that had endorsed Stringer rushed to withdraw their backing, though some unions, including the American Federation of Teachers, are sticking with him.State Sen. Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat, said she rescinded her endorsement even though she doesn t know whether Stringer or Kim is telling the truth.For me the issue here is that we re talking about an incident that took place 20 years ago that will likely not have any sort of conclusive investigation certainly not within the time frame of the primary election and I strongly believe will forever be stuck in a he said-she said, Ramos said. To me it s about New Yorkers deserving a mayor that is not distracted or marred by a scandal, especially one of this size.For some, the misconduct accusation points to the need for more women in high office. Unlike other American cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans or San Francisco, New York City has never elected a female mayor. Nor has New York state had a female governor.There s no question it s way over time for a woman mayor, and something like this allegation of sexual harassment as it relates to a candidate only makes you nod your head more aggressively that yes, we need a woman mayor, we need women in high executive positions, said Christine Quinn, a former City Council speaker who lost in a 2013 Democratic mayoral primary to de Blasio.None of the women running for mayor in 2021 has cracked the top tier of candidates, with Yang, Adams and Stringer taking the top spots in every poll.Wiley, a former MSNBC analyst and de Blasio administration lawyer, has sought to brand herself as a champion of women, with endorsements from Gloria Steinem and the feminist political action committee EMILY s List.Garcia long lauded as a problem solver in city government released a TV ad that shows her inside a red box labeled in case of emergency, break glass. In the ad, she lists a few of her managerial credentials and says, When there s a crisis, sometimes you ve got to break glass to solve it. The reference to women breaking the glass ceiling is clear.New York City mayoral races are often unpredictable. De Blasio vaulted over a large field in the 2013 primary thanks to campaign ads featuring his biracial son, Dante, and former congressman Anthony Weiner s sexting scandal.Stringer appears committed to staying in the race, with a busy campaign schedule including stops at five churches last Sunday. Some think he still has a chance.We know who Scott is, we ve seen him for, you know, 30 years as an Assembly member, a borough president, a comptroller. He s established who he is, and now he s gotta go back and defend himself, said Sid Davidoff, a lawyer and former aide to New York City Mayor John Lindsay.Yang recently picked up endorsements by Rep. Grace Meng, a Queens Democrat who is the first Asian American to be elected to Congress from New York, and Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat who is the Bronx s first openly gay Congress member. Comedian Dave Chappelle also endorsed Yang this past week.The winner of the primary will be strongly favored to win the November general election in the overwhelmingly Democratic city, but there will also be a Republican primary featuring Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and businessman Fernando Mateo.Voter turnout tends to be low in New York City primaries, so a relatively small number of people could pick the leader who will guide the city out of a once-in-a-century pandemic.About 700,000 New Yorkers voted in the 2013 primaries, or 20% of registered Democrats and Republicans.
1 Swiss, 1 American die on Everest in year s 1st casualties
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) A Swiss climber and an American have died on Mount Everest in the season s first casualties on the world s highest mountain, expedition organizers Thursday.The Swiss climber, Abdul Waraich, 41, scaled the peak before having difficulties, said Chhang Dawa of the expedition organizer, Seven Summit Treks in Nepal.Abdul successfully reached the summit but began experiencing issues during his descent, he said. We sent two additional Sherpas with oxygen and food. Unfortunately, the Sherpas couldn t save him.U.S. national Puwei Liu, 55, also died at the highest camp on the mountain at South Col. He had reached the climbing feature named the Hillary Step, located between South Col and the summit, but had to return because of snow blindness and exhaustion.With the help of support team members and additional oxygen, he was brought back to the camp at South Col but died on Wednesday evening, the organizers said.No other details were given on the dead climbers and when the bodies would be brought down. Bad weather conditions has forced climbers to descend to lower altitudes for now.Carrying bodies down the icy and slippery slopes from the highest altitudes is a difficult task that takes lots of time, several Sherpa workers and is generally very costly.Nepal and China both canceled climbing seasons last year on the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) high mountain. China is allowing only Chinese climbers on the north side of the mountain this year.Nepal allowed foreigners to return this year and the government issued permits to 408 climbers to attempt to scale the peak during the popular spring climbing season.The month of May usually has the best weather for climbing Everest. Scores climbed to the summit this week and more are expected to make their attempts later this month once the weather improves.
2 planes collide midair above Denver, no one injured
DENVER (AP) Two small airplanes collided in midair Wednesday near Denver, leaving one aircraft nearly ripped in half and forcing the pilot of the other to deploy a parachute attached to the plane to land safely. Remarkably, no one was injured, officials said.Both planes were getting ready to land at a small regional airport in a Denver suburb when they collided mid-morning, according to the National Transportation Safety Board and South Metro Fire Rescue.Every one of these pilots needs to go buy a lottery ticket right now, Arapahoe County Sheriff s Deputy John Bartmann said. I don t remember anything like this especially everybody walking away. I mean that s the amazing part of this.June Cvelbar told the KUSA TV station that she witnessed the collision while walking in Cherry Creek State Park.I saw two planes in the sky. I saw a larger green plane, which I thought was a tow plane, along with what I thought was a glider being towed by it. I heard a noise but didn t realize that the two planes had collided, she told KUSA in an email.Cvelbar said she saw the green plane fly off and shortly after saw the smaller plane deploy its parachute. She said she initially thought it was a training exercise.When I realized that the small plane was going down I ran toward it. The pilot and his passenger were up and about, Cvelbar said.The pilot was the only person aboard a twin-engine Fairchild Metroliner that landed at Centennial Airport despite suffering major damage to its tail section. The plane is owned by a Colorado-based company called Key Lime Air that operates cargo aircraft.A pilot and one passenger were on the other plane, a Cirrus SR22 single-engine plane that unleashed a red and white parachute to float to a safe landing in a field near homes in Cherry Creek State Park, Bartmann said.It was not immediately known who owned the Cirrus plane, he said.The National Transportation Safety Board said in a tweet it was sending staff to investigate the incident. Key Lime Air will cooperate with the investigation, the company said in a statement.
Ur as pitches Dodgers past Seattle 7-1 for back-to-back wins
LOS ANGELES (AP) Julio Ur as pitched seven stellar innings of two-hit ball, Matt Beaty drove in three runs and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Seattle Mariners 7-1 on Wednesday night for their first back-to-back victories in 25 days.
Max Muncy homered for the second straight game for the defending World Series champions, who opened a nine-game homestand by sweeping this two-game interleague series and interrupting their 3 1 2-week stretch of mostly terrible play.
Ur as (5-1) bounced back superbly from last weekend in Anaheim, where he took his first loss since 2019. The hero of the Dodgers championship-clinching victory retired Seattle s first 13 hitters and yielded only two singles and a walk, striking out six.
Beaty had a two-run double in the fourth, and he added an RBI single during the Dodgers four-run fifth in a rally that began with Muncy s two-run homer.
Justin Dunn (1-1) pitched three solid innings before coming apart in the fourth for Seattle, which finished a five-game road trip with four straight defeats. Dylan Moore had an RBI single for the Mariners, who managed just two singles in their 11th loss in 16 games.
The Mariners are thrilled to say goodbye to Ur as, who is 2-0 against Seattle this season with 17 strikeouts and just three hits allowed over 14 innings.
Mookie Betts got the game s first hit with a two-out double in the third, but the Dodgers didn t rally until Justin Turner and Muncy opened the fourth with walks.
Beaty eventually drove them both home with a bases-loaded double to right, chasing Dunn. The Dodgers versatile backup has 14 RBIs in his seven May starts, and he s 5 for 7 with 11 RBIs this season with the bases loaded.
Ty France poked a one-out single through the left side to break up Ur as perfect game bid in the fifth, and he scored on Moore s short single.
Muncy reached base four times and scored three runs. He singled and eventually scored on pinch-hitter AJ Pollock s single in the seventh.
SLUMP BUSTER
Los Angeles was 13-2 on April 17 before its skid began the next day. Before the Mariners arrived at Chavez Ravine, the Dodgers had lost 15 of 20 and fallen into third place in the NL West, the division they ve won for eight consecutive seasons.
TRAINER S ROOM
Dodgers: 3B Edwin R os will miss the rest of the season after surgery to repair a partially torn labrum in his right shoulder. R os was batting .078 this season while clearly struggling with his swing. ... RHP Dustin May had Tommy John surgery Wednesday. The promising redhead won t pitch again until the summer of 2022 at the earliest.
UP NEXT
Mariners: Chris Flexen (3-1, 3.78 ERA) is listed as their starter for Thursday s home series opener against Cleveland, but manager Scott Servais refused to comment pregame on several reports claiming Logan Gilbert, the Mariners top pitching prospect, will be promoted to take the start in his major league debut.
Dodgers: After a day off, Clayton Kershaw (5-3, 2.62 ERA) will open a three-game series against the Marlins. The ace has thrown 13 innings of scoreless, four-hit ball with 20 strikeouts in his last two starts against Miami, both in 2019
The Latest: China gives Bangladesh 500K vaccine doses
DHAKA, Bangladesh China delivered 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine as a gift to Bangladesh on Wednesday to help it cope with a shortage.Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million people, is in desperate need after India banned exports of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India because of its own devastating surge in infections.Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming formally handed over the Sinopharm vaccines in Dhaka on Wednesday. Bangladesh has already approved the Chinese vaccines after the World Health Organization has recently listed the Sinopharm for emergency use globally.Bangladesh received about 7 million doses from the Indian institute, but its deal had called for 30 million doses to be delivered by June.Bangladesh already suspended administering the first dose of vaccines. Some few hundreds of thousands of people are due their second dose but would be left out if new doses do not arrive soon.Bangladesh has attempted to diversify its vaccine sources, asking the United States for 4 million doses from its stock and signing a deal with Russia to produce Sputnik-V vaccines locally in Bangladesh.___THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:Public service jobs in the US are increasingly thankless and exhausting, a situation worsened by pandemicVariant detected in India may spread more easily, but testing to track and understand it better has been slowA boom in pet ownership has veterinarians backlogged and burned outFollow more of AP s pandemic coverage at https: apnews.com hub coronavirus-pandemic and https: apnews.com hub coronavirus-vaccine___HERE S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:CANBERRA, Australia Qantas Airways has pushed back its forecast resumption of international travel to late December.The Sydney-based airline previously said international travel would restart in late October, based on the government s forecast on vaccine availability for Australians. However, the Australian government forecast Tuesday that international travel will remain at low levels until mid-2022 and vaccines won t be widely available in Australia until the end of 2021.We will keep reviewing these plans as we move towards December and circumstances evolve, Qantas said in a statement Wednesday .Australia bans its citizens from leaving the country except under limited circumstances to prevent them from bringing home infections.The only exception is New Zealand. The two countries last month introduced a quarantine-free travel bubble that recognized their success in containing the virus.Qantas said it was optimistic more travel bubbles would open once Australia completes a vaccine rollout and other countries are in similar positions.___NEW DELHI India has confirmed 4,205 more deaths, setting another daily record and taking its official COVID-19 toll past 250,000 as it battles a ferocious surge in infections.Around 370,000 new cases were added in the last 24 hours, pushing India s total past 23 million, according to the health ministry. The figures are considered vast undercounts due to insufficient testing and records among other factors.On Tuesday, authorities warned that nearly 90% of districts in the country are seeing a high positivity rate, sparking fears the virus is spreading fast into rural areas.India s recent surge has been blamed on more contagious variants as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for religious festivals and political rallies.Even though daily cases have shown very early signs of flattening, experts have cautioned authorities to not let down their guard. With nearly 4 million cases still active, health care systems remain strained with limited hospital beds, oxygen and medicine.Many states have imposed their own restrictions to curb infections, and the southern state of Telangana became the latest to announce a 10-day lockdown on Tuesday. Calls and pressure for a nationwide lockdown have been mounting.___SALEM, Ore. Oregon lawmakers have passed a bill to give tenants who are struggling with financial hardships due to the pandemic more time to pay past-due rent.Currently tenants have until July, but the legislation will extend the deadline to next Feb. 28. The bill already passed the Senate and now goes to the governor.The measure protects renters from the long-term impact of not making payments on time by barring such information from being reported to consumer credit agencies or being used in consideration of future rental applications. The measure also bars landlords from screening out applicants based on pandemic-era evictions.In March, more than 17% of Oregon renters in a U.S. Census survey reported being behind on rent payments.___COLUMBIA, South Carolina South Carolina parents can opt their children out of wearing masks in public schools.Gov. Henry McMaster issued the executive order, citing widespread access to coronavirus vaccines for adults across the state.It goes against all logic to continue to force our children especially our youngest children to wear masks against their parents wishes, McMaster said in the statement Tuesday.The order also bars state and local government agencies from requiring people to show proof of vaccination in order to receive government services or access public buildings and facilities.The governor s order also limits local governments from issuing mask ordinances based on his prior emergency declarations related to the pandemic. Those governments will have to find justification for such mask rules within their own ordinances.___TORONTO Canada s largest province says it will stop giving out first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine due to concerns over blood clots.Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams says the decision has been made out of an abundance of caution because of increased instances of a rare blood clotting disorder linked to the shot.AstraZeneca is restricted in some European countries because of a potential link to extremely rare blood clots. In Canada, at least 12 cases have been confirmed out of more than 2 million doses given and three women have died.Ontario says it has 49,280 doses of the shot remaining in the province out of over 707,000 received. Health officials are awaiting results of a clinical trial in the United Kingdom looking at giving a different vaccine for the second dose. That would allow people who got AstraZeneca first to be given Pfizer or Moderna for their second dose.