Trump gives governors 3-phase plan to reopen economy

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump gave governors a road map Thursday for recovering from the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic, laying out a phased approach to restoring normal activity in places that have strong testing and are seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases.

“You’re going to call your own shots,” Trump told the governors, according to an audio recording obtained by The Associated Press. “We’re going to be standing alongside of you.”

The new guidelines are aimed at easing restrictions in areas with low transmission of the coronavirus, while holding the line in harder-hit locations. They make clear that the return to normalcy will be a far longer process than Trump initially envisioned, with federal officials warning that some social distancing measures may need to remain in place through the end of the year to prevent a new outbreak.

Places with declining infections and strong testing would begin a three-phased gradual reopening of businesses and schools — each phase lasting at least 14 days — to ensure that infections don't accelerate again.

In phase one, for instance, the plan recommends strict social distancing for all people in public. Gatherings larger than 10 people are to be avoided and nonessential travel is discouraged.

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What you need to know today about the virus outbreak

Places with declining coronavirus infections and strong testing would be able to begin a three-phased gradual reopening of businesses and schools under new White House guidelines.

The approach was outlined by President Donald Trump on a call with the nation's governors as the extent and depth of the financial pain from the global pandemic became clearer with the ranks of America’s unemployed swelling toward Great Depression-era levels.

Layoffs are spreading well beyond stores, restaurants and hotels to white-collar professionals such as software programmers and legal assistants.

Federal officials say some social distancing measures may need to stay in place through the end of the year.

Here are some of AP’s top stories Thursday on the world’s coronavirus pandemic. Follow APNews.com/VirusOutbreak for updates through the day and APNews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak for stories explaining some of its complexities.

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US job losses mount as Trump presses plan to reopen business

WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of America's unemployed swelled toward Great Depression-era levels Thursday, and President Donald Trump reacted to the pressure on the economy by outlining a phased approach to reopening parts of the country where the coronavirus is being brought under control.

Under the plan, presented by Trump in a call with the nation's governors, the president will ease his social-distancing guidelines to allow states to start getting back to business over the next several weeks in places that have strong testing and have seen a decrease in COVID-19 cases.

“You’re going to call your own shots,” Trump told the governors, according to an audio recording obtained by The Associated Press, after a week in which he clashed with them over his claim that he has “total” authority over how and when the country reopens.

The move came on the same day the government reported 5.2 million more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the four-week total to 22 million — easily the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record. The losses translate to about 1 in 7 American workers.

The bleak picture intensified the debate over how and when to start lifting the lockdowns and other restrictions that have all but strangled the economy.

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In Soweto, a South African who celebrated history is mourned

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Benedict Somi Vilakazi had been surrounded by history.

His grandfather was South Africa’s first black lecturer at Witswatersrand University and produced an English/Zulu dictionary, enormous achievements in a country then divided sharply by race. The most famous street in Soweto shares his name, and two Nobel Peace Prize winners — Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu — lived along it.

Vilakazi was proud of that past and put a mural about his grandfather in his coffee shop that was popular with tourists and locals alike.

Some of them gathered, carefully, keeping a distance and many wearing facemasks, on Thursday to mourn the 57-year-old Vilakazi, who died of COVID-19. The pallbearers wore full protective suits.

“Somi knew how to welcome people, serve them a nice coffee and make them laugh,” said his cousin, Sipho Vilakazi, who has a gift shop next door. “So many people will miss him. Our family, our neighbors and many others.”

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EPA guts rule credited with cleaning up coal-plant toxic air

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday gutted an Obama-era rule that compelled the country's coal plants to cut back emissions of mercury and other human health hazards, a move designed to limit future regulation of air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler said the rollback was reversing what he depicted as regulatory overreach by the Obama administration. “We have put in place an honest accounting method that balances” the cost to utilities with public safety, he said.

Wheeler is a former coal lobbyist whose previous clients have gotten many of the regulatory rollbacks they sought from the Trump administration.

Environmental and public health groups and Democratic lawmakers faulted the administration for pressing forward with a series of rollbacks easing pollution rules for industry — in the final six months of President Donald Trump’s current term — while the coronavirus pandemic rivets the world’s attention.

With rollbacks on air pollution protections, the “EPA is all but ensuring that higher levels of harmful air pollution will make it harder for people to recover in the long run” from the disease caused by the coronavirus, given the lasting harm the illness does to victims hearts and lungs, said Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, the senior Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

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Trump, aides float outlier theory on origins of coronavirus

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and some of his officials are flirting with an outlier theory that the new coronavirus was set loose on the world by a Chinese lab that let it escape. Without the weight of evidence, they’re trying to blame China for sickness and death from COVID-19 in the United States.

“More and more, we’re hearing the story,” Trump says. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo adds: “The mere fact that we don’t know the answers — that China hasn’t shared the answers — I think is very, very telling.”

A scientific consensus is still evolving. But experts overwhelmingly say analysis of the new coronavirus’ genome rules out the possibility that it was engineered by humans, as some conspiracy theories have suggested.

Nor is it likely that the virus emerged from a negligent laboratory in China, they say. “I would put it on a list of 1,000 different scenarios,” said Nathan Grubaugh of Yale University, who studies the epidemiology of microbial disease.

Scientists say the the virus arose naturally in bats. They say the leading theory is that infection among humans began at an animal market in Wuhan, China, probably from an animal that got the virus from a bat.

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AP PHOTOS: Hauling supplies 2,800 miles to virus-beset East

Sammy Lloyd does not know exactly what’s in the trailer he’s pulling. But he does know he’s hauling essential provisions -- like food, cleaning goods, medical supplies -- to a virus-beset East Coast that desperately needs them.

And it makes him proud.

“Most of us truckers going down the road, we all move in unison,” he says. “During the pandemic ... it’s like we are all on the same page, more than they were just a month ago, it’s an eye opener that we are one world, one nation, one team.”

Lloyd is an independent trucker, with 20 years and more than 2 million miles of road behind him. His is a solitary life, even in the best of times -- and these are not the best of times

He picked up his load in California. He had to stay in his cab because of social distancing and other requirements, as the shipper closed and sealed the trailer before he could look inside.

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Tribes press judge to halt US-Canada pipeline as work starts

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Native American tribes and environmental groups pressured a federal judge on Thursday to shut down work on the disputed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Nebraska, citing fears workers could spread the coronavirus and construction could damage land.

After years of delays, the company is rushing ahead amid the pandemic to get part of the line built so it will be harder to stop, attorneys for the project's opponents argued in a teleconference to decide if the construction should be halted.

They warned that plans to build construction camps housing up to 1,000 workers each pose a risk to tribes and rural communities that already struggle to provide basic health care services and would face challenges responding to coronavirus outbreaks.

The first U.S. segment of the 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) oil sands pipeline was installed by TC Energy this week across the Canada border in northern Montana. The fight over the line stretches back more than a decade after it became a lightning rod in the debate over fossil fuels’ contribution to climate change.

“With the rise of the pandemic, it is even more important to protect the tribe to at least put a pause on this activity, take hard look at this,” said Matthew Campbell, an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund representing the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota and the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes of the Fort Belknap reservation in Montana.

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Is it safe to open mail and packages during the pandemic?

Is it safe to open mail and packages during the pandemic?

There is no evidence that COVID-19 is spreading through mail or parcels, according to the World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most of it is spread from droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, which are inhaled by people nearby.

Health experts say the risks are very low that COVID-19 will remain on envelopes or packages and infect anyone who handles them.

It's still a good idea to wash your hands thoroughly and regularly — and avoid touching your face — after handling deliveries.

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Brian Dennehy, Tony-winning stage, screen actor, dies at 81

NEW YORK (AP) — Brian Dennehy, the burly actor who started in films as a macho heavy and later in his career won plaudits for his stage work in plays by William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, has died. He was 81.

Dennehy died Wednesday night of natural causes in New Haven, Connecticut, according to Kate Cafaro of ICM Partners, the actor's representatives.

Known for his broad frame, booming voice and ability to play good guys and bad guys with equal aplomb, Dennehy won two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe, a Laurence Olivier Award and was nominated for six Emmys. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010.

Tributes came from Hollywood and Broadway, including from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who said he saw Dennehy twice onstage and called the actor “a colossus.” Actor Michael McKean said Dennehy was “brilliant and versatile, a powerhouse actor and a very nice man as well.” Dana Delany, who appeared in a movie with Dennehy, said: “They don’t make his kind anymore.”

Among his 40-odd films, he played a sheriff who jailed Rambo in “First Blood,” a serial killer in “To Catch a Killer,” and a corrupt sheriff gunned down by Kevin Kline in “Silverado.” He also had some benign roles: the bartender who consoles Dudley Moore in “10” and the levelheaded leader of aliens in “Cocoon” and its sequel.