(NEW YORK) — The average price of gas in the U.S. — $3.10 as of Tuesday, according to the American Automobile Association — is the highest so far in 2021 and there are no indicators it will fall ahead of the holiday weekend.
Spiking global demand for crude oil as the pandemic eases is pushing up gas prices, as well as surging demand for air and road travel as more Americans become vaccinated. Meanwhile, limited but concerning reports of gas outages at stations across the country related to delivery issues are also ringing alarm bells for travelers looking to hit the road this weekend.
Presently, gas outages should not be cause for widespread concern, according to Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at the fuel-tracking site GasBuddy.
“So far, the problem is very limited and random in nature,” DeHaan told ABC News, adding that stations and truckers are running behind schedule on fuel deliveries “to a very few amount of stations.”
“Most motorists won’t even notice this, but as demand ramps up the nation needs hundreds more tanker truck drivers just from last year, in addition to the long-term squeeze we’ve seen,” he added.
As most Americans have varied enough dates and times that they plan to hit the road, DeHaan said he doesn’t expect shortages to be a major issue for drivers this weekend though they “could be something that a few notice.”
“The good news is there’s plenty of gasoline — the EIA [Energy Information Administration] reported last week that fuel production reached a staggering 10.3 million barrels of gasoline per day — amongst the highest I’ve recently seen and just below the record of 10.7,” he added. “There’s plenty of fuel, but, like many industries are dealing with right now, there remains a labor shortage and for the fuels industry, it’s manifesting itself in stations that can’t stay caught up on gasoline.”
Meanwhile, AAA forecasts a record-breaking 43.6 million Americans will hit the road for travel from Thursday to Monday.
This influx of travelers comes as nearly 90% of U.S. gas stations are selling regular unleaded gas for $2.75 per gallon or more, according to Jeanette McGee, a spokesperson for AAA. McGee added in a statement that motorists will pay the most to fill up this July 4 weekend since 2014.
States that saw the largest weekly price increases, according to data compiled by AAA, include Utah (12 cents per gallon), Indiana (11 cents) as well as Oregon and Washington (each 9 cents).
Separately, McGee told ABC News that major metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Boston and San Francisco will see traffic three to five times higher than on a typical day, and urged drivers to avoid traveling at peak hours. She recommends avoiding travel between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and to drive earlier in the day on Monday.
Gas prices have been climbing steadily since the beginning of the year. Tuesday’s national average of $3.10 per gallon is some 2 cents more expensive than the average last week, 5 cents more expensive than last month, and 92 cents more expensive than the average price at the same time last year.
(NEW YORK) — United Airlines is betting big on the post-pandemic travel boom.
On Tuesday, United announced the largest aircraft order in the airline’s history and the largest for the industry by a single carrier in more than a decade.
“Travel is back,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in an interview with ABC News. “There’s an amazing amount of pent-up demand for people to connect with each other and reunite.”
The 270 narrow-body jet order is potentially worth a reported $30 billion. It includes up to 200 Boeing 737 MAX and 70 Airbus A321neo aircraft. United also announced its going to be retro-fitting all of its narrow-body cabins — adding larger overhead bins, and entertainment screens on all seats.
As a result of adding new planes, United said it expects to create approximately 25,000 well-paying, unionized jobs over the next few years.
“They’re really careers and because you can have a job — even without a college education required, as a flight attendant or a gate agent — you can get to a six-figure salary with a good union job by the time you get to the top of the seniority scale,” Kirby said.
The order is a sign of hope that the dark days of decimated air travel are over.
The Transportation Security Administration on Sunday screened 2,167,380 people nationwide — the highest checkpoint volume since the start of the pandemic. It was just 18% shy of traveler volume on the same day in 2019.
United CEO Scott Kirby revealed on Monday that his airline is now profitable for this first time since the start of the pandemic.
Kirby posted on Instagram saying, “This achievement is a result of our employees’ perseverance and their commitment to our customers — all under the toughest of circumstances.”
U.S. airlines received billions of dollars in federal aid during the pandemic to keep employees on their payroll.
“While we’re not quite out of the crisis yet as we wait for international and business travel to return in more meaningful ways, today’s achievement feels just as good as seeing busy airports once again,” Kirby said.
All of the major U.S. airlines and the TSA have struggled with staffing as air travel has rapidly jumped from historic lows to approaching pre-pandemic levels.
When air travel came to a halt in March 2020, thousands of employees were offered early retirements and buyouts, but now the airlines are desperate to fill these positions again.
American Airlines canceled about 400 flights last weekend, in part due to staffing issues. The airline is now warning hundreds of flights will be canceled in the coming weeks.
United Airlines is desperate for baggage agents.
And at one point over the Memorial Day weekend, Delta Air Lines’ automated service told customers the wait time to talk with a reservation agent was more than 21 hours.
Experts said travel numbers will continue to rise this weekend as Americans celebrate the July 4th holiday.
AAA is projecting 3.5 million people will take to the skies from July 1 to July 5.
American Airlines expects to operate nearly 5,500 daily flights from Thursday to Monday, with the busiest travel days being Thursday and Friday, a spokesperson said.
United Airlines expects to fly 2 million customers from Thursday to Tuesday. The airline said Thursday and Monday will be busiest.
“July 1 is going to be the busiest day since COVID started, but it’ll only have that record for four days because July 5 is going to break it,” Kirby said. “It’s just another indication of how we really are on the road to recovery.”
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — The top U.S. general directing the full withdrawal of all 2,500 American troops from Afghanistan acknowledged in an exclusive interview with ABC News chief Global Affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz that the security situation in the country is “not good” and that the Taliban’s push to seize parts of the country is “concerning.”
Gen. Austin Scott Miller said he stands by his belief that there cannot be a military victor in Afghanistan, but he told Raddatz that as the Taliban continues with its military operations across the country, while also engaging in peace talks, “you’re starting to create conditions here that doesn’t — won’t look good for Afghanistan in the future if there is a push for a military takeover” that could result in a civil war.
“I think what you’re seeing — just if you look at the security situation — it’s not good,” Miller told Raddatz. “The Afghans have recognized it’s not good. The Taliban are on the move.”
Miller explained that while the Taliban are participating in peace talks in Qatar with the government of Afghanistan and expressing sentiments favoring a political settlement “you have an offensive operation going on across the country by the Taliban.”
He has previously said neither side can win militarily in Afghanistan.
“I still stand by those words,” Miller said. “You’re starting to create conditions here that doesn’t won’t look good for Afghanistan in the future if there is a push for a military takeover.”
Miller said “we should be concerned” by reports of increasing Taliban violence as Taliban fighters have seized dozens of Afghan government district centers throughout Afghanistan.
“The loss of terrain and the rapidity of that loss of terrain has to be a concerning one,” Miller said, noting that it can lower morale among military forces and civilians. “So as you watch the Taliban moving across the country, what you don’t want to have happen is that the people lose hope and they believe they now have a foregone conclusion presented to them.”
Miller said Afghanistan’s new Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi “understands the gravity of the situation” and is moving to strategically consolidate Afghan security forces to maintain the fight against the Taliban and not necessarily defend every district center.
“They’re going to need to do that” Miller said, and “they’re going to have to choose where they want to fight the Taliban as they continue to move forward.”
Miller also said he understood concerns by residents in Kabul that the Taliban would like to attack Afghanistan’s capital in the future.
“If you go back to what the Taliban’s objectives are, they want to take over and so at some point that implies that at some point they are in Kabul,” he said. “And certainly some of them remember what it was like the last time under with the Taliban regime.”
Departing Bagram
ABC News accompanied Miller to the sprawling Bagram Air Base located 40 miles east of Kabul that is the main transportation hub for the hundreds of cargo flights that have taken out U.S. military equipment and personnel over the past two months.
“Where we’re standing right now is this equipment that’s waiting to get on aircraft and that will redeploy from Afghanistan as part of our order in retrograde,” Miller told Raddatz, using the military’s official term for the full withdrawal.
“What’s happening here is also happening at other airfields around the country, particularly in the north,” said Miller, who stressed that the objective is for a safe and orderly withdrawal that will protect American and coalition forces as they depart the country.
Ultimately Miller said that the base would be turned over to Afghan security forces, much as is happening with other U.S. inventory in the country.
“The idea is that there is equipment that stays here that supports them, certainly in a strategic airfield,” said Miller. “But again, we’re looking to make sure that they have the ability to absorb it and secure it as we go forward.”
More than half of the U.S. military equipment in Afghanistan has already been shipped out of the country as the U.S. forces quickly move towards pulling out all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, as ordered by President Joe Biden. But it appears that the withdrawal could be completed much sooner than that with one U.S. official telling ABC News that it could be completed as soon as July.
The pace of the operations at Bagram has been eye-opening for the experienced logistics officers in charge of the operation.
“It’s a little surreal to see things very bare and empty,” said Col. Erin Miller, a logistics officer overseeing the withdrawal. “And as we continue to move forward with the retrograde, seeing the equipment leave out, it truly is surreal.”
Maintaining security
With all the billions of dollars the United States has invested in training and equipping Afghanistan’s security forces, it will be up to them to maintain security.
“What we’ve said is this is Afghanistan, this is their country,” said Miller. “The Afghan security forces have to hold.”
The U.S. military will continue to provide Afghan forces with financial support and continued assistance for Afghan air force maintenance crews, but as the U.S. completes its withdrawal, there will not be a physical U.S. military presence in Afghanistan aside from the hundreds of personnel who will be stationed at the U.S. embassy in Kabul.
Americans will also continue to fly “over-the-horizon” reconnaissance missions and counterterrorism missions from countries in the Persian Gulf area focused on al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, not the Taliban.
While the U.S. is continuing to provide defensive airstrikes in support of Afghan ground troops during the withdrawal, U.S. Central Command’s Gen. Frank McKenzie has indicated that airstrikes later will only be directed against the two terror groups if they are planning to attack the American homeland or allies.
Miller praised the effectiveness of Afghanistan’s Air Force but indicated that the possibility of U.S. defensive airstrikes in the future will continue “to be discussed as we move forward.”
“I think we need to see how that how that lands,” he told Raddatz.
The withdrawal in Afghanistan after an almost 20-year presence has drawn comparisons to the 2011 U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, which created a security vacuum that led to the rise of ISIS and the eventual return of U.S. forces in 2014.
“Do you think about Iraq when we’re leaving here and what happened in Iraq when we left?” Raddatz asked Miller.
“Absolutely, I mean that’s on everybody’s mind,” said Miller. “These are judgments that we have to make balanced against our national interests.”
Friends in need
Miller first served in Afghanistan in December, 2001 as a special operations commander and has deployed at least eight other times to Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations.
As he prepares to leave Afghanistan for the final time Miller described mixed feelings both professionally and personally.
“On the professional side, what you’re seeing is a — what I would call — a historic retrograde being done under at least the threat of conflict,” said Miller. “So far, it has not been contested, at least to date. So you see that and you know the goodness that’s taking place there, watching our service members as well as our allies doing this as professionally as possible.”
He said that after 20 years he has developed friends in Afghanistan, but “I don’t like leaving friends in need and I know my friends are in need.”
“As we continue to move down the retrograde and withdraw forces, there’s less and less I can directly offer them in terms of assistance,” he said. “So that’s hard.”
For example, he said Afghan Defense Minister Mohammadi has asked him occasionally for some type of assistance — provided in years past — and “there’s points where I have to tell him I won’t be able to do that.”
“It’s a tough, tough business, it is tough,” said Miller.
“We knew we were going to have to leave at some point,” he continued. ” I don’t know that you could find a right time, but so know what you are trying to do is, as you depart, ensure that the security assistance that can continue does continue; that you keep those lines open. So even as we discuss — we call it ‘departure’ — it doesn’t mean a full break of the relationship.”
Gen. Haibatullah Alizai, the commander of the Afghan Army’s Special Operations Command acknowledged that there will be challenges ahead for Afghanistan’s military, but he expressed confidence that his forces and Afghanistan will be able to endure after all U.S. troops have left Afghanistan.
“Absolutely, we will survive,” said Alizai. “Afghanistan will survive.”
“We have learned a lot from our friends and partners in the last two decades,” he said. “Based on those lessons we are going to expand and extend and make our army great to make Afghanistan keep the situation in Afghanistan the same or better than today. “
“I’m really optimistic about this and we are really committed to this fight against terrorism and to keep Afghanistan safe for the future,” said Alizai.
(ROME) — Kicking off the ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in Rome on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on countries to “repatriate, rehabilitate, and where applicable, prosecute their citizens” imprisoned in Syria fighting for ISIS.
The Syrian Democratic Forces have detained 10,000 ISIS fighters, a situation Blinken described as “untenable” in the long run.
“It just can’t persist indefinitely,” he said.
Great Britain, France and other countries have been reluctant to repatriate ISIS fighters, amid concerns about domestic terrorism and the unpopularity of doing so across Europe. (Former President Donald Trump threatened to “release” ISIS fighters into France two years ago.)
He noted the actions of several nations, singling out the host nation Italy as “one of the few Western European countries willing to return nationals from the region” — including a female fighter and her children.
Blinken also underlined the need for the coalition to expand its efforts in Africa and deny the terror group and its affiliates new recruits by “undermining its brand” and “sharing positive alternative narratives” online and on social media.
“We are seeing fighters of 13 and 14 years old, take up weapons to kill people, and we have to get at this from every possible angle,” he said.
Blinken announced plans for the United States to provide another $436 million in humanitarian aid to support Syrian refugees – bringing the total U.S. humanitarian response to the Syrian conflict to roughly $13.5 billion since 2011.
He also praised the group for its “significant achievements” in the fight against ISIS, noting that “the movement of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq has virtually ceased.”
He announced new U.S. sanctions against a senior leader in ISIS Greater Sahara, the affiliate group operating in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
Blinken closed by praising the partnership against ISIS in the Middle East and across the globe.
“We’ve made great progress because we’ve been working together, so we hope you’ll keep an eye on the fight, keep up the fight against this terrorist organization until it is decisively defeated,” he said.
(MOSCOW) — A Moscow court has rejected an appeal from one of two former Marines who U.S. officials believe Russia is holding hostage and whose cases have become the focus of a potential prisoner swap between the two countries.
Trevor Reed and another ex-Marine, Paul Whelan, have spent about two years in detention in Russia on separate charges U.S. officials say were fabricated to seize them as bargaining chips.
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Americans’ cases during their summit in Switzerland this month, after which the Kremlin signaled it might be prepared to discuss a deal for their release.
Reed, 29, had appealed a nine-year prison sentence that he received last July in a trial denounced by the U.S.
Moscow’s City Court on Monday rejected that appeal, leaving the sentence unchanged. The ruling potentially means that Reed, who is being held in a pre-trial detention center in Moscow, could now be moved to a prison camp away from the capital.
The ruling was expected by Reed’s representatives and his lawyers said they would now appeal it at a higher court in Russia and, if necessary, take it to the country’s Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
In a video released by the court, Reed could be heard saying “no surprises here” as he was led out of a glass cage in handcuffs.
The court did not allow journalists to enter the courtroom, citing coronavirus restrictions.
Reed, whose family lives in Texas, fell into the hands of Russian police following a drunken party in Moscow in August 2019, when he was visiting his girlfriend in the city and studying Russian. Reed was initially taken to a police station to sober up but after he was questioned by agents from Russia’s FSB intelligence service, police abruptly brought charges of assaulting an officer against him, according to his family.
Russia has repeatedly floated the idea of trading Reed and Whelan for Russian citizens jailed in the U.S. Whelan was arrested by FSB agents in late December 2018 and then sentenced to 16 years in prison on spying charges that his family and U.S. officials say are also fabricated.
The Biden administration has said freeing the two men is a top priority and the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, John Sullivan, attended Monday’s hearing.
“Another absurd miscarriage of justice in Russia the world watches,” Sullivan said in a statement after the hearing. “We will not cease to advocate for Trevor and for US citizens denied an open and fair judicial process, a universal human right.”
In his closing statement that he read to the court, Reed accused his trial judge of ignoring “all evidence,” including video from a police car interior that he said showed the officers who testified in court had lied.
He noted the extraordinary length of his sentence, which he said was longer than other prisoners had received for being convicted of murder. Some fellow prisoners had nicknamed him “Yury Gagarin” he said, after the first man in space, “because I was the first person who received such a sentence for a minor offense.”
He accused authorities of violating his human rights in jail by denying him medical care, blocking contact with the embassy and his family and also placing him in a psychiatric hospital for a time.
“I regret that I was kept in a place with a hole in the floor instead of a toilet and blood on the walls, in places where people made suicide attempts or successfully deprived themselves or others of life. I was kept in places with rats, fed food comparable to prison food in the Middle Ages,” Reed said in the statement, written extracts of which were provided to ABC News by his family.
Although Reed could now be moved to a prison camp, his lawyers on Monday said they did not expect that to happen before his new appeals were resolved or he was released in a possible swap.
Hopes that a deal to get the men home might be possible following Putin and Biden’s summit.
After the summit, Putin told reporters “a compromise might be found” over the Americans’ detention and the Kremlin has since said the two sides should sit down and begin work on getting an agreement.
Sullivan on Monday declined to comment on any possible negotiations, except to say that he expected discussions to take place.
“I expect future discussions between our governments on getting both of those Americans released,” Sullivan said outside the court. “It is of great importance to President Biden.”
One major obstacle to any deal previously has been the Russian proposal that it include Viktor Bout, one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers and whose release is viewed as a non-starter by U.S. officials.
But Russia has also hinted at other Russians currently serving sentences in the U.S. that it would like released, including Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot sentenced to 20 years in prison on drug smuggling charges after he was arrested in a DEA sting in Liberia in 2010.
After the Geneva summit, Reed’s parents said Putin’s words had given them hope a deal was possible.
“I think it’s huge. I really do,” Reed’s mother, Paula Reed, told ABC News after Putin spoke.
Biden told reporters at the summit that his administration would follow through on the discussion with Russia about the two men and that he would “not walk away” from them.
ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova in Moscow contributed to this report.
With the COVID-19 pandemic easing in this country, and life slowly returning to normal, what exactly will that mean? ABC Audio spoke with Amanda Fialk [FALK], PhD, chief of clinical services at the treatment community The Dorm, about what to expect.
Long story short, we’ve all experienced trauma, Dr. Fialk says, but how we process it will be different.
“It will be interesting to see what normal looks like and feels like,” Dr. Fialk says. “I think ‘normal’ is a relative concept, especially for people who struggle with mental illness. You know, I think returning to a pre-COVID type world, it doesn’t necessarily feel as exciting to people who maybe don’t struggle with mental illness.”
She explains, “People lost jobs, people lost loved ones, people were unable to participate in milestones, they stopped going to school, there’s a lot of loss and a lot of grief. And you don’t just process grief overnight.”
Dr. Fialk continues, “It’s not just gone because the imminent danger is no longer there. The lasting effects of the trauma linger…even when the outside environment is seemingly safe again.”
She explains, “You can almost compare it to…when people are…fighting in a war and the war is over. They’ve survived, they’re safe, they get to come home to their families. You would think that there’s just a ton of excitement and joy…and there might be that. But in addition to that, there’s also anxiety and fear involved in the re-entry.”
Dr. Fialk added, “Reintegration anxiety is normal! For many it will take time to adjust. Returning to ‘normal’ life is…a journey, not a destination.”
She suggests, “Rather than being critical or harsh or judgmental with self, be gentle and compassionate with oneself and one’s feelings.”
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The effort to create a commission to look into the events of the January 6 seige of the U.S. Capitol will face its first major test when it heads to the Senate, where it faces stiff opposition from Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced his opposition and aims to unite Republicans against approving the commission.
“I do not believe the additional, extraneous commission that Democratic leaders want would uncover crucial new facts, or promote healing. Frankly, I do not believe it is even designed to do that,” said McConnell.
Several rank-and-file Republicans echoed sentiments made by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who says the commission will become politicized and claim Democrats will delay the finding to make political hay.
Democrats argue Republicans are afraid of what the commission might find, saying the GOP is too beholden to former President Donald Trump, who is accused of inciting the insurrection over pushing myths about the 2020 election.
It has been proven through various audits, investigations and hand-counted ballot recounts that the election was not, quote, “stolen.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted his political counterparts, saying, “We need an independent, trusted, bipartisan commission now more than ever. It is critically important to establish a trusted record of events and begin to restore faith in our democracy.”
The commission aims to appoint a 10-member outside panel to look into how the January 6 riot started and the events that took place after protestors took the Capitol. The bipartisan commission would share subpoena power with an equal number of staff for each side.
10 Republican senators would need to break from their ranks to approve the commission, but it is uncertain if that will happen.
In anticipation of the vote, Gladys Sicknick, the mother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, as well as other Capitol Police officers met with Republican leaders in hope to change their minds and have them support the measure.
While few can argue that ending COVID-19 pandemic restrictions isn’t a good thing, all that staying at home has apparently taken a toll on our driving skills.
Thirty-seven percent of the respondents in a new survey admit they’ve entirely forgotten how to drive.
The non-scientific poll of 2,000 Americans commissioned by Nextbase Dash Cams revealed that 47% say they haven’t driven more than 50 miles per month since the pandemic began. As a result, 35% say their driving skills aren’t what they used to be pre-COVID, and 39% say they’re more nervous driving now than they ever have been. Thirty-four percent said they’d like to re-take driver’s ed to get more comfortable behind the wheel.
For those who have ventured out on the road, 53% of respondents said the highways and byways have been a “free-for-all” post-lockdown, as people got used to driving — and not following the rules — when there were fewer cars on the road.
As a result, 46% of respondents say they’ve become increasingly annoyed at other drivers: 33% say they’re using their horns more than ever; 25% say they’ve flashed their lights at annoying motorists; and 21% have even yelled out the window at other drivers. Fifteen percent admit they’ve cut off other drivers to express their discontent.
Nexbase director Richard Browning explains, “[W]e’ve seen a significant increase in shared consumer dash cam video vividly documenting incidents of dangerous driving and road rage.”
Considering this, it’s no surprise that 39% of respondents said they’re more anxious about driving now than ever.
All of this is especially bad considering 62% of those surveyed said they plan to take a road trip of 100 miles or more this summer.
(NEW YORK) — Here are today’s In Crisis headlines:
Senate to consider January 6 attacks commission; Republicans opposing measure
Senate Republicans are poised to quash an effort today to establish a bipartisan, independent commission to study the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol that that left five people dead. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced his opposition last week, along with his House GOP counterpart, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, ahead of the House vote that approved the measure, with 35 Republicans joining Democrats. McConnell called the commission “a purely political exercise that adds nothing to the sum total of information,” and noted that there is already an ongoing joint investigation into the attacks by the Senate Rules and Homeland Security committees, which are expected to produce a report in early June. Democrats counter that the real reason Republicans are opposed is because they’re beholden to former President Donald Trump, who was impeached for inciting the mob that ransacked the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election and who continues to claim, falsely, that the election was stolen.
The mother of Brian Sicknick, the officer who died after the Capitol insurrection, and Sicknick’s partner, Sandra Garza, are scheduled to meet today with a number of GOP senators, including Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, with the intention of pressing Republicans to vote in favor of the independent commission.
Nine dead in San Jose mass shooting Wednesday
Nine people were shot to death at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail yard in San Jose, California, on Wednesday morning, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. One victim remains hospitalized in critical condition. The suspect, identified as 57-year-old VTA employee Samuel Cassidy, also is dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, sheriff’s spokesperson Russell Davis said. Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said Thursday morning that two semiautomatic handguns and 11 magazines with ammunition were found in the area Cassidy where took his life at the rail yard.
An angry and emotional Governor Gavin Newsom, noting he visited the region after a mass shooting in Gilroy two years ago, declared Wednesday, “It begs the damn question what the hell is going on in United States of America? What the hell’s wrong with us?” A White House proclamation directs that U.S. flags be flown at half-staff at the White House, and all public buildings and military and naval posts, to respect the shooting victims. The incident brings to 232 the number of mass shootings in the U.S. this year.
New unemployment claims fall to pandemic low number
Some 406,000 new claims for unemployment were filed in the week ending May 15, according to Thursday-morning numbers released by the Department of Labor. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020, when it was 256,000, and also is a decrease of 38,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 444,000 new claims. The numbers are another sign the job market is healing as the pandemic wanes. There are currently 15,802,126 Americans collecting unemployment benefits from all state and federal programs.
COVID-19 numbers
Here’s the latest data on COVID-19 coronavirus infections, deaths and vaccinations.
Latest reported COVID-19 numbers globally per Johns Hopkins University
Global diagnosed cases: 168,471,416
Global deaths: 3,500,001. The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 591,957.
Number of countries/regions: at least 192
Latest reported COVID-19 numbers in the United States per Johns Hopkins University
There are at least 33,191,164 reported cases in 50 states + the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. This is more than in any other country.
U.S. deaths: at least 591,957. California has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 63,017.
U.S. total people tested: 461,869,272
The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in California, with 3,781,120 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 39.51 million. This ranks third in the world after England, which has 3,902,160 cases, and Maharashtra, India, which leads the world with 5,650,907 reported cases. Texas is second in the U.S., with 2,949,009 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 29 million.
Latest reported COVID-19 vaccination numbers in the United States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a total of 359,849,035 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. Of those, 289,212,304 doses have been administered, with 165,074,907 people receiving at least one dose and 131,850,089 people fully vaccinated, representing 49.7% and 39.7% of the total U.S. population, respectively. The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines each require two doses to be effective. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires a single dose to be effective.
Now 3.5 million global COVID-19 deaths as infection rates decline; US vaccinations also declining
Yet another grim pandemic milestone has been crossed, with 3.5 million global COVID-19 deaths now reported. Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University puts the number of fatalities at 3,500,001 as of Thursday morning. The United States accounts for 17% of global deaths, with 591,957 reported. That remains more than any other nation, though it’s suspected that India could be significantly underreporting its coronavirus fatalities, which currently officially number 315,235 but could be more than double that figure. Even given those daunting numbers, the World Health Organization reports that for the week of May 17-23, there were over 4.1 million new COVID cases and 84,000 new deaths reported worldwide, a 14% and 2% decrease, respectively, when compared to the figures reported the previous week.
In the U.S., where COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline rapidly, so too is the vaccination rate falling. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the seven-day average of vaccine doses administered has now dropped to just over 1.7 million doses a day — down by nearly 50% in the last six weeks. Just over 50% of the U.S. adult population is fully vaccinated, with nearly one in four of all Americans fully vaccinated, at 39.7%. People aged 65 and older are the most-vaccinated U.S. demographic, with the CDC reporting 74.1% are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. States and businesses continue to offer perks and other incentives to promote continued immunization.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — With researchers across the globe trying to accurately pinpoint the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden ordered Wednesday for U.S. intelligence agencies to “redouble their efforts” in pinpointing how the virus passed onto humans.
In addition, the president wants U.S. agencies to ask “specific questions for China.”
President Biden noted a report researching if the pandemic was cased by human contact with an infected animal or from a lab incident in China provided inconclusive results. Because of that, he has ordered a second report to be completed in 90 days to “bring us closer to a definitive conclusion.”
In a public statement, the president said, “As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question.”
“Here is their current position: ‘while two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other,” he added.
The theory that the virus was created in the the Wuhan Institute of Virology and somehow escaped is a popular theory among Republicans, as it was pressed by former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
President Biden’s order joins the growing global dissatisfaction with how the World Health Organization and China are conducting research to identify the virus’ origin.
COVID-19 adviser Andy Slavitt said of the renewed push, “”We need to get to the bottom of this, and we need a completely transparent process from China. We need the WHO to assist in that matter. We don’t feel like we have that now.”
