A Virginia family out for a ride to get a change of scenery after being holed up due to the coronavirus found nearly USD 1 million in two bags lying in the road.
David and Emily Schantz left their Caroline County home with their children last Saturday and drove their pickup truck over what they thought was a bag of trash, then stopped and picked it up as well as another bag nearby, news sources reported Tuesday.
The Schantzes tossed the bags in the back of their pickup truck and kept riding, according to Emily Schantz.
Only when the Schantzes returned home did they discover the bags contained money, she said.
Inside of the bag, there were plastic baggies and they were addressed with something that said 'cash vault,' Schantz told WTVR.
They contacted the Caroline County Sheriff's Office, which sent deputies to the home. The deputies took inventory and determined the money totalled nearly USD 1 million.
Caroline Sheriff's Maj. Scott Moser said authorities have since determined where the 

Virginia family out for ride finds nearly $1 million in road

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Egypt has announced further anti-virus measures to follow Eid al-Fitr, the three-day festival that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly says that starting May 30, the government will require people to wear face masks in public places, with violators fined 4,000 pounds (around $250) by police.
As Egypt's curve accelerates, calls for tighter movement restrictions in the Arab world's most populous country are growing. The number of detected cases in the state jumped by 720 on Tuesday to 13,484 infections and 659 deaths, the highest single-day increase.

Egypt announces more anti-coronavirus measures

Beyond the hotspots of Brazil and Mexico, the coronavirus is threatening to overwhelm Latin American cities stretching from Chile to the Colombian Amazon in an alarming sign that the pandemic may be only at the start of its destructive march through the region.
More than 90% of intensive care beds were full last week in Chile's capital, Santiago, whose main cemetery dug 1,000 emergency graves to prepare for a wave of deaths.
In Lima, Peru, patients took up 80% of intensive care beds as of Friday. Peru has the world's 12th-highest number of confirmed cases, with more than 90,000.  We're in bad shape," said Pilar Mazzetti, head of the Peruvian government's COVID-19 task force. This is war.
In some cities, doctors say patients are dying because of a lack of ventilators or because they couldn't get to a hospital fast enough.
With intensive care units swamped, officials plan to move patients from capitals like Lima and Santiago to hospitals in smaller cities that aren't as busy  running ...

'This is war': Virus charges beyond Latin American hotspots

The world cut its daily carbon dioxide emissions by 17% at the peak of the pandemic shutdown last month, a new study found.
But with life and heat-trapping gas levels inching back toward normal, the brief pollution break will likely be a drop in the ocean" when it comes to climate change, scientists said.
In their study of carbon dioxide emissions during the coronavirus pandemic, an international team of scientists calculated that pollution levels are heading back up  and for the year will end up between 4% and 7% lower than 2019 levels.
That's still the biggest annual drop in carbon emissions since World War II.
It'll be 7% if the strictest lockdown rules remain all year long across much of the globe, 4% if they are lifted soon.
For a week in April, the United States cut its carbon dioxide levels by about one-third.
China, the world's biggest emitter of heat-trapping gases, sliced its carbon pollution by nearly a quarter in February, according to a study Tuesday in the journal Nature 

Study: World carbon pollution falls 17% during pandemic peak

Annie Glenn, the widow of astronaut and US Sen. John Glenn and a communication disorders advocate, died Tuesday of complications from COVID-19. She was 100.
Glenn died at a nursing home near St Paul, Minnesota, said Hank Wilson, a spokesman for the Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University.
At the time of John Glenn's death in 2016, the two had been married 73 years. She had moved out of the apartment they shared in Columbus in recent years and gone to live with her daughter, Lyn, according to Wilson.
Annie Glenn was thrust into the spotlight in 1962, when her husband became the first American to orbit Earth. She shied away from the media attention because of a severe stutter.
Later, she underwent an intensive programme at the Communications Research Institute at Hollins College, now Hollins University, in Roanoke, Virginia, that gave her the skills to control her stutter and to speak in public.
By the time 77-year-old John Glenn returned to space in 1998 aboard ...

Annie Glenn, widow of US Sen. John Glenn, dies at 100

As large parts of the US ease their lockdowns against the coronavirus, public health officials in some states are being accused of bungling infection statistics or even deliberately using a little sleight of hand to make things look better than they are.
The result is that politicians, business owners and ordinary Americans who are making decisions about reopenings and other day-to-day matters risk being left with the impression that the virus is under more control than it actually is.
In Virginia, Texas and Vermont, for example, officials said they have been combining the results of viral tests, which show an active infection, with antibody tests, which show a past infection. Public health experts say that can make for impressive-looking testing totals but does not give a true picture of how the virus is spreading.
In Florida, the data scientist who developed the state's coronavirus dashboard, Rebekah Jones, said this week that she was fired for refusing to manipulate data to drum up 

States accused of fudging or bungling COVID-19 testing data

The Russian military said one of its helicopters crash-landed in an uninhabited area north of Moscow late Tuesday, killing all crew members.
The Defense Ministry said the incident involving a Mi-8 helicopter occurred near the town of Klin, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Moscow. The incident may have been caused by a technical malfunction, officials said.
The ministry didn't clarify how many crew members were on board, but said that the helicopter wasn't carrying ammunition and landed in a desolate area."
The Chief Command of the Russian Aerospace Forces has dispatched a commission to the site of the incident, officials added.

Russia: Military helicopter crash lands killing all crew

The Senate intelligence committee has approved the nomination of Texas GOP Rep John Ratcliffe to be Director of National Intelligence, sending the nomination to the Senate floor for confirmation.
Ratcliffe's nomination was approved 8-7 in a closed committee hearing, with senators voting along party lines, according to a committee aide. The aide was granted anonymity to discuss the closed proceedings ahead of an official announcement.
Republicans have praised Ratcliffe, who has been ardent defender of President Donald Trump, while Democrats have been skeptical that he would serve with the independence they say is crucial for the job.
Ratcliffe sought to shed his reputation as a Trump loyalist at his confirmation hearing earlier this month, insisting he would lead the nation's intelligence agencies without partisan influence.
Ratcliffe would replace Dan Coats, a former GOP senator who was popular in Congress but who clashed with Trump in his two years in the job. Richard Grenell, who is 

Committee approves Ratcliffe for DNI, sends to full Senate

Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday exhibited a recently uncovered, unusual series of 2,000-year-old chambers carved out of the bedrock beneath the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem.
The Israel Antiquities Authority's excavations are uncovering new sections of a sprawling network of ancient subterranean passageways running alongside a contested Jerusalem holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, while the compound is the third-holiest site in Islam. It was the site of two Jewish temples in antiquity and today is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock.
Archaeologists began excavating a large, late Byzantine building located around 35 meters (120 feet) from the base of the wall last year. Beneath the plain white mosaic tiled floor of the monumental structure, they discovered a series of small chambers hewn out of the bedrock. Fragments of clay oil lamps and limestone cups helped date the ...

Dig near Jerusalem's Western Wall yields 'puzzling' chambers

A former Navy pilot who captured a California congressional district from Democrats and a state legislator who retained a Republican-held Wisconsin seat joined the House on Tuesday, buoying a GOP seeking momentum for its uphill fight for the chamber's majority in this fall's elections.
California's Mike Garcia and Wisconsin's Tom Tffany, who won special elections last week to fill vacancies, are conservatives backed by President Donald Trump. Both will serve until Jan. 3, filling unexpired terms of lawmakers who resigned last year.
The two men stood side by side on the House floor as they were sworn into office by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. In this age of the coronavirus, they elbow-bumped afterward but did not wear face masks.  Garcia's victory was more noteworthy.
Garcia's win came in a Los Angeles-area district that was among dozens of suburban seats that Democrats won from the GOP in 2018, catapulting them to House control. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had 

2 Republican special election winners sworn into House

Google says it will no longer build custom artificial intelligence tools for speeding up oil and gas extraction, separating itself from cloud computing rivals Microsoft and Amazon.
The announcement followed a Greenpeace report Tuesday that documents how the three tech giants are using AI and computing power to help oil companies find and access oil and gas deposits in the U.S. and around the world.
The environmentalist group says Amazon, Microsoft and Google have been undermining their own climate change pledges by partnering with major oil companies including Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil that have looked for new technology to get more oil and gas out of the ground.
But the group applauded Google on Tuesday for taking a step away from those deals.
While Google still has a few legacy contracts with oil and gas firms, we welcome this indication from Google that it will no longer build custom solutions for upstream oil and gas extraction, said Elizabeth Jardim, senior corporate ...

Google backs off on AI for oil and gas extraction

The Spanish government is submitting for parliamentary approval a draft bill that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by mid-century, in line with the Paris Accord on climate change that most countries have backed to limit rising temperatures.
The final approval could take months and the bill passed Tuesday by the left-wing coalition members of Prime Minister Pedro Snchez's Cabinet could still be modified by lawmakers. But if passed close to its current form, it would mark the first time that the goal of making Spain emission neutral by 2050 is enshrined in law.
World leaders agreed five years ago in Paris to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), ideally no more than 1.5 C (2.7 F) by the end of the century. But scientists say countries will miss both of those goals by a wide margin unless drastic steps are taken to begin cutting greenhouse gas emissions this year.
The Spanish bill echoes the European Union's goal of a "Green Deal to reactivate ..

Spain drafts law eyeing climate neutrality by mid-century

Amazon is gradually reopening its warehouses in France after consulting with unions on new virus safety measures, in an effort to end weeks of legal troubles that had sharply curtailed the company's business.
In a victory for labor unions, French courts ruled last month that Amazon hadn't done enough to protect its workers from the coronavirus. The world's largest online retailer shut its French warehouses as a result  just as demand soared because stores were shuttered by virus restrictions.
After protracted negotiations, Amazon started a three-week reopening process Tuesday.
It's now holding training sessions for staff, in one small group at a time, on the new virus protection measures it's putting in place, Amazon's France director Frederic Duval said on public broadcaster France-Info.
Unions say the new measures include stricter social distancing, better enforcement, and changes to scheduling to reduce the number of people allowed to work in the same place at the same time.
Duval .

France: Amazon back in business after virus deal with unions

The British government published Tuesday the outlines of a new post-Brexit tariff regime that could potentially lead to a fall in the price of thousands of products, including Christmas trees, cocoa and fridges.
The Department for International Trade said the new regime will see tariffs eliminated on 62 billion pounds ($76 billion) of imports. Called the U.K. Global Tariff, it will apply to all countries that the U.K. does not have a trade agreement with.
Our new Global Tariff will benefit U.K. consumers and households by cutting red tape and reducing the cost of thousands of everyday products, said International Trade Secretary Liz Truss.  However, tariffs on industries such as agriculture, automotive and fishing are remaining as an attempt to protect them against competition.
The U.K. Global Tariff will replace the European Union's external tariff on Jan. 1, when the country is formally due to exit a transition period aimed at smoothing its departure from the bloc earlier this ...

As EU talks stall, UK outlines tariffs for post-Brexit world

Russia's foreign minister said Tuesday that Moscow has scaled down its military drills amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Sergey Lavrov said that the Russian military also has decided not to conduct any war games near the country's borders with NATO member nations during the outbreak.
Russia-West relations have sunk to post-Cold War lows after the 2014 Russian annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and Moscow's support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly voiced concern over the deployment of NATO forces in the Baltics, describing it as a threat to its security. Russia and the alliance also have blamed one another for conducting destabilizing military exercises near the borders.

Russia says it scales down war games amid pandemic

Spain is mandating facial masks in all public spaces, including outdoors when a safe distance of 2-meters (6.5-feet) between people can't be kept.
Health Minister Salvador Illa says the decision expands recommendations in March for masks worn only in hospitals and nursing homes.  Previously, masks were in short supply in a country ravaged by the pandemic.
Last month, masks became mandatory on public transportation.  Spain has recorded more than 27,000 deaths from the coronavirus and more than 230,000 confirmed infections.

Spain mandates masks in all public spaces

Pressure on Italy's hospitals has continued to decline, an essential condition for the country to safely continue to eliminate or ease lockdown measures for the coronavirus.
For the first time since mid-March, the number of persons hospitalized in non-intensive care beds has dipped under 10,000. The number of COVID-19 patients occupying intensive care beds also has decreased in recent weeks, down to 716 on Tuesday, according to Health Ministry figures.
Throughout the outbreak, most coronavirus patients in Italy haven't needed hospitalization but instead stayed isolated at home. There were 813 new cases of infection nationwide in the 24-hour period ending Tuesday evening, raising to 226,699 Italy's overall known case tally.
The daily increase in deaths was registered at 162, increasing the country's total number of persons who died with confirmed COVID-19 infections to 32,169.

Italy sees more encouraging coronavirus numbers

Etihad Airways said Tuesday it would fly aid for the Palestinians amid the coronavirus pandemic from the capital of the United Arab Emirates into Israel, marking the first known direct commercial flight between the two nations.
The flight comes as the UAE, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai on the Arabian Peninsula, has no formal diplomatic ties to Israel over its occupation of land wanted by the Palestinians for a future state.
However, it marks an open moment of cooperation between the countries after years of rumored back-channel discussions between them over the mutual enmity of Iran.
Etihad, a state-owned, long-haul carrier, confirmed it had a flight Tuesday to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.
Etihad Airways operated a dedicated humanitarian cargo flight from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv on 19 May to provide medical supplies to the Palestinians, the airline told The Associated Press. The flight had no passengers on board.
Emirati government officials did not respond to multiple requests for ...

Etihad makes 1st known commercial flight between UAE, Israel

Turkey reported a continued downward trajectory in COVID-19 deaths and confirmed infections Tuesday, with 28 new deaths and 1,022 infections over the past 24 hours.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted new figures showing a total of 4,199 deaths and 151,615 reported positive cases since March 11, when the first infection was confirmed.
Koca said the decrease in patients needing intensive care continued and the number of patients who recovered reached 112,895.
Turkey has opted for partial lockdowns, contact tracing and early treatment in combating the novel coronavirus. Fifteen provinces, including Istanbul, are in the final day of a four-day lockdown.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he hoped the upcoming nationwide lockdown during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr from May 23-26 would be the final round.
Turks were urged to commemorate from their balconies a national holiday Tuesday that marks the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence in 1919.

Turkey reports downward trend in virus deaths, infections

Six drugmakers that manufacture generic hydroxychloroquine report the drug is in short supply, while three others reported in the last week that their product is available, according to the Food and Drug Administration's drug shortages website.
The companies cite increased demand as the cause, with some stating they expect to next ship the drug at the end of May.
President Donald Trump said Monday he has been taking hydroxychloroquine and a zinc supplement daily for about a week and a half now, after two White House staffers tested positive for the coronavirus.
Trump has spent months pushing hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure or preventive drug for COVID-19 against the cautionary advice of many of his administration's top medical professionals.
One of the companies, Concordia Pharmaceuticals, also makes the brand-name version, called Paquenil. It says that drug is completely unavailable but is expected to be available again at the end of this month.

Companies say hydroxychloroquine in short supply

Canada and the US have agreed to extend their agreement to keep border closed to non-essential travel to June 21 during the coronavirus pandemic.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday the border is a source of vulnerability, so the agreement will be extended by another 30 days. The restrictions were announced on March 18 and were extended in April.
Trudeau said Canada's provincial leaders clearly wanted to continue the measures.
This will keep people in both of our countries safe." Trudeau said.  U.S. President Donald Trump has said that the U.S. and Canada are doing well in handling the pandemic. But many Canadians fear a reopening.
The U.S. has more confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19 than any country in the world, though its per capita numbers are well below many other nations.
Essential cross-border workers like healthcare professionals, airline crews and truck drivers are still permitted to cross. Truck drivers are critical as they move food and medical goods ..

AP

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