NewsPlexus Media January 23, 2021

New first lady Jill Biden took an unannounced detour to the U.S. Capitol on Friday to deliver baskets of chocolate chip cookies to National Guard members, thanking them "for keeping me and my family safe" during President Joe Biden's inauguration. "I just want to say thank you from President Biden and the whole, the entire Biden family," she told a group of Guard members at the Capitol. "The White House baked you some chocolate chip cookies," she said, before joking that she couldn't say she had baked them herself.

NewsPlexus Media January 23, 2021

David Halls isn't a doctor, nurse or ambulance driver, but he wanted to contribute in the fight against COVID-19. So he did what he does best: He sat down on the bench beside at Salisbury Cathedral's historic organ and began to play. Halls is one of the many people who have turned the 800-year-old cathedral in southwestern England into a mass vaccination center as the U.K. races to inoculate 50 million people. His contribution to the effort is offering a bit of Bach, Handel and even a little Rodgers & Hammerstein to the public as they shuffle through the nave to get their shots.

NewsPlexus Media January 22, 2021

Inside hospital rooms across America, where the sick are alone without family to comfort them, the grim task of offering solace falls to overworked and emotionally drained hospital chaplains who are dealing with more death than they’ve ever seen. Last week nearly a dozen died on a single day at the 377-bed Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, a gleaming, modern medical facility that is tucked into the northwest corner of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. Three more passed — within a span of 45 minutes — the next day. As he has each day for the past 11 months, Chaplain Kevin Deegan sits with the sick and dying, clad in a facemask, face shield, gloves and full body cover. He prays with them, holds their hands, gently brushes their foreheads and reassures them there is nothing to fear.

NewsPlexus Media January 21, 2021

President Joe Biden has given the Oval Office a slight makeover. Biden revealed the new décor Wednesday as he invited reporters into his new office to watch him sign a series of executive orders hours after he took office. A bust of Cesar Chavez, the labor leader and civil rights activist, is nestled among an array of framed family photos displayed on a desk behind the new president. Also represented in sculptures are civil rights icons Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

NewsPlexus Media January 21, 2021

Residents of a tiny Indian village surrounded by rice paddies flocked to a Hindu temple, setting off firecrackers and praying and as they watched Kamala Harris, who has strong roots to the village, take her oath of office and become the U.S. vice president on Wednesday. Groups of women in bright saris and men wearing white dhoti pants watched the inauguration live as reporters broadcast the villager's celebrations to millions of Indians. The villagers chanted "Long live Kamala Harris" while holding portraits of her and blasted off fireworks the moment she took the oath.

NewsPlexus Media January 21, 2021

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris showcased American designers at their inauguration Wednesday, and Harris gave a nod to women's suffrage, Shirley Chisholm and her beloved sorority in pearls and purple. Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush also donned hues of purple. Harris has cited Chisholm, a Democrat from New York, as an inspiration for her career. Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first Black major-party candidate to run for U.S. president. Pearls had a strong fashion showing, in line with a social media campaign that had inauguration watchers donning strands in support and celebration of Harris.

NewsPlexus Media January 21, 2021

For some, helping to get out the vote during Georgia's U.S. Senate runoffs meant writing checks for campaigns. Others signed up to canvass neighborhoods or make calls for campaign phone banks. Brandon Litman took a different approach by making thousands of pieces of art to connect the Democratic candidates with voters.

NewsPlexus Media January 19, 2021

Extreme cold has hit large parts of Europe, with freezing temperatures cracking railroad tracks in Poland, snow blanketing the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul and smog spiking as more coal was being burned to generate heat. In Switzerland, a skier who had been buried by an avalanche over the weekend died in a hospital of his injuries, authorities said Monday. Hand-in-hand with the cold came a spike in smog in Warsaw and other parts of Poland, as the cold prompted an increase in burning coal for heat. Air pollution levels were so high in Warsaw that city officials urged people to remain indoors.

NewsPlexus Media January 19, 2021

Speakers at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday celebration in Atlanta called Monday for a renewed dedication to nonviolence following a turbulent year in which a deadly pandemic, protests over systemic racism and a divisive election capped by an attack on the U.S. Capitol strained Americans' capacity for civility.

NewsPlexus Media January 17, 2021

A storm lashed parts of New England and eastern Canada on Saturday with heavy rain, snow and wind, leading to power outages and slick roads. About 15,000 homes and businesses were without electricity at the height of the storm in Vermont, the hardest-hit U.S. state, and thousands of outages were reported elsewhere across the region, officials said.

NewsPlexus Media January 17, 2021

In the birthplace of Mexico's vigilante "self-defense" movement, a new group has emerged entirely made up of women, who carry assault rifles and post roadblocks to fend off what they say is a bloody incursion into the state of Michoacán by the violent Jalisco cartel. Some of the four dozen women warriors are pregnant; some carry their small children to the barricades with them. The rural area is traversed by dirt roads, through which they fear Jalisco gunmen could penetrate at a time when the homicide rate in Michoacán has spiked to levels not seen since 2013.

NewsPlexus Media January 16, 2021

With the FBI warning of potential for violence at all state capitols, the ornate halls of government and symbols of democracy looked more like heavily guarded U.S. embassies in war-torn countries.

NewsPlexus Media January 15, 2021

A strong, shallow earthquake shook Indonesia's Sulawesi island just after midnight Friday, toppling homes and buildings, triggering landslides and killing at least 42 people.

NewsPlexus Media January 15, 2021

North Korea displayed new submarine-launched ballistic missiles under development and other military hardware in a parade that underlined leader Kim Jong Un’s defiant calls to expand the country's nuclear weapons program.

NewsPlexus Media January 15, 2021

An articulated bus dramatically plunged off a bridge in New York City late Thursday, leaving its front half hanging over a highway ramp, its fall broken only by the road below.

NewsPlexus Media January 14, 2021

The scene in the U.S. Capitol seemed jarringly disconnected. Inside the House chamber, the nation's lawmakers spoke with solemnity about democracy, the rule of law and the words of Abraham Lincoln as they undertook a vote to remove the president from office. They wore masks, a rule imposed by Democrats, as a measure of the pandemic that continues to ravage the country. But only steps away, outside the chamber doors, there was the look of an armed encampment.

NewsPlexus Media January 14, 2021

Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg will appear on a postal stamp that will be issued Thursday in her native Sweden and is part of a series focusing on the environment. The motives on the stamps “should reflect our time, where the environmental issue has been relevant and present for many years, not least through Greta Thunberg’s strong voice," Sweden’s postal company Postnord said in a statement.

NewsPlexus Media January 14, 2021

An endangered Indian rhinoceros was born last week in Poland's Wroclaw Zoo, a hopeful development in efforts to preserve the rare animals. Born Jan. 6, the female baby is the first Indian rhinoceros birth in the zoo's 155-year history, the zoo said Wednesday. Its parents are seven-year-old Maruska and an 11-year-old male, Manas.

NewsPlexus Media January 14, 2021

As Tunisia this week marks the 10th anniversary of the revolt that unleashed the Arab Spring, those injured in the tumult feel disappointed and marginalized.

NewsPlexus Media January 14, 2021

Tens of thousands of American tourists who descended on Mexico's glittering Caribbean beaches at the close of 2020 and start of this year. Quintana Roo state, the country’s tourism crown jewel, home to Cancun, the Riviera Maya and Tulum, received 961,000 tourists during that stretch — nearly half from the U.S. — down only 25% from the previous year.

NewsPlexus Media January 10, 2021

A persistent blizzard blanketed large parts of Spain with an unusual amount of snow on Saturday, killing at least four people and leaving thousands trapped in cars or at train stations and airports that suspended all services. The national weather agency reported that as of 7 a.m., the snowfall in Madrid reached a level unseen in half a century.

NewsPlexus Media January 8, 2021

Huge islands of garbage floating on some rivers in the Balkans are causing an environmental emergency and threatening a regional hydropower plant. Plastic bottles, rusty barrels and other waste could be seen clogging the Drina River near the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad on Tuesday. Upstream, the Drina's tributaries in Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia carried even more debris after swollen waterways spilled over into landfills.

NewsPlexus Media January 8, 2021

The Mardi Gras season always starts on Jan. 6 and ends on Fat Tuesday, which this year falls on Feb. 16. The season is usually marked by extravagant balls and parades where costumed riders throw trinkets to the mobs of people packed along the parade routes. The coronavirus has put an end to those large events. But that has not stopped notoriously creative New Orleanians from coming up with socially distant ways to celebrate.

NewsPlexus Media January 7, 2021

Protesters backing President Donald Trump massed outside statehouses from Georgia to New Mexico on Wednesday, leading some officials to evacuate while cheers rang out at several demonstrations as a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. Hundreds of people gathered in state capitals nationwide to oppose President-elect Joe Biden's win, waving signs saying “Stop the steal” and “Four more years.” Most of them didn't wear masks amid the coronavirus pandemic, and some carried guns in places like Oklahoma, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Washington state.

NewsPlexus Media January 7, 2021

The U.S. Capitol was locked down on Wednesday after protesters breached barricades amid violent clashes between President Donald Trump's supporters and Capitol police.

NewsPlexus Media January 6, 2021

Representatives of the Indian government and protesting farmers failed again Monday to reach agreement on the farmers' demand that new agricultural reform laws be repealed. With the government refusing to revoke the legislation, the farmers pledged to continue blockading key highways linking the capital with the country's north. The two sides agreed to meet for more talks on Friday.

NewsPlexus Media January 3, 2021

The coronavirus pandemic is coming home to roost in America's backyards. Forced to hunker down at home, more people are setting up coops and raising their own chickens, which provide an earthy hobby, animal companionship and a steady supply of fresh eggs. Amateur chicken-keeping has been growing in popularity in recent years as people seek environmental sustainability in the food they eat. The pandemic is accelerating those trends, some breeders and poultry groups say, prompting more people to make the leap into poultry parenthood.

NewsPlexus Media January 2, 2021

Ushering in the new year, a large crowd packed Pyongyang’s main square to watch fireworks, a concert and a flag-hoisting ceremony. North Koran state TV showed people wearing masks and heavy coats, waving and standing close together in a country claiming to be free of the COVID-19 virus. And North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent out New Year's Day cards thanking the public for their trust and support “in the difficult times” and wishing them happiness and good health.

NewsPlexus Media January 1, 2021

Gone were the revelry and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds that typify Times Square on New Year's Eve, replaced by empty streets and an eerie quiet as the final moments of 2020 ticked away.

NewsPlexus Media January 1, 2021

This New Year’s Eve was celebrated like no other in most of the world, with many bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget.

NewsPlexus Media December 30, 2020

If there's one silver lining in a year marred by a deadly pandemic, civil unrest, and economic and political turmoil, it's this: The number of mass shootings that happened in public was the lowest in more than a decade. Experts who research mass killings say there are two key reasons for the sharp drop-off. For one, most people avoided going out in public during coronavirus lockdowns, which meant fewer opportunities for slayings in workplaces or schools. For another, Americans were so focused on other tragedies that would-be gunmen were less likely to consider carrying out attacks.

NewsPlexus Media December 31, 2020

Aurora Leticia Cruz has tried to keep up with her blood pressure medication since fleeing Guatemala more than a year ago, but the limbo she finds herself in — stuck in a sprawling camp at the Texas border after traversing Mexico — has made that hard. When Cruz felt woozy on a recent day as her blood pressure skyrocketed, it could have ended in tragedy, leaving her 17-year-old granddaughter and two great-grandchildren under 3 alone in the camp in Matamoros. But instead, a nurse practitioner from Oregon and a Cuban doctor, who like Cruz is awaiting U.S. asylum proceedings, were able to pull up her medical record and prescribe the correct dosage.

NewsPlexus Media December 29, 2020

One survivor arrived on broken legs, others on the run. In this fragile refugee community on the edge of Ethiopia's Tigray conflict, those who have fled nearly two months of deadly fighting continue to bring new accounts of horror. At a simple clinic in Sudan, one doctor-turned-refugee, Tewodros Tefera, examines the wounds of war: Children injured in explosions. Gashes from axes and knives. Broken ribs from beatings. Feet scraped raw from days of hiking to safety.

NewsPlexus Media December 30, 2020

A fast-food eatery at Pompeii has been excavated, helping to reveal dishes that were popular for the citizens of the ancient Roman city who were partial to eating out.

NewsPlexus Media December 28, 2020

Workers installed 192 glittering Waterford crystal triangles on Times Square's New Year's Eve ball Sunday in preparation for a pandemic-limited celebration that will lack the usual tightly packed crowds of revelers.

NewsPlexus Media December 26, 2020

A recreational vehicle parked in the deserted streets of downtown Nashville exploded early Christmas morning, causing widespread communications outages that took down police emergency systems and grounded holiday travel at the city's airport.

NewsPlexus Media December 23, 2020

Sixteen notable writers have created a combined list of places that they believe helped shape and define America, from coastal Oregon and Solvang, California, to Ellis Island and New Hampshire’s Black Heritage Trail.

NewsPlexus Media December 23, 2020

In Peru, you can’t drive your car on Christmas. In Lebanon, you can go to a nightclub, but you can’t dance. In South Africa, roadblocks instead of beach parties will mark this year’s festive season. How many people can you share a Christmas meal with? France recommends no more than six, in Chile it’s 15, and in Brazil it’s as many as you want. Meanwhile, Italy’s mind-boggling, color-coded holiday virus rules change almost every day for the next two weeks. Here's a look at some of the restrictions around the world for the holiday season.

NewsPlexus Media December 25, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic did not produce Elena Simone's first budgetary rough patch. The 49-year-old single mother found herself out of the job market when the 2008 global financial crisis hit Italy and never fully got back in, but she created a patchwork of small jobs that provided for herself and the youngest of her three children. That all changed with Italy's first COVID-19 lockdown in the spring. With schools closed, so went Simone's cafeteria job. Her housecleaning gigs dried up, too. While others returned to work when the lockdown ended, Simone stayed frozen out.

NewsPlexus Media December 23, 2020

As the coronavirus spread throughout the U.S., bigotry toward Asian Americans was not far behind, fueled by the news that COVID-19 first appeared in China. Some initial evidence suggested the virus began in bats, which infected another animal that may have spread it to people at one of Wuhan, China’s “wet markets.” Such markets sell fresh meat, fish and vegetables, and some also sell live animals, such as chickens, that are butchered on site to ensure freshness for consumers. The information quickly got distorted in the U.S., spurring racist memes on social media that portrayed Chinese people as bat eaters responsible for spreading the virus, and reviving century-old tropes about Asian food being dirty.

NewsPlexus Media December 24, 2020

Santa found himself a little more tied up than usual this time of year. A Northern California man impersonating Santa Claus and flying on a powered parachute was rescued Sunday after he became entangled in power lines, authorities said.

NewsPlexus Media December 23, 2020

Eileen Nagle sees her family in video chats and drive-by visits, but that hasn't made up for the lack of warm hugs in the nine months since the pandemic led her nursing home to shut its doors to visitors. Enter Zeus. Hebrew Home has had a pet therapy program for 20 years; tiny Zeus and gentle giant Marley the Great Dane are the current snugglers in residence. Now, the activities department is expanding the canine corps with two new recruits in training to give residents more of the affectionate physical contact that has become so scarce and precious in the coronavirus era.

NewsPlexus Media December 22, 2020

Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island roared back to life Sunday night as lava went shooting into the air, boiling away a water lake and sending a massive plume of steam, gas and ash soaring into the atmosphere. In the first hours of the eruption, lava mixed rapidly with water in the summit's crater lake to create steam. The sky above the eruption turned shades of orange and red as people lined up to watch the billowing column of gas and vapor rise above the volcano in the middle of the night.

NewsPlexus Media December 21, 2020

Thousands of people lined up for coronavirus tests in a province near Bangkok on Sunday, as Thai authorities scrambled to contain an outbreak of the virus that has infected nearly 700 people. Triple lines of mainly migrant workers stretched for around 100 meters in one location alone, at Mahachai in Samut Sakhon province, as health officials in mobile units methodically took nasal swabs. There were three locations in total in the area.

NewsPlexus Media December 21, 2020

Nepal's president dissolved Parliament on Sunday after the prime minister recommended the move amid an escalating feud within his Communist Party that is likely to push the Himalayan nation into a political crisis. Parliamentary elections will be held on April 30 and May 10, according to a statement from President Bidya Devi Bhandari's office.

NewsPlexus Media December 20, 2020

Even before the first flakes fell, New York City’s first big snowfall of the season was doomed to be a gloomy disappointment for more than a million of its schoolchildren. COVID-19 has robbed a lot from children in 2020, and in many school districts in northern climes it is now stealing the magic of the snow day — waking up to find that school has been canceled and the day will be filled with snowballs and snow angels.

NewsPlexus Media December 20, 2020

Work crews ignite dynamite blasts in the remote and rugged southeast corner of Arizona, forever reshaping the landscape as they pulverize mountaintops in a rush to build more of President Donald Trump’s border wall before his term ends next month. Each blast in Guadalupe Canyon releases puffs of dust as workers level land to make way for 30-foot-tall steel columns near the New Mexico line. Heavy machines crawl over roads gouged into rocky slopes while one tap-tap-taps open holes for posts on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property.

NewsPlexus Media December 19, 2020

Bleary, barefoot, apparently numbed by a week of captivity, more than 300 Nigerian schoolboys, freed after being kidnapped in an attack on their school, were welcomed by the governor of Katsina state Friday.

NewsPlexus Media December 18, 2020

The Northeast’s first whopper snowstorm of the season buried parts of upstate New York under more than 3 feet (1 meter) of snow, broke records in cities and towns across the region, and left plow drivers struggling to clear the roads as snow piled up at more than 4 inches (10 centimeters) per hour. “It was a very difficult, fast storm and it dropped an unbelievable amount of snow,” Tom Coppola, highway superintendent in charge of maintaining 100 miles (160 kilometers) of roads in the Albany suburb of Glenville, said Thursday. “It's to the point where we're having trouble pushing it with our plows.”

NewsPlexus Media December 18, 2020

Operation Santa Claus is an Alaska National Guard annual community outreach program that provides Christmas gifts, books, school supplies and stocking stuffers to children in rural Alaskan communities. The Alaska National Guard and the Salvation Army were able to provide and deliver gifts for the program's 65th year, but had to scale back distribution parties that are normally held in the villages because of COVID-19