WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Thursday the American people are “really, really down” after a tumultuous two years with the coronavirus pandemic, volatility in the economy and now surging gasoline prices that are slamming family budgets. But he stressed that a recession was “not inevitable” and held out hope of giving the country a greater sense of confidence.Speaking to The Associated Press in a 30-minute Oval Office interview, the president emphasized the battered economy that he inherited and the lingering psychological scars caused by a pandemic that disrupted people’s... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden twice tested negative for the coronavirus this week, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News, despite high-profile interactions with individuals who recently disclosed positive cases.The disclosure came after the top White House spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, repeatedly refused to reveal the president’s testing status, a reversal from previous practice.In at times tense exchanges with reporters during the daily news briefing, Jean-Pierre said she did not have information about the president’s most recent test, but also would not commit to disclosing... Read More

A congressional panel Tuesday will examine payouts under a federal coronavirus pandemic aid program intended to help small businesses weather the COVID-19 outbreak amid revelations that as much as 20% of the money may have been awarded to fraudsters.The problems in the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, overseen by the U.S. Small Business Administration, included a finding by congressional investigators that some 1.6 million applications for the loans may have been approved without being evaluated.Separately, the SBA’s Office of the Inspector General estimated that at least $80... Read More

WASHINGTON — After failing to get additional Covid funding from Congress, the White House will divert more than $10 billion it had planned to spend on testing and personal protective equipment to buy new vaccines and treatments it anticipates needing this fall. The redirected funds will enable the U.S. to start contract negotiations with vaccine-makers to order new shots for the fall, including next-generation vaccines the companies are in the process of developing, a White House official said in a statement.But even with the redirected funds, the U.S. still won’t have enough money to purchase... Read More

LONDON — A top official at the World Health Organization said the U.N. health agency assumes the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea is “getting worse, not better,” despite the secretive country’s recent claims that it is slowing down.At a news briefing on Wednesday, WHO’s emergencies chief Dr. Mike Ryan appealed to North Korean authorities for more information about the virus outbreak there, saying, “We have real issues in getting access to the raw data and to the actual situation on the ground.” Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics He said WHO has not received... Read More

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Former NBA player John Salley defended Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving over his decision not to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, causing him to miss a significant number of games this season.Salley praised Irving for his commitment to evaluating what goes into his body this week. “I think Kyrie Irving is the premier athlete — professional,” Salley said during an interview with TMZ. “I think he’s conscious. I think he thinks it through. I think it’s very important that people pay attention too, he’s not... Read More

NEW YORK — U.S. births bumped up last year, but the number of babies born was still lower than before the coronavirus pandemic.The small 1 percent increase was a bit of a rebound from 2020, the first year of the pandemic, which witnessed the largest one-year drop in the U.S. births in nearly 50 years.But there were still about 86,000 fewer births last year than in 2019, according to a government report released Tuesday.“We’re still not returning to pre-pandemic levels,” said Dr. Denise Jamieson, chair of gynecology and obstetrics at Emory University School of Medicine.U.S. births had been... Read More

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for raising Covid-19 preventive measures to maximum levels as the country announced its first coronavirus infection more than two years into the pandemic.The Korean Central News Agency said Thursday tests from an unspecified number of people in the capital, Pyongyang, confirmed that they were infected with the omicron variant.Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics The agency said Kim called a meeting of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party’s Politburo where members decided to raise its anti-virus measures.During... Read More

The Federal Reserve no longer views the coronavirus pandemic as the biggest threat to the global financial systemBy KEN SWEET AP Business WriterMay 9, 2022, 8:58 PM• 3 min readNEW YORK — The Federal Reserve said Monday that Russia’s war in Ukraine and surging inflation are now the greatest threats facing the global financial system, supplanting the coronavirus pandemic.The observations came in the Fed’s semiannual Financial Stability Report that looks at trends in trading and investing as well as broad economic issues. The report is not an economic forecast, and does not try to... Read More

The U.S. is experiencing a labor shortage that’s partly fueled by a drop-off in immigration, which ground to a halt during the coronavirus pandemicBy NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated PressMay 7, 2022, 5:02 PM• 6 min readJust 10 miles from the Rio Grande, Mike Helle’s farm is so short of immigrant workers that he’s replaced 450 acres of labor-intensive leafy greens with crops that can be harvested by machinery.In Houston, Al Flores increased the price of his BBQ restaurant’s brisket plate because the cost of the cut doubled due to meatpacking plants’ inability to fully staff immigrant-heavy... Read More