
United States businesses and households are going to need more fiscal support to get through what will likely be a longer period of recovery from the coronavirus shutdown than initially expected, Federal Reserve policymakers said on Tuesday.

The United States on Tuesday reported a record US$738 billion budget deficit in April, as an explosion in government spending and a shrinking of revenues amid the novel coronavirus pandemic put it deep into the red.

US President Donald Trump abruptly ended his coronavirus press briefing on Monday after getting into a testy exchange with an Asian-American reporter. CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang asked Trump why he continued to insist that the US was doing better than other countries when it came to testing for the virus.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he opposed renegotiating the US-China “Phase 1” trade deal after a Chinese state-run newspaper reported some government advisers in Beijing were urging fresh talks and possibly invalidating the agreement.

White House staff have been ordered to wear masks when entering the West Wing after two aides tested positive for coronavirus. The White House personnel office has said that staff must cover their faces at all times except when seated at their desks, socially distant from colleagues.

China and the United States both supported a draft United Nations Security Council resolution confronting the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, and it was shocking and regretful that Washington changed its mind on Friday, a Chinese diplomat said.

The staggering US unemployment rate reported by the government on Friday amid coronavirus lockdowns may get even worse, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday.

The COVID-19 lockdown wiped out 20.5 million jobs in the United States in April, destroying nearly all the positions created in the prior decade in the world's largest economy, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

The United States issued a new rule on Friday tightening visa guidelines for Chinese journalists, saying it was in response to the treatment of US journalists in China, a shift that comes amid tensions between the two nations over the coronavirus global pandemic.

Members of Venezuela’s opposition in October negotiated a US$ 213 million deal with a small Florida security company to invade the country and overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, according to a document published by the Washington Post on Thursday.