WASHINGTON: Measles has broken out in New York City, prompting the City to declare public health emergency on Tuesday.

The outbreak is mainly confined to Orthodox Jewish children in Brooklyn. It is considered as the largest outbreak since 1991, with total of 285 cases confirmed since October. Two cases had been reported in 2017.

The City has required unvaccinated people in the affected areas to get vaccine.

The measles virus is highly contagious and can lead to serious complications and death.

While there have been no confirmed deaths so far, 21 people have been hospitalized, with five admitted to intensive care, officials said.

The outbreak is part of a broader resurgence in the United States, with 465 cases reported in 19 states so far this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The United States declared measles eliminated from the country in 2000 thanks to widespread vaccination, meaning it is no longer constantly present.

(Agencies)

 WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump took a victory lap after special counsel Robert Mueller concluded his Russia investigation even though it may have been premature.

The investigation’s findings in the best political light is sure to be renewed in coming days when Mueller’s report is expected to be released in redacted form.

The American public will get a look at details beyond the four-page investigation summary written by Attorney General William Barr while Trump allies are concerned that the president was too quick to declare complete triumph.

“The Democrats will never be satisfied, no matter what they get, how much they get, or how many pages they get,” Trump tweeted Monday, two days after he blasted “Bob Mueller’s team of 13 Trump Haters & Angry Democrats.”

With the goal to discredit what’s coming, Trump and his allies have unleashed a series of broadsides against Mueller’s team and the Democrats pushing for full release of the final report.

After Washington waited nearly two years for Mueller to conduct his investigation, Barr released a letter last month stating that the special counsel found no evidence the Trump campaign “conspired or coordinated” with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

FLORIDA: Scientists have caught a female python in Florida Everglades that was more than 17 feet long, weighed 140 pounds and contained 73 developing eggs.

The snake is the largest python ever removed from Big Cypress National Preserve, a 729,000-acre expanse of swampland west of Miami in South Florida, according to a statement.

Facebook statement on the Big Cypress National Preserve’s says, “using male pythons with radio transmitters allows the team to track the male to locate breeding females. The team not only removes the invasive snakes, but collects data for research, develop new removal tools, and learn how the pythons are using the Preserve.

The team tracked one of the sentinel males with the transmitter and found this massive female nearby.”

KATHMANDU: The US-China trade dispute is pushing American multinational companies to relocate their factories and adjust business strategies for their supply chains in the next 12 months, according to a survey by Bain and Company.

“The shift is happening,” said Gerry Mattios, vice president at consulting firm, Bain. “Back at (the) end of 2018, when we ran a similar report, we found out a lot of companies — over 50 percent — were actually sitting on the fence … there were no major actions taken,” Mattios told.

But now, 60 percent of the respondents said they are ready to take action, as they see headwinds on their balance sheets, he added. “They see customers having to pay part of it, and they are trying to see how to reassess their supply chains.”

A supply chain is a network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute the firm’s products. Even though China has had a significant cost advantage that propelled the country to its leading position as the world’s manufacturing hub, that advantage is eroding as costs rise, Mattios said.

The survey polled more than 200 high-level executives and senior supply chain officers at U.S. multinationals with operations in China, and sought to gauge their perspectives on the ongoing trade dispute. However, some manufacturing will still remain in China as the country moves toward being a consumption-driven economy, he said. Items that would’ve been exported will see some assembly lines move to Southeast Asia said.

Still, he added, “we don’t think Southeast Asia will become the factory of the world in the way China did two decades ago.”

WASHINGTON: Amid President Donald Trump’s growing frustration and bitterness over the number of Central American families crossing the southern border, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned.

Trump announced on Sunday in a tweet that US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would take over as acting head of the department.

McAleenan is a longtime border official who is well-respected by members of Congress and within the administration. The decision to appoint a top immigration officer to the post reflects Trump’s priority for the sprawling department founded to combat terrorism following the Sept 11 attacks. (Agencies)

WASHINGTON: The United States is preparing to move its de facto embassy in Taiwan to a new site next month, media reports said.

Nearly 500 staff, including active US military personnel, will relocate to the new US$255 million complex in the Neihu district, Taipei on May 6.

They will leave behind the old premises that was set up to defend Taiwan against any military action from Beijing before 1979.

The new American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) will occupy a five-floor office and other buildings that take up about one-third of the 6.5-hectare site.

It took more than nine years to build the new structure. (Agencies)

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump has said the United States and China were very close to a trade deal, media reports said.

He said it could be announced within four weeks, however, warning Beijing that it would not be easy to allow trade to continue without a deal.

The U.S. and China are currently engaged in intense negotiations to end a months-long trade war.

Hopes of a resolution got high after both countries expressed optimism after talks in Beijing last week.

“We’re very close to making a deal. This, however, doesn’t mean a deal is made,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. (Agencies)

NEW YORK: U.S. private sector has added a total of 129,000 jobs in March this year, a report by a payrolls processor showed.

This is below economists’ expectations and the lowest since September 2017, U.S. media reported.

The private payroll gains in March earlier were revised up to 197,000 from an originally reported 183,000 increase.

The figures come ahead of the U.S. Labor Department’s comprehensive non-farm payrolls report on Friday that included public and private-sector employment. (Agencies)

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump took a step back from his threat to build a wall and close the U.S. southern border to fight illegal immigration, US media have reported.

Trump ‘stepped back’ as pressure mounted from several companies saying that a shutdown would cause chaos to supply chains.

On Friday, Trump threatened to close the border this week unless Mexico acted. The US President also reiterated the threat on Tuesday but said hastened on to add that he had not made a decision yet. “We will see what happens over the next few days.”

Closing the southern border could disrupt millions of legal crossings as well as billions of dollars in trade. Auto companies had earlier warned the White House ‘privately’ that it would lead to the idling of U.S. plants within days. (Agencies)

NEW YORK: Robert Cornegy Jr., New York City councilman having a height of 6-foot-10 (208 centimeters) has been named tallest politician in the world.

Cornegy says he went for the title two years ago after a constituent jokingly told him “you have to be the tallest politician ever.” Cornegy says being tall has its challenges, especially shopping for shoes and clothes.

The previous record holder was a Sir Louis Gluckstein, British member of Parliament, who measured 6-foot-7-1/2 inches (202 centimeters). He died in 1979 and was succeeded by another British politician who stood at 6-foot-6 inches (198 centimeters).