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PARIS (AP) — Nursery and primary schools reopened on Monday across France after a three-week closure in the first step out of the country's partial lockdown, despite numbers of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units reaching their highest level since…

The 93rd annual Academy Awards were always going to be a bit surreal this year. The pandemic changed many of the usual rhythms and traditions of the Oscars on Sunday night. There was a red carpet but no onlookers or teams of publicists. There were in-person, mask-less winners but not in the usual order, and the speeches were never drowned out with play-off music. Compounding the differences this year was a telecast, steered by producers including filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, that wanted a new look and feel to an often stodgy, persistently immutable ceremony. 

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that Germany will open up COVID-19 vaccinations to all adults in June, based on projections that the country will receive 80 million doses from manufacturers in the second quarter of the year.…

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government is intensifying efforts to court the Biden administration as the new U.S. president weighs whether to risk a political backlash in Florida and ease up on sanctions seeking to isolate the socialist leader. Maduro this month has conceded to longstanding U.S. demands that the World Food Program be allowed to establish a foothold in the country at a time of growing hunger. His allies also vowed to work with the U.S.-backed opposition to vaccinate Venezuelans against the coronavirus and have met with diplomats from Norway trying to revive negotiations to end the country’s never-ending political strife. The frenzy of activity comes as senior U.S. officials meet Monday as part of their continuing review of policy toward Venezuela. 

Because they are make believe, mock drafts tend to go wild. Lots of projected trades. Runs on specific positions. A surprise pick or two. For this year's selection process there is an obvious trend — one that should stun nobody. It's all about the quarterbacks, with potentially the first four spots being occupied by passers. That will begin with Trevor Lawrence of Clemson going to Jacksonville, which earned the top overall choice by going 1-15 last season.

The racial injustice protests in Minneapolis have revealed a generational divide in the city's burgeoning Black immigrant communities. Young people from Somali, Ethiopian and Liberian families have thrust themselves into the demonstrations, but older generations are more likely to stay focused on their livelihoods instead of speaking out. Jaylani Hussein is director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He says many older immigrants grew up in countries that prohibited speaking out against the government. Younger Black immigrants who were born in America or came at a young age often know firsthand both their parents’ struggles and the nation's history of racial injustice.

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Mario Draghi presented a 222.1 billion euro ($268.6 billion) coronavirus recovery plan to Parliament on Monday, aiming to not only help Italy bounce back from the pandemic but enact “epochal” reforms to address structural problems…

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It was a night that honored nomads and a messiah, new faces and old at a most unusual Academy Awards. The pandemic-era ceremony at the first-time Oscars home of Union Station in downtown Los Angeles was…

Tokyo Olympic organizers this week are to unveil additional plans to explain how 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes can compete in Japan when the games open in three months. This comes as Tokyo and Osaka and several other areas have been placed under a third state of emergency as coronavirus cases surge. Japan has attributed about 10,000 deaths to COVID-19. Organizers are expected to announce daily testing for athletes. They are also expected to drop a 14-day quarantine requirement to allow athletes to train when they arrive.

The Supreme Court has refused to consider Texas’ challenge to California’s ban on state-funded business trips to Texas and other states deemed to discriminate against LGBTQ people. California adopted the ban following a 2017 Texas law that allows foster care and adoption agencies to deny services for religious beliefs. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said Monday they would have allowed the lawsuit to go forward at the high court. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought to file the suit at the Supreme Court, which hears disputes between states. Paxton calls the California law an effort “to punish Texans for respecting the right of conscience for foster care and adoption providers.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will decide whether a Palestinian man captured in the wake of 9/11 and detained at the prison on the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay can get access to information the government classifies as state…

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 2-8: May 2: Singer Englebert Humperdinck is 85. Country singer R.C. Bannon is 76. Actor David Suchet (TV’s “Poirot”) is 75. Country singer Larry Gatlin is 73. Singer Lou Gramm of Foreigner is…

India has set another record for daily coronavirus infections for a fifth day in a row, at more than 350,000. On Monday, the country reported more than 2,800 deaths, with roughly 117 Indians succumbing to the disease every hour — and experts say even those figures are likely an undercount. The new infections brought India’s total to more than 17.3 million, behind only the United States. Doctors like Dr. Gautam Singh are on the front lines, trying to keep their patients alive. Like many others, he's taken to social media to try to get the supplies he needs, like critical oxygen, to help his patients.