A group of students at The University of Chicago are holding a tuition strike as they demand that the elite private university cut tuition costs by 50 percent and waive fees for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, according to organizers.

UChicago for Fair Tuition launched a petition in April calling on the university to help students and families facing financial hardship due to economic fallout from the spread of the virus.

"As the coronavirus pandemic continues, it will create an increasingly disparate impact on low-income students, students with disabilities, students of color, queer students, students with children, and more," the petition reads.

Read the full story here. 

Keepers at Japan's Sumida Aquarium, closed because of the coronavirus outbreak, are appealing to patrons to go online and call — their eels. 

The creatures have forgotten what it's like to see human faces so when keepers come to check their health, the frightened fish dive into the sand, according to the marine center in Tokyo.

So between Sunday and Tuesday, keeps hope their "face show festival," with patrons video dialing into tablets set around the tank, can remind them that humans are friendly.

Everglades National Park in Florida will begin reopening some recreational areas starting Monday, the National Park Service announced.

Access will return for the park's Flamingo Marina and boat launch ramps, as well as the marina store, restrooms and gas pumps, and the external restrooms at its visitor center. Entry fees are also being waived.

Numerous other areas of the wetlands preserve remain closed. Decisions to reopen are made "on a park-by-park basis," and follow guidance from federal, state and local authorities, NPS officials said.

"I am pleased that we can be part of our community’s efforts to take incremental steps towards reopening,” Superintendent Pedro Ramos said in a statement. “Our action to restore access to the park's main road and Flamingo provides additional opportunities for people to spread out a little more while practicing social distancing."

The park's increased access will happen the same day as some Florida businesses are set to reopen in a phased plan outlined earlier this week by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

NASA engineers have developed a new high-pressure ventilator that could be used to treat coronavirus patients and help ease demand on the country’s limited supply of the machines. 

Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, designed the device that they named VITAL (short for Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), and the agency announced Friday that the design was approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

A free license for the device is being offered in a bid to jumpstart the manufacturing process, according to Fred Farina, head of innovation and corporate partnerships at Caltech, which manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA.

"Now that we have a design, we're working to pass the baton to the medical community, and ultimately patients, as quickly as possible," Farina said in a statement. "To that end, we are offering the designs for licensing on a royalty-free basis during the time of the pandemic."

Andy Berke, the mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee, became one of the earliest leaders in the South to enact measures to prevent the spread of the virus, quickly closing gyms, bars, restaurants and other nonessential businesses. By March 16, Chattanooga was effectively shut down. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, ordered the same measures a week later statewide, and on April 2, he ordered residents to stay home.

But this week, Lee announced that the "vast majority" of businesses in the state were allowed to reopen — regardless of whether city officials like Berke or individual business owners felt it was safe to do so. The mayor said he can't promise it's safe if he doesn't know how many cases there are in his community, and he can't do that without help from the federal government to expand the city's testing capacity.

The development puts Chattanooga at the center of growing partisan tension between Democratic city leaders in the South who want to pursue a slower approach until testing has increased and Republican governors who want the economy reopened as quickly as possible.

Read the full story here.

Domestic violence incidents in New York state rose 15 percent in March and nearly 30 percent in April, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday at his daily coronavirus briefing.

New York state entered into its version of "shelter in place" due to the COVID-19 crisis when Cuomo signed an executive order placing "New York state on PAUSE" on March 20. It was unclear if the increase in calls in March he cited were from after the start of the order or for the entire month. The state remained "on PAUSE" throughout all of April, when incidents increased dramatically.

As states began to issue orders to stay home in March, domestic violence experts were sounding the alarm that isolation at home raises concerns for domestic violence survivors, and warning police would see an increase in related calls.

See more of the most compelling photos from the last week as people all over the world grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. 

All schools and colleges in New York state will remain closed for the remainder of the academic year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference on Friday.

He said the decision was made to keep the state's 4.2 million students in K-12 schools and colleges and their teachers safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

Distance learning will continue, the governor said, adding that schools and colleges should plan now on what measures they may need to take to reopen campuses in the fall.

Read the full story here. 

Diego Castillo, a high school senior based in McAllen, Texas, spent months picturing a new life in Boston — he daydreamed of the friends he would meet, the places he would visit and the experiences he would have at his dream school, Boston University.

Yet when Castillo was notified that he had been accepted to BU last month, he didn’t rush to submit his enrollment deposit or procure a school ID and email.

“I had wanted to go to Boston University for a while. I wanted to get out of the state and explore,” Castillo told NBC News. “I was dead-set on it, but then the coronavirus happened and it made me reevaluate.”

Read more here.

A Colorado paramedic who has died of coronavirus after traveling to New York City to help during the  pandemic will be given a "special memorial," New York City Bill de Blasio said Friday. 

"We have lost someone who came to our aid, to our defense," de Blasio said of Paul Cary, 66. De Blasio added that the loss was "very, very painful," and said Cary's actions were heroic. 

"We’re going to find a way to create a special memorial for Paul right here in New York City," the mayor said. 

"I want you to remember, if you really want to honor these heroes, then it's up to you to stick to the rules we’re following now," de Blasio said, addressing New Yorkers about social-distancing rules.

"Lives you save could include our first responders and our health care heroes," he said. "I want to make it personal for you."