world
BusinessAssociated PressIndexes open lower on Wall Street following 4 days of gains
Stocks are off to a sluggish start on Wall Street as a four-day rally in the S&P 500 cools off. The benchmark index was down 0.2% in the early going on Thursday, a day after it came within 2% of the record high it reached in February. Nearly 1.2 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the number wasn’t quite as bad as economists were expecting and was the lowest level since mid-March.
NewsAssociated PressThe Latest: Denmark donates $1.9 million to Lebanon
Denmark is donating 12 million kroner ($1.9 million) to Lebanon, chiefly to be channeled via the Red Cross, and 600 chemical protection suits. Development Minister Rasmus Prehn said Tuesday's explosions in Beirut come “at the worst possible time” for Lebanon. Italy has sent 8.5 tons of medical equipment to Lebanon in a second aid flight following the massive explosion in Beirut.
NewsAssociated Press1.2 million seek jobless aid after $600 federal check ends
Nearly 1.2 million laid-off Americans applied for state unemployment benefits last week, evidence that the coronavirus keeps forcing companies to slash jobs just as a critical $600 weekly federal jobless payment has expired. The government's report Thursday did offer a smidgen of hopeful news: The number of jobless claims declined by 249,000 from the previous week, after rising for two straight weeks, and it was the lowest total since mid-March. Before the pandemic hit hard in March, the number of Americans seeking unemployment checks had never surpassed 700,000 in a week, not even during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
NewsReutersStandoff with China will be long, India warns in pulled statement
India's defence ministry has warned, in a statement since removed from its website, that a military standoff with China that began with border fighting in June is likely to be a long one, despite multiple rounds of talks between the nuclear-armed rivals to defuse the tension. The ministry said in an update for June - which has now been removed - that Chinese forces had breached the border in the Kugrang Nala and Gogra areas and the north shore of Pangong Tso lake in the northern Indian territory of Ladakh on May 17-18. China accuses the Indian side of crossing the de facto border and provoking its soldiers.
NewsAssociated PressFireworks, ammonium nitrate likely fueled Beirut explosion
Fireworks and ammonium nitrate appear to have been the fuel that ignited a massive explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut, experts and videos of the blast suggest. The scale of the damage — from the epicenter of the explosion at the port of Beirut to the windows blown out kilometers (miles) away — resembles other blasts involving the chemical compound commonly used as an agricultural fertilizer.
NewsReutersVietnam says contagion 'under control' in virus epicentre but spread elsewhere
A new coronavirus outbreak in Vietnam spread to two more provinces on Wednesday, the country's health minister said, as the COVID-19 task force declared the contagion "under control" in the central city where the outbreak began. Aggressive contact-tracing, targeted testing and strict quarantining had helped Vietnam contain earlier outbreaks, but it is now battling infections in at least 10 cities and provinces, after going more than three months without domestic transmission. The health ministry confirmed 43 new cases on Wednesday, bringing Vietnam's total infections to 713, with 8 deaths.
NewsReutersFacebook rejects request to release Myanmar officials’ data for genocide case
The social media giant urged the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday to reject the demand, which it said would violate a U.S. law that bars electronic communication services from disclosing users' communications. Facebook <FB.O> said the request, made in June, for the release of "all documents and communications" by key military officials and police forces was "extraordinarily broad" and would constitute "special and unbounded access" to accounts.
- NewsAssociated Press
Top Asian News 12:47 p.m. GMT
Survivors of the world’s first atomic bombing gathered in diminished numbers near an iconic, blasted dome Thursday to mark the attack’s 75th anniversary, many of them urging the world, and their own government, to do more to ban nuclear weapons. An upsurge of coronavirus cases in Japan meant a much smaller than normal turnout, but the bombing survivors’ message was more urgent than ever. As their numbers dwindle — their average age is about 83 — many nations have bolstered or maintained their nuclear arsenals, and their own government refuses to sign a nuclear weapons ban treaty.
NewsAssociated PressThe Latest: More crew test positive on Norway cruise ship
A northern Norway university hospital says two more crewmembers who worked on a Norwegian cruise ship have tested positive for the coronavirus, bring the total to 55. Following the outbreak on the MS Roald Amundsen, the ship’s owner halted all cruises on Monday and Norway closed its ports to cruise ships for two weeks. Earlier, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said during the ship’s two journeys last month, a total of 37 crew members and 16 passengers tested positive.
PoliticsAssociated PressJoe Biden launches new national ad aimed at Black Americans
Joe Biden's Democratic presidential campaign has launched a new national ad focused on Black Americans, urging them to stand up to President Donald Trump the way their ancestors stood up to "violent racists of a generation ago." The one-minute ad, which was shared exclusively with The Associated Press before its digital and television release on Thursday, is meant to drum up support among Black Americans, a key constituency for Biden, ahead of November's general election. The ad, titled “Better America,” also takes a direct swipe at Trump, without mentioning the Republican president by name.
NewsAssociated PressSurvivors mark 75th anniversary of world’s 1st atomic attack
Survivors of the world’s first atomic bombing gathered in diminished numbers near an iconic, blasted dome Thursday to mark the attack’s 75th anniversary, many of them urging the world, and their own government, to do more to ban nuclear weapons. An upsurge of coronavirus cases in Japan meant a much smaller than normal turnout, but the bombing survivors’ message was more urgent than ever. As their numbers dwindle — their average age is about 83 — many nations have bolstered or maintained their nuclear arsenals, and their own government refuses to sign a nuclear weapons ban treaty.
PoliticsAssociated Press'See you in court': ACLU files nearly 400 cases versus Trump
The day after Donald Trump’s election in November 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union posted a message to him on its website: “See you in court.” As president, Trump hasn’t personally squared off against the ACLU from the witness stand, but the broader warning has been borne out. As of this week, the ACLU has filed nearly 400 lawsuits and other legal actions against the Trump administration, some meeting with setbacks but many resulting in important victories.
SportAssociated PressEngland take 3 wickets as Pakistan limited to 187-5 at lunch
England fought back to take three cheap wickets and limit Pakistan to 187-5 at lunch on day two of the first test at Old Trafford on Thursday. Seamers James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes probed incessantly and earned edges to share the wickets. Shan Masood was 77 not out, playing defense impressively in the longest innings in terms of balls by a Pakistan opener in England in 24 years.
NewsAssociated PressPope on Hiroshima: Possession of nuclear weapons "immoral"
Pope Francis on Thursday marked the 75th anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima by calling for peace and repeating that not only the use of atomic weapons but their mere possession is immoral. Francis sent a message to organizers of the anniversary commemoration, recalling that he had prayed at the Hiroshima peace memorial during his 2019 visit to Japan and met with bombing survivors, known as hibakusha. “It has never been clearer that, for peace to flourish, all people need to lay down the weapons of war, and especially the most powerful and destructive of weapons: nuclear arms that can cripple and destroy whole cities, whole countries,” Francis said in the message.
PoliticsAssociated PressVP contender Karen Bass' Cuba baggage a burden in Florida
Until recently, Robert Lewis had never heard of Karen Bass, the California congresswoman in contention to be Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's running mate. When he learned that Bass had called Castro's death “a great loss,” the 22-year-old considered it a disregard for the plight of those who suffered at the hands of Castro's government. Lewis' reaction is a blow to Democrats who in recent years have tried to pull young Cubans in Florida away from the Republican Party, the political home of many of their parents and grandparents.
NewsReutersSpate of suicides among migrant workers in Singapore raises concern
A recent spate of suicides and attempted suicides involving migrants in Singapore has heightened concerns over the mental health of thousands of low-paid workers who have been confined to their dormitories because of COVID-19. In April, Singapore sealed off sprawling housing blocks where its vast population of mainly South Asian labourers live in crowded bunk rooms, seeking to ring-fence a surge in cases among the workers. Four months on, some dormitories remain under quarantine, and even migrants who have been declared virus-free have had their movements restricted.
HealthReutersRespiratory therapist struggles to catch her own breath after COVID-19
Ana Carolina Xavier was helping as many as six coronavirus patients a day to slowly recover lung capacity when she began worrying about her own breathing. As the 33-year-old physical therapist was working a holiday shift in a Rio de Janeiro field hospital, she felt her heart pumping, head throbbing and lungs struggling to expand. A scan of her lungs showed the kind of damage she had seen wreaking havoc on her patients, many of them young and otherwise healthy - but now struggling for months to catch their breath.
NewsLatestlySri Lanka General Elections Results 2020: Mahinda Rajapaksa's SLPP Leads in Several Districts, Ranil Wickremesinghe's UNP Lags Far Behind
The counting of votes for results of parliamentary or general elections in Sri Lanka is underway today.
HealthReutersVietnam turns Danang stadium into field hospital amid virus outbreak
Vietnam is close to completing the conversion of a sports stadium into a 1,000-bed field hospital in its new coronavirus epicentre Danang, the health ministry said on Thursday, as it battles an outbreak that has spread to at least 11 locations. Aggressive contact-tracing, targeted testing and strict quarantining had helped Vietnam halt an earlier contagion, but it is now racing to control infections in the central city and beyond after a new outbreak ended a run of more than three months without domestic transmission. Danang's Tien Son Sports Palace will from Saturday be used to treat an overflow of infected patients should the city's hospitals become overwhelmed, said the company behind the project, Sun Group.
- NewsReuters
'Love is not tourism,' says couple separated for 6 months by coronavirus
Florian Mehler last saw his girlfriend in late January, when she left Germany for her native Brazil. After meeting online a year ago, Alves visited Mehler in Germany twice, and he flew to see her in Brazil once.
NewsAssociated PressLebanon probes blast amid rising anger, calls for change
Lebanese officials targeted in the investigation of the massive blast that tore through Beirut sought to shift blame for the presence of explosives at the city’s port, and the visiting French president warned Thursday that without serious reforms the country would “continue to sink.” The blast Tuesday, which appeared to have been caused by an accidental fire that ignited a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate at the city's port, rippled across the Lebanese capital, killing at least 135 people, injuring more than 5,000 and causing widespread destruction. It also may have accelerated the country's coronavirus outbreak, as thousands flooded into hospitals in the wake of the blast.
PoliticsAssociated PressHearing set for 5 indicted in $60M Ohio bribery probe
A court hearing was scheduled Thursday for five members of what one defendant called an “unholy alliance” aimed at bailing out two aging Ohio nuclear power plants. Former Republican House Speaker Larry Householder and four others are charged with racketeering for their roles in the alleged scheme, under a law federal prosecutors typically use to charge gang members. The five are accused of shepherding $60 million in energy company money for personal and political use in exchange for passing a legislative bailout of two aging nuclear plants and then derailing an attempt to place a rejection of the bailout on the ballot.
NewsReutersGermany fights virus uptick with mandatory testing for travellers
Germany announced mandatory tests for travellers returning from high-risk regions after new coronavirus cases breached the 1,000-a-day threshold for the first time since May, fuelling fears of a return to an economically disruptive lockdown. Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday free compulsory testing would be in force from Saturday after the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's public health agency, reported 1,045 new cases in a single day. Part of the increase was due to more tests taking place, he said, but the impact of holidaymakers returning to Germany and of flagging social distancing discipline was also significant.
NewsThe GuardianBeirut explosion: anger at officials grows after missed warnings
Beirut explosion: anger at officials grows after missed warningsReleased paper trail reveals ignored warnings over stash that has killed at least 135 people * Visual guide: how explosion caused devastation * Tell us: have you been affected by the explosion in Beirut?
NewsAssociated PressAfghan council to decide whether Kabul releases 400 Taliban
Afghanistan officials say a traditional consultative council will convene Friday to decide whether the last 400 Taliban prisoners will be released as part of a peace agreement, even as its Health Ministry says half of Kabul's residents are infected with the coronavirus. The Taliban have rejected any changes to the deal they signed in February with the U.S.
