Health officials in the midwestern U.S. state of Wisconsin reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases Thursday, two weeks after the state Supreme Court struck down a state-wide stay-at-home order issued by the governor and enacted by the state health department. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 599 new known COVID-19 cases Wednesday, with 22 knownRead more
The World Health Organization said Thursday that since early March about 159,000 more people have died in 24 European countries than would have ordinarily been expected, with a “significant proportion” of the increase linked to COVID-19.WHO official Katie Smallwood told reporters during a remote briefing Thursday that while that figure reflects all causes of deathsRead more
Alec de Rham sat with his back against a stone obelisk marked “International Boundary” as he and his wife visited with a daughter they hadn’t seen in 10 weeks. Hannah Smith took a bus and a bicycle from Vancouver, British Columbia, to the border to meet her “main person,” Jabree Robinson, of Bellingham, Washington.Read more
As if the coronavirus wasn’t enough, India grappled with scorching temperatures and the worst locust invasion in decades as authorities prepared for the end of a monthslong lockdown despite recording thousands of new infections every day. This triple disaster drew biblical comparisons and forced officials to try to balance the competing demands of simultaneous publicRead more
Police in the eastern U.S. state of Maryland, along with federal agents, captured a college student Wednesday who had been sought as a suspect in a crime spree including two slayings in Connecticut.Peter Manfredonia was wanted in the machete killing Friday of a man and the wounding of another man in Willington, Connecticut. He isRead more
President Donald Trump has renewed his resolve to “bring our soldiers back home” from Afghanistan, publicly questioning again the goal of the current U.S. military mission to the war-torn country.Trump reiterated his intention amid reports that the ongoing U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan “is well ahead of schedule” outlined in a landmark peace-building pact theRead more
Iran says a U.S. move to cancel the last remaining sanctions waivers from the 2015 nuclear agreement will not impact its nuclear work. A spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said in a statement Thursday that the Trump administration is trying to “distract public opinion” and that U.S. actions do not put pressure on Iran. FILE –Read more
Markets in Europe are once again on the rise as investors continue to express optimism that the global economy is turning a corner from the coronavirus pandemic. The FTSE index in London is up 0.8% in midday trading. The CAC-40 in Paris is up nearly one percent, and the DAX index in Frankfurt is 0.4% higher.Read more
Britain’s ambassador to North Korea says the embassy has temporarily closed in the autocratic regime due to strict coronavirus restrictions. “The British Embassy in Pyongyang closed temporarily on 27 May 2020 and all diplomatic staff have left the DPRK for the time being,” Ambassador Colin Crooks tweeted Thursday, using the abbreviation for the Democratic People’s Republic ofRead more
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said one of his new government’s goals is to annex parts of the West Bank. He echoed that comment earlier this week, saying the plan would include the Jordan Valley. Annexation would affect dozens of Bedouin communities who have lived there since the 1950s. Linda Gradstein reports forRead more
For years, international observers, western governments, and opposition politicians in Turkey have warned of the country’s slide to what one commentator called “an elected autocracy” under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Now,as coronavirus infections and deaths drop,the government has tightened already stringent controls on social media. Critics say the pandemic is accelerating Turkey’s descent from democratic freedoms. Dorian JonesRead more
There’s no doubt that New York Cith has born the brunt of the COVID crisis in the United States. But through it all, New Yorkers have one thing in common: they love their town.Camera: Olga Terekhin Alex Barash, Natalia Latukhina, Vladimir Badikov, Max Avloshenko, Aaron Fedor …Read more