The Fiji Times

Asian stocks rise on vaccine hopes, eyes on U.S. payrolls

SYDNEY/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Asian stocks tracked Wall Street higher on Thursday although sentiment was cautious ahead of U.S. employment data while copper prices jumped to more than six-month highs on a better global outlook and supply fears in top producer Chile. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside of Japan rose 0.9% with...

‘No more rainbow capitalism’ as protests shine light on Black trans lives

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Protests and marches for the rights of Black trans people drew thousands to the streets under the banner of “Black Trans Lives Matter” in recent weeks amid a global demonstrations against racism. Reuters digital editors Ben Kellerman and Arlene Washington hosted a conversation featuring the Black trans community as part of...

Seattle police clear protest zone after flares of violence

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Seattle authorities moved on Wednesday to dismantle a protest zone that the city’s police chief derided as “lawless and brutal” and which had prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to call for action against demonstrators. Officers, clad in helmets and extra protective gear, entered the “autonomous zone” early and by midmorning had arrested...

Why Amy McGrath could cost Republicans the U.S. Senate, even if she loses to Mitch McConnell

(Reuters) – Kentucky Democrat Amy McGrath’s long-shot bid to unseat U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could help undermine Republican efforts to retain their majority in the chamber, even if the former Marine Corps fighter pilot fails to beat McConnell in November. Political analysts see the chances of Democrats winning enough seats to seize control...

Egypt reopens airports and welcomes tourists to pyramids after COVID closure

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt restarted international flights and reopened major tourist attractions including the Great Pyramids of Giza on Wednesday after over three months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. The country closed its airports to scheduled international flights and shut famous historical sites in mid-March as the government looked to curb the spread...

Mexico’s first lady stirs Twitter storm with comment on kids with cancer

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican first lady Beatriz Gutierrez sparked an uproar on social media on Wednesday with a Twitter comment widely viewed as insensitive when she swatted away a question about what she was doing to help parents of children with cancer. Gutierrez published a celebratory post on the two-year anniversary of the election...

Vatican summons U.S., Israeli envoys over West Bank annexation moves

(Reuters) – The Vatican, in a highly unusual move, summoned both the U.S. and Israeli ambassadors to express the Holy See’s concern about Israel’s moves to extend its sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. A Vatican statement on Wednesday said meetings with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of...

Mexican labor activist released from jail as trade deal takes effect

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican labor attorney and independent union leader Susana Prieto was released from jail on Wednesday after her arrest nearly a month ago on charges of inciting violence at a workers protest, state prosecutors said. A judge’s order for her release came hours after the July 1 start of the United States-Mexico-Canada...

Coronavirus slump threatens Mexican president’s crusade on poverty

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – When President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador won office with the biggest popular mandate since Mexico’s transition to democracy, he pledged to transform the country from the bottom up, putting the poor first. Two years on, recession, rows with business and the coronavirus pandemic have jeopardized that ambition. Millions of people have...

Military deployed in Ethiopian capital after more than 80 killed in protests

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The military was deployed in the Ethiopian capital on Wednesday, as armed gangs roamed neighbourhoods in a second day of unrest that has claimed more than 80 lives and deepened political divisions in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s political heartland. The protests were sparked by the assassination of popular musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa...

On a target date, Israel signals delay in West Bank annexation moves

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli annexation in the occupied West Bank might be weeks away, a government minister said as a start date on Wednesday for cabinet discussions of the move slipped by in the absence of a green light from Washington. Palestinians seek the West Bank for a future state. In a show of Palestinian...

Hong Kong police arrest more than 300 protesting China’s ‘birthday gift’ of security law

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong police fired water cannon and tear gas and arrested more than 300 people on Wednesday as protesters took to the streets in defiance of sweeping security legislation introduced by China to snuff out dissent. Beijing unveiled the details of the much-anticipated law late on Tuesday after weeks of uncertainty,...

Russians grant Putin right to extend his rule until 2036 in landslide vote: partial results

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russians appeared to have paved the way for Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036 by voting overwhelmingly for a package of constitutional changes which will also boost pensions, partial results of a nationwide vote showed on Wednesday. Results, after almost a third of ballots had been counted, indicated that the...

Australia to lock down 300,000 in Melbourne suburbs after coronavirus spike

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Authorities will lock down around 300,000 people in suburbs north of Melbourne for a month from late on Wednesday to contain the risk of infection after two weeks of double-digit rises in new coronavirus cases in Australia’s second most populous state. Australia has fared better than many countries in the pandemic, with...

Russia confirms record high temperature in Siberian town

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s state weather authority said on Tuesday a remote town in northeastern Siberia had registered a record high temperature of 38 decrees Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) during a heat wave that has alarmed climate scientists. The reading was first reported earlier this month in Verkhoyansk, north of the Arctic circle, prompting the World...

New ban on Philippines’ top broadcaster fuels press freedom worries

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines’ top broadcaster ABS-CBN Corp was ordered to stop transmitting satellite and digital television on Tuesday just weeks after its free TV and radio operations were halted, adding to worries over press freedom. The 66-year-old broadcaster had been at odds with President Rodrigo Duterte since his campaign for election in 2016,...

U.S. FDA releases guidance for COVID-19 vaccine approval

(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday released guidance on its conditions for approving a vaccine for the coronavirus, saying a vaccine has to prevent or decrease disease severity in at least 50% of people who are vaccinated. More than 100 vaccines are being tested worldwide against the virus, which has claimed...

Inovio’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate shows promise in small early-stage trial

(Reuters) – An experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc <INO.O> showed promise and was found to be safe in an early-stage human trial, the company said on Tuesday. The vaccine, one of 17 being tested in humans and part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed program, induced immune responses in 34 of...

Six months after ‘viral pneumonia’, Wuhan returning to normal, with masks

WUHAN, China/BEIJING (Reuters) – Six months after the World Health Organization learned of “viral pneumonia” cases that would become the COVID-19 pandemic, life in Wuhan, the city where it emerged, is returning to normal, although masks remain ubiquitous and emotional scars linger. A city of 11 million, Wuhan was locked down for two months starting...

U.S. top medical experts rebuke American Airlines for filling planes

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Top U.S. health experts on Tuesday criticized American Airlines and other carriers for filling planes to capacity, saying it sends the wrong message as the country grapples with a rise in coronavirus outbreaks. American Airlines said on Friday it will no longer restrict the number of seats sold on flights beginning on...

Recycling laggard Greece to discard single-use plastic

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece has drafted a bill banning the use of a range of single-use plastics, from takeaway coffee cups to cotton buds, ahead of an EU deadline in 2021, the government said on Tuesday. Greeks, who are heavy coffee drinkers, annually require 350 million plastic cups and 2 billion plastic bottles, the environment...

Airbus says to shed 15,000 jobs

TOULOUSE/PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus on Tuesday unveiled plans to shed around 15,000 jobs including 900 already earmarked in Germany, saying its future was at stake after the coronavirus pandemic rocked the air travel industry. Europe’s biggest aerospace group said it would cut some 5,000 posts in France, 5,100 in Germany, 900 in Spain, 1,700 in...

Mexico loses 12 million jobs, workers in informal sector grow

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Twelve million Mexicans have lost their jobs since March as part of the economic fallout from the coronavirus, and the number of people working in the informal sector shot up significantly, official data showed on Tuesday. The economic participation rate was 47.4% in May, national statistics agency INEGI said. The rate,...

India deploys helicopter, 12 drones to stop fast-spreading locusts

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India on Tuesday deployed a helicopter and a dozen drones spraying insecticide to stop desert locusts that have spread to nine heartland states of the world’s second-biggest producer of rice and wheat. The move came after swarms invaded Gurugram, a satellite city of the capital New Delhi, during the weekend, prompting...

Jamaica suspends use of British royal insignia after anti-racism protests

KINGSTON (Reuters) – Jamaica has suspended the use of a badge representing one of the highest British royal honors after anti-racism protesters decried its imagery of a white angel standing on the head of Satan depicted as a chained man with dark skin. Protesters in Jamaica and elsewhere have likened the image to George Floyd,...

Mexican prosecutors seek arrests of 46 officials in student disappearance probe

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican prosecutors have requested 46 arrest orders for public officials over charges of forced disappearance and organized crime as part of a renewed probe into the disappearance of 43 student teachers, the attorney general said on Tuesday. The warrants are for officials from Guerrero state, where the students from the Ayotzinapa...

Russia tells IAEA it is incident-free after nuclear particle increase

VIENNA (Reuters) – Russia has told the U.N. atomic watchdog there have been no nuclear incidents on its territory that could explain elevated but still harmless levels of radioactive particles detected on the Baltic Sea last week, the U.N. agency said on Tuesday. A separate body, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), which watches for...

Fauci warns new U.S. cases of COVID-19 could double to 100,000 per day

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New U.S. coronavirus cases could more than double to 100,000 per day if the current surge spirals further out of control, the government’s top infectious disease expert warned on Tuesday, although he was “cautiously optimistic” a vaccine would be available early next year. California, Texas and Arizona have emerged as new epicenters...

Cuba prevents protest over police killing of Black man

HAVANA (Reuters) – A raft of Cuban dissidents, artists and journalists said on Tuesday that state security agents had staked out their homes to prevent them from attending planned protests over the killing by police of a young Black man. At least 40 dissident activists were also detained by police, according to exiled rights group...

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U.S. tech chief executives expected to testify before House panel in late July