Breaking News

Mali President Resigns After Detention by Military, Deepening Crisis Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resigned on Tuesday and dissolved parliament hours after mutinying soldiers detained him at gunpoint, plunging a country already facing a jihadist insurgency and mass protests deeper into crisis. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN25E1AF

Robert Trump, the Younger Brother of President Donald Trump, Dead at Age 71 Robert Trump, the younger brother of President Donald Trump, died at age 71 on Saturday at a New York hospital, the White House announced. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/15/politics/robert-trump-dead/index.html

President Trump says UAE to open diplomatic ties with Israel President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a deal to halt the annexation of occupied land sought by the Palestinians for their future state. https://apnews.com/abcb0ed9a84e2d3da7d87c28641ccc21

Billionaire Sumner Redstone, Media Mogul Who Headed Viacom, Dead at 97 Viacom and CBS Chairman Emeritus Sumner Redstone, the media mogul who took his father’s movie theater chain and built it into an empire that included Paramount Pictures, CBS and MTV, has died at 97, ViacomCBS and National Amusements said on Wednesday. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN2581K2

Democrat Joe Biden Chooses Senator Kamala Harris for White House Running Mate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday tapped Senator Kamala Harris as his choice for vice president, making her the first Black woman on a major party presidential ticket in U.S. history and providing him with a partner well suited to go on the attack against Republican President Donald Trump. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN2572MZ

Lebanon Government Resigns After Deadly Beirut Blast Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced on Monday the resignation of his government after a powerful Beirut port explosion sparked public uproar against the country’s leaders. Diab, in a televised speech, said the detonation of highly-explosive material warehoused at the port in the capital for the last seven years was “the result of endemic corruption”. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN256258

U.S. Sets Record as Coronavirus Cases Top 5 million The United States set a record for coronavirus cases on Saturday, with more than 5 million people now infected, according to a Reuters tally, as the country’s top infectious diseases official offered hope earlier this week that an effective vaccine might be available by year-end. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN2540XB

New York Sues to Break Up NRA, Accuses It of Corruption New York state's attorney general sued to dissolve the National Rifle Association on Thursday, alleging senior leaders of the non-profit group diverted millions of dollars for personal use and to buy the silence and loyalty of former employees. The lawsuit filed in a Manhattan court by Attorney General Letitia James alleges NRA leaders paid for family trips to the Bahamas, private jets and expensive meals that contributed to a $64 million reduction in the NRA's balance sheet in three years, turning a surplus into a deficit. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN2522BG

Massive Blast Rips Through Beirut, Killing 78 and Injuring Thousands A powerful blast in port warehouses near central Beirut storing highly explosive material killed 78 people, injured nearly 4,000 and sent seismic shockwaves that shattered windows, smashed masonry and shook the ground across the Lebanese capital. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN25021M

Hong Kong Leader Says Key Election Postponed, Blow to Pro-Democracy Camp Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Friday postponed a Sept. 6 election for seats in the city legislature for a year because of a spike in novel coronavirus cases, dealing a blow to the pro-democracy opposition hoping to make gains in the vote. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN24W1IX

Regis Philbin, Television Personality and Host, Dies at 88 Regis Philbin, the genial host who shared his life with television viewers over morning coffee for decades and helped himself and some fans strike it rich with the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” has died at 88. https://apnews.com/ce8c2fa52e977706aa6d66a092309878

John Lewis, Towering Figure of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 80 Representative John Lewis, a son of sharecroppers and an apostle of nonviolence who was bloodied at Selma and across the Jim Crow South in the historic struggle for racial equality and who then carried a mantle of moral authority into Congress, died on Friday. He was 80. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/us/john-lewis-dead.amp.html

U.S. Supreme Court Rebuffs Trump’s Immunity Claim, Lets Prosecutor Get Financial Records The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday firmly rejected President Donald Trump’s arguments for sweeping presidential immunity and ruled that a New York prosecutor can obtain his financial records but prevented — at least for now — Democratic-led House of Representatives committees from getting similar documents. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-trump/u-s-supreme-court-rebuffs-trumps-immunity-claim-lets-prosecutor-get-financial-records-idUSKBN24A1C6

Brazil’s President Bolsonaro tests positive for COVID-19 Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro says he has tested positive for COVID-19 after months of downplaying the virus’ severity. Bolsonaro confirmed the test results while wearing a mask and speaking to reporters in capital Brasilia. https://apnews.com/8ceb44235a63dfb59da10f2ceffb9160

Civil Rights Law Protects Gay and Transgender Workers, Supreme Court Rules The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a landmark civil rights law protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination, handing the movement for L.G.B.T. equality a stunning victory. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/gay-transgender-workers-supreme-court.html

NASA Resumes Human Spaceflight from U.S. Soil with Historic SpaceX Launch SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, launched two Americans toward orbit from Florida on Saturday in a mission that marks the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT), launching Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19-hour ride aboard the company’s newly designed Crew Dragon capsule bound for the International Space Station. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-exploration-spacex-launch/nasa-resumes-human-spaceflight-from-u-s-soil-with-historic-spacex-launch-idUSKBN2360D2

Minneapolis Police Officer Charged with Murder in George Floyd Case The white Minneapolis policeman who pinned an unarmed black man with a knee to the throat before the man died was arrested and charged with murder, a prosecutor said on Friday, after three nights of violent protests rocked the Midwestern city. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-investigation-cnn/minneapolis-police-officer-arrested-in-george-floyd-case-idUSKBN2351DF

Civil Unrest Rages in Minneapolis Over Racially Charged Killing by Police Peaceful rallies gave way to a third night of arson, looting and vandalism in Minneapolis on Thursday as protesters vented their rage over the death of a black man seen on video gasping for breath while a white police officer knelt on his neck. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-investigation/minnesota-calls-in-national-guard-to-quell-unrest-over-black-mans-death-in-police-custody-idUSKBN23423Q

U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Top 100,000 as Country Reopens U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 100,000 on Wednesday even as the daily average death toll declines, businesses reopen and Americans emerge from lockdowns across the country. About 1,400 Americans have died on average each day in May, down from the peak of the outbreak in April when 2,000 people a day died on average. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-casualties/u-s-coronavirus-deaths-top-100000-as-country-reopens-idUSKBN23334Z

US Unemployment Surges to a Depression-Era Level of 14.7% The coronavirus crisis has sent U.S. unemployment surging to 14.7%, a level last seen when the country was in the throes of the Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt was assuring Americans that the only thing to fear was fear itself. And because of government errors and the particular way the Labor Department measures the job market, the true picture is even worse. By some calculations, the unemployment rate stands at 23.6%, not far from the Depression peak of nearly 25%. https://apnews.com/908d7a004c316baceb916112c0a35ed0