Author: News Desk

Biden picks Senator Kamala Harris as US election running mate Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he has chosen Senator Kamala Harris of California to be his vice-presidential running mate. Harris, 55, is the first Black woman on a major presidential ticket in US history. She is also the first Asian-American on a major presidential ticket.  “I have the great honour to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris – a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants – as my running mate,” Biden said on Twitter.  Biden had been under increasing…

GLOBAL COVID-19 TODAY CORONAVIRUS CASES: 20,525,620 DEATHS: 745,971 RECOVERED: 13,446,405 …………………………………… UK in recession for first time in 11 years  BBC News says the UK has officially fallen into recession for the first time in 11 years due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The economy shrank 20.4% between April and June compared with the first three months of the year. Officials said the economy bounced back in June as government restrictions on movement started to ease. Read the full story on BBC News …………………………………… Campsites and holiday cottage bookings for summer 2021 soar The Guardian says holiday cottages…

A dramatic gunpoint confrontation with “his torturer” saw British aid worker Tauqir ‘Tox’ Sharif being re-arrested in rebel-controlled Idlib in Syria yesterday. Sharif was originally snatched by armed, masked members of the Sunni Islamist militant group, Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham, last month and held in prison for 24 days pending trial. After being given conditional bail including a media gagging order, his story took another dramatic turn when he confronted the man who he claims had interrogated and tortured him in the HTS prison. During the surprise encounter at the courtrooms in Sarmada, a row ensued and poured out onto the streets where the East Londoner…

Trump says Spanish Flu ‘ended WW2’ – a conflict that started two decades later Twitter is mocking US President Trump after he suggested the Second World War, which ended in 1945, was “probably ended” two decades earlier by the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic – which he thinks took place in 1917.  Shortly after those claims were made on Monday night, Trump was escorted out of a White House briefing room by US Secret Service officers after reports of a shooting on White House grounds.  The president returned to the briefing a few minutes later to continue making unsubstantiated attacks on…

UK employment drops by the biggest amount in a decade The UK has seen the biggest employment dip in over a decade between April and June, official figures show.  Employment fell by 220,000 on the quarter, said the Office for National Statistics. This was the largest quarterly decrease since May to July 2009, the depths of the financial crisis.  The youngest workers, oldest workers and workers in manual or elementary occupations were most likely to be affected by the pandemic, it said.  Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician at the ONS, said: “The groups of people most affected are younger workers,…

Trump escorted out of White House briefing after shooting on grounds US President Donald Trump was abruptly escorted out of a White House press room in the middle of a briefing on Monday because of a shooting outside the White House.  https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1292958498074947586 Trump returned to the briefing several minutes later and told reporters a person had been shot by law enforcement and taken to the hospital. He said he understood the suspect had been armed.  https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1292947662963122181 “It was a shooting outside of the White House,” Trump said. “It seems to be very well under control. … But there was an…

GLOBAL COVID-19 TODAY CORONAVIRUS CASES: 20,257,466 DEATHS: 738,956 RECOVERED: 13,121,562 …………………………………… Universities told to hold places open until September 7 appeal deadline BBC News says universities in England are being told to keep places open for students if they appeal against A-level results. Amid uncertainty about replacement exam grades, Universities Minister Michelle Donelan has urged university heads to be as “flexible as possible”. It means if students miss the required grades but successfully appeal, they could still start next term. “Nobody should have to put their future on hold because of the virus,” said Ms Donelan. Read the full story…

The Israeli government has threatened to destroy a Palestinian family’s home, built inside a cave with a wooden door opening onto cushion-lined rooms, in the foothills overlooking Farasin, in Palestine. Ahmed Amarneh’s home, built in a cave with a wooden door opening into cushion-lined rooms, is not the first Palestinian residence in the occupied West Bank to receive a demolition notice from Israel. But it may be the first built inside a cave which the Jewish state has threatened to destroy. Amarneh, a 30-year-old civil engineer, lives with his family in the northern West Bank village of Farasin, where Israel…

Volunteers desperately trying to keep 4,000-tonne oil spill away from Mauritius  Volunteers are scrambling to create cordons to keep leaking oil from a ship away from the island of Mauritius.  The ship was believed to have been carrying 4,000 tonnes of oil, it ran aground on a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island on 25 July.  Locals are making barriers of straws stuffed into fabric sacks in an attempt to absorb the oil.  Mauritius is home to world-renowned coral reefs, and tourism is a crucial part of its economy.  Images online show volunteers collecting straw from fields and filling…

Mass resignation of Lebanese government expected Monday The Lebanese government is heading toward a mass resignation on Monday following the horrific explosion in Beirut.  The explosion killed more than 150 people and left at least 6,000 wounded with hundreds of thousands left homeless.  The explosion has further fueled public anger after it was confirmed authorities knew the huge pile of ammonium nitrate had been stored at the port for six years, with people already enraged by government corruption, incompetence and negligence.  Several ministers have already discussed the possibility of stepping down – with Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad announcing her…