As governments around the world battle the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published a further grim forecast, predicting a 4.9% contraction in global GDP (gross domestic product) for 2020, a lower figure than the 3% forecast in April, CNBC reports. The IMF also downgraded its GDP prediction for 2021, lowering it to 5.4% from the 5.8% forecast in April.
The United Nations, European Union countries, and the Arab League joined Wednesday in calling for Israel to abandon its plans to annex parts of the West Bank, as the Jewish state’s envoy to the international body insisted the step would not stand in the way of peace with the Palestinians.
Legislators in the South Carolina state city of Charleston voted Tuesday unanimously to remove a statue of former vice president and slavery advocate John C. Calhoun from a downtown square, amid widening anti-racism protests.
In a display of power, the US Navy now has three aircraft carriers to the Taiwan Strait in the South China Sea, Fox News reported Monday. This is the first three-carrier mission to take place in several years and it reportedly sends a message of deterrence to China.
An infectious diseases specialist in Italy has said he believes the COVID-19 virus has weakened and may disappear by itself without a vaccine, Fox News reported Monday. Dr Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at San Martino hospital in Genoa, said the virus weakening may be caused by genetic mutations resulting from lockdown and social distancing measures.
A new survey of undergraduate college students found that 94% of Democrat responders support defunding of police (i.e. cutting police budgets to fund other community resources) while only 13% of Republican students do, The College Fix reported. The poll also found that a majority of Democrat responders believe rioting and looting are legitimate forms of protest against racial injustice and police brutality while almost all Republican responders believe they are not.
Hope but also frustration and uncertainty marked the world’s efforts Sunday to deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Iceland’s meteorological service IMO said Monday that 3,000 tremors had been registered on the northern coast of the country.
The streets of Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed are being used by God to save those searching for hope and healing.
Serbia’s ruling populists were due to tighten their grip on power in the first European national election since the coronavirus pandemic. Voting began Sunday in the, heavily Orthodox, Balkan nation despite concerns about ongoing COVID-19 cases and what critics view as the autocratic style of the current president.
The United States says disarmament talks between its top arms control negotiator and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov will take place next week in Austria.
The board of governors of the United Nations’ atomic agency issued a resolution on June 19 urging Iran to provide access to two sites where nuclear activity may have occurred in the past.
The European Union’s top court ruled Thursday that Hungary’s legislation requiring non-governmental organizations to reveal their foreign donors is against EU rules. The Luxemburg-based Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) condemned a law that forces NGOs receiving at least 7.2 million Hungarian forints ($23,000) to register with authorities.
The UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has announced a “major breakthrough” in the treatment of patients who are seriously ill with COVID-19. On Twitter Tuesday the NIHR said a RECOVERY trial it supported showed that the steroid dexamethasone “significantly reduces” the risk of dying for coronavirus patients requiring respiratory intervention.
The UK is set to begin negotiations on post-Brexit free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand, the Guardian reported Wednesday.
U.S. Senate Republicans unveiled a law enforcement reform bill on Wednesday as a rival to more sweeping Democratic legislation, as Congress sought to curb racial discrimination and police abuses three weeks after the death of George Floyd.
U.S. Senate Republicans unveiled a law enforcement reform bill on Wednesday as a rival to more sweeping Democratic legislation, as Congress sought to curb racial discrimination and police abuses three weeks after the death of George Floyd.
The leader of Lebanese terror group Hezbollah said Tuesday that new US sanctions are intended to “starve” both Syria and Lebanon, the Times of Israel (ToI) reports.
Hungarians dressed in white have braved pouring rain to mourn those who died of the government’s coronavirus measures and COVID-19 patients who passed away. Their ‘White Silence’ rally in Budapest was, at times, interrupted by the tolling of small church bells on top of two ladders.
Israel has started construction of a major ring road that will connect Jewish settlements in the West Bank to Jerusalem, Reuters reported exclusively Monday. Israeli officials say the road will ease traffic congestion and will benefit Palestinian West Bank residents as well as Israelis. Palestinians have criticized the road as a hindrance to making East Jerusalem the capital of a future state and for cutting Palestinian neighborhoods off from each other.