Germany's agreement to share debt with other EU countries to finance an economic recovery plan is being greeted as an overdue sign of unity in the face of the worst downturn the bloc has ever seen and as a potential advance toward deeper integration among its 27 members.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel broke with her country's longstanding opposition to raising money together with other - often poorer - EU countries.
But the proposal made with French President Emmanuel Macron is limited in scale and duration, which could help her sell it to skeptics back home.
It consists of 500 billion euros ($550 billion) in loans and grants to help countries through the recession, and is viewed by some as a step toward stronger EU ties as the 27-country union faces challenges not just from the virus crisis, but from populist forces in member countries Hungary and Poland who want to loosen the bloc's ties.
France, whose president had pushed hard for the fund proposal announced Monday, exulted. It's .

Germany breaks taboo in effort to get EU through pandemic

PTI Automatic

Walmart became a lifeline to millions of people as the coronavirus spread and its surging profit and sales during the fiscal first quarter topped almost all expectations.
Online sales in the U.S. jumped 74%, fueled by a rush on canned foods, paper towels and other crucial supplies needed as people sheltered in place. Same-store sales rose 10% at U.S. Walmart stores on strong sales of food, health and wellness goods.
Costs soared as well, $900 million in all related to the pandemic.
Cash bonuses issued to all hourly workers reached $755 million and Walmart upped pay by $2 per hour at its warehouses. It rolled out an emergency leave policy and spent money on shields at checkout lines, as well as new signage to control the flow of customers in stores.
Walmart pulled its guidance for the year, citing the chaos of the pandemic. It also pulled the plug on Jet.com, an online startup that it bought for more than $3 billion in 2016 as it sought to ramp up online operations to compete with ...

Walmart becomes a lifeline and online sales surge 74%

The Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, will reopen next week after the conclusion of a major holiday, following weeks of closure aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus, authorities said Tuesday.
The Islamic endowment overseeing the site under Jordanian custodianship had taken the unprecedented step of closing it to worshippers in March as other major holy sites were shuttered across the Middle East.
The endowment said that in light of the relative decline of the spread of the virus it would reopen the site to worshippers after the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which will begin this weekend and last for three days.
A mechanism and procedures regarding lifting the suspension will be announced later, it added.
The raised esplanade is home to the Al-Aqsa mosque and the iconic golden Dome of the Rock. It is also the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the .

Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque to reopen after Muslim holiday

Racial and economic disparities in the coroanvirus pandemic's impact in New York City present a challenge for an administration that has sought to fight inequality, Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged Tuesday.
There's a lot we're going to do right now but the big question is going forward: how do you create a city where these disparities don't exist? de Blasio said on TV station WPIX.
Data released by the city Monday showed that the coronavirus has hit hardest in low-income neighborhoods outside of Manhattan. The data showed that black and Hispanic New Yorkers were more than twice as likely to be killed by the virus as white people.
De Blasio, a Democrat who first ran for mayor in 2013 vowing to end the Tale of Two Cities, said the city is meeting the coronavirus threat in severely affected communities through beefed-up testing for the virus as well as outreach to make sure people have the information they need to protect themselves and their families.

NYC mayor aims to meet challenge of virus' disparate impact

The EU on Tuesday urged all countries to back the World Health Organisation (WHO) after President Donald Trump threatened to permanently cut US funding.
European Commission spokeswoman Virginie Battu-Henriksson said global cooperation is "the only effective and viable option to win this battle".
She said, This is the time for solidarity. It is not the time for finger pointing or undermining multilateral cooperation."
In a letter to WHO's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Trump wrote the agency's "repeated missteps" in its response to the pandemic have proven "very costly for the world".
Trump threatened to cut US' WHO funding unless it commits to "substantive improvements" in the next 30 days.

European Union urges all nations to back WHO

Regulations allowing Germany's foreign intelligence service to monitor the communications of reporters working abroad and others violate the country's constitution and must be changed, Germany's highest court ruled Tuesday, deciding in favour of journalists-rights group Reporters Without Borders and others.
The complaint against the foreign intelligence service, the BND, came after a law was changed allowing the agency, starting in 2017, to collect and evaluate communications from foreigners abroad without having to provide legal justification.
In the complaint, Reporters Without Borders, Germany's GFF civil rights association, as well as several journalists and others argued that blanket telecommunications surveillance meant that German reporters, and others, working with colleagues in other countries could also be spied upon, in violation of the constitution.
The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe agreed, ruling that the law must be redrawn by the end of 2021 at the latest, ..

German court nixes law allowing foreign telecom monitoring

A group of former demonstrators gathered in Thailand's capital on Tuesday to remember those killed when soldiers violently ended a months-long anti-government protest 10 years ago.
Around 50 people died when troops, firing live rounds and backed by armored vehicles, stormed barricades to drive out thousands of protesters known as the Red Shirts.
They had occupied part of the city's central business district to try to force out a government they considered illegitimate.
The fatalities included a nurse who was shot in the grounds of a temple as she tended to the injured.
Twenty-five people who participated in the protest attended Tuesday's memorial event, led by Red Shirt chairman Jatuporn Prompan.
There was little sign of politics and no rousing rhetoric. Instead, the atmosphere was solemn and subdued. The mourners gave gifts to Buddhist monks and then knelt while the monks chanted prayers.
Under pressure from the government, commemorations of the killings have dwindled in size in ...

Ceremony marks 10th anniversary of quashing of Thai protests

The United Nations on Tuesday called for an immediate reduction of violence in Afghanistan, warning that civilian casualties at the hands of both the Taliban and Afghan security forces are on the increase.
The UN mission also expressed concern about stepped-up attacks and brutality of the Islamic State group.
A horrific attack last week at a maternity hospital in the Afghan capital has not been claimed by any group, but the United States said it bears all the hallmarks of Afghanistan's IS affiliate  targeting the country's minority Shiites in a neighbourhood of Kabul that IS militants have repeatedly attacked in the past.
The Taliban denied involvement in the maternity hospital attack, which killed 24 people, including two infants and several new mothers.
The UN report blamed the Taliban for killing or injuring a total of 208 civilians last month and also said that operations by Afghan forces in April had killed or injured 172 civilians.
Civilians are often caught in the crossfire of .

UN: Civilian casualties by Taliban, Afghan forces rising

The USS Theodore Roosevelt will return to sea later this week, nearly two months after the ship was sidelined in Guam with a rapidly growing coronavirus outbreak, US officials said as the crew finished final preparations to depart.
In an interview from the aircraft carrier, Navy Capt. Carlos Sardiello said Monday the ship will sail with a scaled-back crew of about 3,000, leaving about 1,800 sailors on shore who are still in quarantine.
Those include up to 14 sailors who recently tested positive again, just days after getting cleared to return to the carrier. The puzzling COVID-19 reappearance in the sailors adds to the difficulty in getting the ship's crew healthy again, and fuels questions about the quality of the testing and just how long sailors may remain infected or contagious.
Sardiello would not discuss timelines or planned operations. But other U.S. officials said the ship is expected to leave in the next few days, and if all goes well it will conduct naval operations in the ..

Carrier sidelined by coronavirus heads back to sea this week

How's this as an antidote for coronavirus blues: A genuine painting by Pablo Picasso on your wall.
After an eight-week delay caused by France's COVID-19 lockdown, the Christie's auction house in Paris is hosting a raffle draw Wednesday for Nature Morte, an oil on canvas that Picasso painted in 1921.
Proceeds will help provide villagers in Cameroon, Madagascar and Morocco with water  a basic need more essential than ever now for people to wash and protect themselves against the global pandemic.
Raffle organizers say they have already raised 5 million euros (USD 5.4 million) by selling 50,000 tickets online for 100 euros (USD 109) each. Their hoped-for sales target was 200,000 tickets, but the coronavirus crisis complicated the task.
Buyers have so far come from more than 100 countries, with the bulk sold in France, the United States, Switzerland and Italy. The winner of a similar raffle in 2013 was a 25-year-old fire sprinkler worker from Pennsylvania.
I hope this time it will be won ..

An antidote to coronavirus blues? A Picasso on your wall

Health experts say U.S. President Donald Trump's increasing attacks on the World Health Organization for its handling of the coronavirus demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of the U.N. agency's role and could ultimately serve to weaken global health.
In a letter to WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Trump wrote that WHO's repeated missteps in its response to the pandemic have proven very costly for the world.
On Monday, Trump threatened to permanently cut U.S. funding to WHO unless the agency commits to substantive improvements in the next 30 days.
I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organisation that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America's interests, he wrote.
The U.S. is WHO's biggest donor, providing about $450 million a year.
Devi Sridhar, a professor of global health at the University of Edinburgh, said the letter was likely written for Trump's political base and meant to deflect blame for the virus' ...

Experts: Trump's threats to WHO could undercut global health

New coronavirus cases have been spiking from India to South Africa to Mexico in a clear indication that the pandemic is far from over, while Russia and Brazil now sit behind only the United States in the number of reported infections.
The surges come even as much of Asia, Europe and scores of US states have seen enough progress in their fight against the virus to focus on how best to reopen their economies.
US autoworkers, French teachers and Thai mall workers are among the hundreds of thousands of employees back on the job with new safety precautions.
Russia reported a steady rise in new infections Tuesday and new hot spots have emerged across the vast nation of about 147 million.
Russia registered 9,263 new cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to nearly 300,000 infections  about half of them in Moscow. Authorities say 2,837 people with COVID-19 have died in Russia, a figure that international health experts have questioned.
In Russia's second-largest city of St Petersburg, 

Global worries as infections spike in Russia, Brazil, India

Shakespeare's Globe theater, one of London's major tourist attractions, says it could be forced to close because of the coronavirus pandemic.
All of Britain's theaters have been shut since March, when the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the virus.
While some venues receive government subsidy, the Globe gets 95% of its revenue from ticket sales.
The theater says the blow from the pandemic has been financially devastating and could even be terminal. Parliament's culture committee told the government that the Globe was part of our national identity.
It said that for this national treasure to succumb to COVID-19 would be a tragedy.
The Globe is a reconstructed Elizabethan playhouse beside the River Thames modeled on the theater where many of Shakespeare's plays were first performed. It opened in 1997 and draws hundreds of thousands of people a year to its open-air productions.

Shakespeare's Globe theater in London may be shuttered due to the virus

Russia's prime minister has fully resumed his duties after recovering from the coronavirus.
Mikhail Mishustin, 54, announced that he had been infected in a televised call with President Vladimir Putin on April 30.
On Tuesday, Mishustin's office said that he has checked out of the hospital and returned to his duties in the Cabinet headquarters. He is set to take part in a video conference with President Vladimir Putin later in the day.
Several Cabinet ministers and Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov also have been infected. Peskov said that he had double pneumonia caused by the virus. He noted that he hadn't met with Putin in person for more than a month.
Putin has limited public appearances and held most of his meetings online during the virus pandemic.

Russia's PM back to work after bout with virus

Prince Charles has urged the public to join a national effort to help farmers bring in the harvest, comparing the need to pick fruit and vegetables with World War II era programmes that fed the nation.
The heir to Britain's throne offered his support to a government's initiative to bring UK workers and farmers together to ensure crops are not left to rot in the fields.
Travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 crisis have impeded the travel of seasonal workers who have done the hard work in the past.
The prince, who runs an organic farm, said in a video that "if the last few weeks have proved anything, it is that food is precious and valued, and it cannot be taken for granted".
He said food does not happen by magic and made no effort to gloss over the effort that would be required.
"It will be hard graft but is hugely important if we are to avoid the growing crops going to waste," he said.

UK: Prince Charles urges national harvest effort

Thailand's Cabinet has approved reducing the government's stake in financially troubled Thai Airways International to under 50 per cent as part of a reorganisation plan to be submitted to bankruptcy court.
The airline will lose its status as a state enterprise with the reduction in the 51 per cent share held by the Finance Ministry.
Thai Airways is carrying an estimated debt burden of almost 300 billion baht (USD 9.4 billion). It ran up losses of 12 billion baht (USD 374.3 million) in 2019, 11.6 billion baht in 2018 and 2.11 billion baht in 2017.
The Transport Ministry will submit a list of prospective business rehabilitation planners for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to choose from, Saksayam announced at a press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting. The planner will be responsible for drafting a plan to be submitted to the Central Bankruptcy Court within a year.
The plan will also be submitted to US courts, Saksayam said, a standard practice for big multinational ...

Govt to lose majority Thai Airways share in restructuring

Restaurant owners gave President Donald Trump a sobering accounting of the widespread damage the coronavirus pandemic has dealt their industry and asked him to adjust a loan program for small businesses to address their concerns.
The president put a hopeful spin on the situation, saying encouraging news on vaccines and treatment efforts could negate the bad news.
The president was in good spirits as he met Monday with the restaurant executives at the White House, noting that financial markets were up as states continued to loosen economic restrictions on businesses and following Moderna Inc.'s announcement of encouraging news in early work on vaccine development.
This was a very big day, therapeutically, cure-wise and vaccine-wise, Trump said.
Tremendous progress has been made, as I've been saying for two weeks, because I've been seeing what's going on and have been spearheading it largely."
It almost feels like today is the first day," Trump said at another point in the meeting.
Last 

Trump points to good news as restaurant owners tell of fears

A spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation said the UN health agency doesn't have an immediate reaction to a letter from US President Donald Trump that listed his complaints against it, including that it had shown "an alarming lack of independence" from China in its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib noted that she had seen the letter.
"I don't have any reaction, we have been busy trying to finalize our agenda for the World Health Assembly," she said, referring to health agency's annual meeting, which has been shortened this year because of the COVID-19 outbreak and was set to end later Tuesday.
"I am sure in the course of the day we will have more clarity and reaction to this letter," she told reporters at a regular UN briefing in Geneva.
Trump posted a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, dated Monday, on his Twitter page overnight.
Among other things, Trump pointed to his decision to suspend US contributions to the WHO ...

No immediate reaction to Trump's letter: WHO spokesperson

Manchester United says it will refund fans with season tickets for the games they won't be able to attend during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Premier League season was suspended in March with United fifth in the standings. United has four home games left.
The club wrote to season ticket holders to say we share your disappointment that you will not be able to watch United in person from within the stadium, but we would encourage you to give your continued loyal support from the comfort and safety of your home.
Clubs are pushing to be allowed to play at their usual stadiums rather than in neutral venues as the police wanted.
United is asking fans for their "co-operation not to travel to any stadiums at which we are playing on matchdays.

Man United to refund season ticket holders

Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan will play a series of friendlies next year to raise money for medical facilities in Italy and Spain.
The three round-robin games have been dubbed the European Solidarity Cup and thousands of medical staff and carers will get tickets for their work fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
Dates for the games will be set when the calendar for 2021 is clear and fans are allowed back into stadiums.

Madrid, Bayern, Inter to play for charity

Joe Biden's presidential campaign is bringing on the granddaughter of civil rights leader Csar Chvez as a senior adviser to help with Latino outreach and building out its operation in the states.
Some Latino leaders have criticized the Biden campaign, saying it's not doing enough to reach out to the key demographic group.  Chavez Rodriguez previously worked as co-national political director on California Sen. Kamala Harris's presidential campaign and was her California state director before that. She also served in the Obama administration, overseeing the White House's engagement with LGBT, Latino, veteran, youth, education, labor and progressive leaders.  She's joining Cristbal Alex, a former president of the Latino Victory Fund, who serves as Biden's senior adviser for issues involving Hispanic voters.
Biden is viewed with skepticism by some Latinos for his ties to deportation policies during the Obama administration. He struggled with Latino outreach throughout the Democratic ...

AP

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