Top aides to U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the United Arab Emirates on a historic flight from Tel Aviv on Monday to finalize a pact marking open relations between the Gulf power and Israel. Even before discussions start in Abu Dhabi, the delegates made aviation history when the Israeli commercial airliner flew over Saudi territory on the direct flight from Tel Aviv to the UAE capital.
A man was shot dead in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Saturday night as supporters of President Donald Trump and Black Lives Matter protesters clashed, police said. The Portland Police Bureau said in a statement the shooting took place about 8:46 p.m. and that officers nearby heard the gunfire. A picture from the scene published by Getty Images showed the man wearing a hat with a Patriot Prayer logo.
German leaders have condemned the “unacceptable” attempt by protesters to storm the Reichstag building during a mass rally against coronavirus restrictions. Some of the protesters on Saturday carried the former imperial flag, which was used up until the end of the first world war. Police said about 38,000 people, double the number expected, had gathered in Berlin to protest against restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Rescue efforts ended at a two-story restaurant in a northern Chinese village that collapsed during a local resident’s 80th birthday celebration, leaving 29 people dead, authorities said Sunday. The Ministry of Emergency Management said another 28 people were injured, seven of them seriously, when the building suddenly crumbled on Saturday. There was no immediate word on what caused the collapse or on the fate of the birthday guest and other celebrants.
India and Russia have been declared joint winners of a major international chess tournament after two Indian players lost their internet connection during the final round. An online version of the Chess Olympiad contest is being held for the first time this year because of coronavirus. India appealed after two of its players lost connection to their games and forfeited on time. Officials said these were “unprecedented circumstances”.
Japan’s Shinzo Abe on Friday said he was resigning because of poor health, ending a tenure as the country’s longest-serving prime minister in which he sought to revive an economy stricken by deflation and push for a stronger military. His abrupt departure triggers a leadership battle in his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) over the next few weeks. The winner will likely stick to Abe’s reflationary “Abenomics” policies.
Against a backdrop of a global pandemic, heightened racial tensions, and widespread unemployment, Donald Trump framed his Democratic rival Joe Biden as the real danger to the country’s safety and economic welfare in his address to the Republican convention on Thursday. Accepting the party’s presidential nomination ahead of November’s elections, Trump argued for more than an hour that his administration had accomplished everything it had set out to do.
One of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the U.S., Laura barreled across Louisiana on Thursday, shearing off roofs and killing at least six people while carving a destructive path hundreds of miles inland. But despite a trail of demolished buildings, entire neighborhoods left in ruins and almost 900,000 homes and businesses without power, a sense of relief prevailed that Laura was not the annihilating menace forecasters had feared.
Wearing a face-mask in public has become mandatory across Paris and several surrounding areas, amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in France. The move comes a day after the country recorded 6,111 new infections – its highest number since early May. The number of “red zones” where the virus is in active circulation has risen from two to 21. Despite a sharp rise in cases in recent weeks, daily death tolls have remained low.
Four U.S. service members were injured in a collision between their vehicle and a Russian military police patrol in northeast Syria earlier this week, U.S. officials said. The incident highlights the tension surrounding the countries operating in close proximity in one of the world’s most complex war zones — and one that some analysts say risks a potential escalation between Washington and Moscow.