WORLD

Montreal, Canada | AFP |  Students soon to graduate from Montreal’s esteemed National Circus School expect months of uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has closed shows around the world and thrust their career prospects into doubt. Head upside down, feet pointed to the sky, Antino Pansa balances on a …

London, United Kingdom | AFP |  From dress designers to hat makers to the hospitality sector, Royal Ascot is usually a lucrative source of income for a whole industry connected with one of Britain’s most feted social and sporting events. However, Queen Elizabeth II will be absent this year, dresses will …

Havana, Cuba | AFP |  Cuba is planning to welcome tourists with COVID-19 tests and limit their contact with locals as part of a raft of measures designed to get its vital tourism industry back up and running. The government of President Miguel Diaz-Canel said it would gradually open up the …

Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump has praised a letter sent to him by one of Pope Francis’s most virulent opponents, who claims Black Lives Matter protests and the coronavirus crisis are a political conspiracy. Italian archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican envoy to Washington, is notorious for his accusations of corruption and …

Washington, United States | AFP | Joe Biden expressed fear that President Donald Trump will try to “steal” November’s election or not leave office if he loses, prompting the White House on Thursday to slam the Democrat’s comments as conspiracy theories. “My single greatest concern” is that “this president’s going to try and steal this …

Washington, United States | AFP | Surgeons have performed a double-lung transplant on a COVID-19 patient in Chicago, the hospital that carried out the procedure said Thursday, in what is thought to be a first in the United States. The patient is a young Hispanic woman in her twenties, and had spent six weeks on …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered sanctions against any official at the International Criminal Court who prosecutes US troops as the tribunal looks at alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. “The International Criminal Court’s actions are an attack on the rights of the American people and threaten to infringe upon …

New York, United States | AFP | As racial justice protests have swept the US, leading retailers have taken to social media to proclaim their commitment to equality. But such statements decrying racism in the wake of the George Floyd killing have been met with incredulity by some non-white customers, who …

Washington, United States | AFP |  The brother of George Floyd, whose killing by police sparked worldwide protests against racism made an emotional plea on Wednesday to the US Congress to “stop the pain” and pass reforms that make officers accountable for brutality. One day after burying his brother in Houston, …

Washington, United States | AFP |  US military bases honoring Civil War Confederate leaders will not be renamed, President Donald Trump said Wednesday, pushing back on pressure to rid public places of monuments glorifying the once pro-slavery South. “These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American …