WORLD

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 …

Prague, Czech Republic | AFP |  Masks and gloves will be the order of the day when the prime ministers of four ex-communist countries on Thursday hold  the first major face-to-face meeting of European leaders since the coronavirus crisis. The Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak leaders are due to discuss the …

London, United Kingdom | AFP |  Asia-focused banking giant HSBC’s vocal support for China’s controversial Hong Kong security law has not been well received in Britain, the former ruler of the city. The London-headquartered lender last week backed Beijing’s contentious legal proposal for Hong Kong, which critics fear will be used …