Friday, Aug. 7th, 2020

State Department lifts global coronavirus travel advisory The State Department on Thursday lifted its Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory, issued on March 19 in order to encourage Americans against traveling overseas amid the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of a blanket travel advisory, the State Department said it will release country-specific guidelines “in order to give travelers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions. This will also provide U.S. citizens more detailed information about the current status in each country. We continue to recommend U.S. citizens exercise caution when traveling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against non-essential travel to 200 specific locations, CNN reports, and there are still travel restrictions in other countries affecting Americans; the European Union, for example, has blocked entry to tourists from the United States. Source: CNN

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tests positive for COVID-19 Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) on Thursday took a COVID-19 test “as part of the standard protocol” to meet with President Trump at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio, as the president visits the state, and the result came back positive, the governor’s office said. DeWine, who will return home to quarantine for two weeks, said he isn’t showing any symptoms. DeWine is the second governor in the United States to test positive for COVID-19 after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R). Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) previously tested positive for COVID-19 at the White House shortly before he was scheduled to travel with Trump to Texas. Source: Axios

Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines The economy falls into recession for the first time in 29 years after the economy shrank by 16.5% in the April to June quarter from the same period last year, which is the biggest slump in the government’s quarterly GDP data dating back to 1981. (CNA)

A court in China sentences a Canadian man to death on drug charges. His alleged accomplice receives life imprisonment. Police had confiscated 120 kilograms (266 pounds) of ketamine from the defendant’s home. He is the third Canadian citizen to be sentenced to death in China since Canadian authorities arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in late 2018 on an extradition request from the United States. (AP)

Twitter says it will label state media, official government accounts and their stafff. State-funded media outlets with “editorial independence”, such as the National Public Radio in the U.S., or BBC in the UK, will not be among those labelled, according to a spokesman for the social media site. (Twitter)

The End