Sunday,  Sept. 6th, 2020

Labor Day Weekend

Environmental activists of the Extinction Rebellion movement in England gather around several printing presses used by the Rupert Murdoch-owned publishing company News Corp in the towns of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, and Knowsley, Merseyside, criticising the coverage of global warming by News Corp-owned newspapers. At least 34 protesters are arrested, while the protests lead to delays in the dissemination of the newspapers. (DW)

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company warns customers that power could be shut off in some areas of California due to extreme weather and high winds. (The Mercury News)

Schools in Iran, including Islamic seminaries, reopen to some 15 million students after a seven-month closure. (AAP via The Canberra Times)

510 cases in South Korea are linked to anti-government protests. (CNN)

More than 20 students at New York University are suspended for violating their COVID-19 policies. (NBC News)

Northeastern University dismisses 11 students for violating COVID-19 guidelines. (CBS News)

Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his response to the outbreak as cases increase in the country, as well as calling for his resignation. (ABC News)

The 146th Kentucky Derby is held after being delayed for four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In an upset, racehorse Authentic wins the Derby over the favored Tiz the Law, precluding the latter’s chances of winning this year’s Triple Crown.  (WLKY-TV)

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Saturday,  Sept.  5th, 2020

Labor Day Weekend

A study shows that the Gam-COVID-Vac, Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, has produced an antibody response with no serious side effects in a small trial. (Reuters)

Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19. (Reuters)

The Big Basin Redwoods State Park is expected to close for a year due to damage caused by the CZU Lightning Complex fires. (USA Today)

Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit against his life imprisonment sentence handed down by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in July 2019. Guzmán’s lawyer claims that his maximum-security isolation at the Metropolitan Correctional Center following his extradition to the United States in January 2017 made him heavily unaware about his case and limited his ability to participate in his defense. (AFP via NDTV)

Protests over a fatal police encounter in Rochester, New York began peacefully but ended with authorities using tear gas and pepper balls following incidents of vandalism and violence. It was the third straight night of protests after video was released earlier in the week showing Rochester Police Department officers holding Daniel Prude on the ground with a spit sock on his head in March. Prude stopped breathing and was declared brain dead at a hospital. (CNN)

Malaysian Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof announces that Uyghur refugees in the country will not be extradited back to China, but permitted to use Malaysia as a safe passage to a third country. (Reuters)

 

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Friday, Sept. 4th, 2020

Thailand reports their first case after a streak of 100 days without new cases. (Bloomberg.com)

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says that the vaccine trials for Pfizer might have results by October. (CNBC)

GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi announces that they will start vaccine trials. (BBC)

The United States Department of Defense says that the United States military will choose five treatment facilities to carry advanced testing phases for AstraZeneca and other vaccine trials. (UrduPoint)

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service reports that the Arctic Circle has experienced its worst wildfire season on record after the service released data indicating that a series of wildfires occurring in the first half of 2020, mostly in the Russian republic of Sakha, have emitted more than 244 million tons of carbon dioxide. The emissions within that period have increased by more than a third of carbon emissions in the whole of 2019. (CNN)

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres urges Japan and other wealthy nations to give up on their reliance on fossil fuels and invest in green energy. Guterres noted that many countries are using green energy to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). (AP)

Delta Air Lines announces that they have banned 270 passengers for not wearing a mask. (CBS News)

Stock market sees its worst day in months after massive tech selloff The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged as much as 1,000 points on Thursday before closing 810 down. A major tech selloff sparked the slump, which also hit the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 hard. The Dow’s drop was a 2.87 percent drop from the day before, settling it at 28,292 points. The S&P 500 fell 3.5 percent, or 126 points, to 3,455. And the Nasdaq slid 5 percent, or 598 points, ending up at 11,458. In all, it was the market’s worst day since June. Big tech stocks were largely to blame, with Apple seeing a 7 percent drop, while Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft all falling around 5 percent. Thursday was the worst day for Apple and the tech sector as a whole since March. The major dip came just after the market had its best August since the 1980s. Source: CNN

Over 880,000 more Americans filed new jobless claims last week The number of Americans filing new jobless claims has come in below one million this week, the lowest level during the coronavirus pandemic. The Labor Department on Thursday said a total of 881,000 Americans filed new jobless claims last week. This was lower than the 950,000 claims that economists were expecting, and continuing claims also fell by 1.24 million. It’s also the lowest level the weekly jobless claims have reached since the COVID-19 crisis began in the United States. Still, the numbers aren’t perfectly comparable to previous weeks due to a methodology change the Labor Department made, and according to NPR, without the new seasonal adjustment change, “state unemployment claims rose by more than 7,500.” And while the number of new jobless claims has declined, it’s still historically high. Source: CNBC

 

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