A Japanese man given $360,000 in Covid-19 aid by mistake has been arrested after saying he gambled away the money online, police said Thursday. Local authorities have become increasingly desperate to get their money back from the 24-year-old, who has said he will return the cash “even if it’s going to be bit by bit”. The blunder by authorities in the remote town of Abu and the man’s failure to pay them back has […]
International
Canada reports dozen suspected cases of rare monkeypox virus
Health authorities in Canada’s Quebec province are investigating more than a dozen suspected cases of monkeypox, a rare but potentially serious virus, public broadcaster CBC reported Wednesday. The United States on Wednesday also confirmed a case of monkeypox in a man who had recently traveled to Canada, after European health officials confirmed dozens of cases earlier this week. The illness often starts with flu-like symptoms such as fever, muscle ache and swollen lymph nodes […]
UN chief warns of famine, urges Russia to free Ukrainian grain
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday of years of mass hunger and famine if a growing global food crisis goes unchecked as he urged Russia to release Ukrainian grain. Speaking at a major United Nations summit in New York, Guterres said the war in Ukraine was compounding global food insecurity already worsened by warming temperatures and the coronavirus pandemic. Guterres said that in just two years, the number of severely food insecure people has doubled […]
US ‘confident’ in Nordic NATO bids, Ukraine holds war crimes trial
by Charlotte PLANTIVE, with Dmitry ZAKS in Sydorove and Sebastian SMITH in Washington © Agence France-Presse Kyiv, UKRAINE (AFP) — The United States said Wednesday it is confident Finland and Sweden will become part of NATO, despite vocal Turkish protests — an expansion that would dramatically realign European security in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Reflecting the brutality of the conflict which has reinvigorated the transatlantic alliance, Ukraine held its first war […]
Foreign-born US workers reach pre-pandemic level: Census
The number of foreign-born workers in the United States neared pre-pandemic levels last year, reaching 17.4 percent, according to government data released Wednesday. The foreign-born labor force increased by 671,000 compared to 2020, rising to 27.9 million, the Labor Department said. However, it remains below the pre-pandemic level of 28.4 million. The unemployment rate for that group fell to 5.6 percent in 2021 from 9.2 percent the prior year. The size of the native-born […]
Spain, Portugal detect suspected monkeypox cases
Spain and Portugal have detected around 30 suspected cases of monkeypox, officials said Wednesday after British authorities found several cases of the viral infection which is rare in Europe. Health officials have noted some of the UK infections may be through sexual contact — in this instance among gay or bisexual men — which would be a new development in understanding transmission of the virus. The World Health Organization said Tuesday it was coordinating with […]
More than 100,000 people officially missing in Mexico
by Yussel Gonzalez © Agence France-Presse Mexico City, MEXICO (AFP) — More than 100,000 people are now listed as missing in violence-wracked Mexico, a grim milestone that the United Nations rights chief on Tuesday called “a tragedy of enormous proportions.” Rights groups appealed for urgent action to tackle disappearances that have skyrocketed during years of spiraling drug-related violence. The National Registry of Missing Persons, which has been tracking disappearances since 1964, said that as […]
Netflix trims staff to weather slowing growth
San Francisco, UNITED STATES (AFP) — Netflix on Tuesday said it laid off about two percent of its staff in a belt-tightening move after growth slowed at the once-booming streaming television service. “These changes are primarily driven by business needs rather than individual performance, which makes them especially tough, as none of us want to say goodbye to such great colleagues,” a spokesperson told AFP. About 150 employees have been laid off, most of […]
War in Ukraine: Latest developments
Kyiv, UKRAINE (AFP) — Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine: – Hundreds of Mariupol defenders surrender – Russia says that 265 of the Ukrainian fighters who had been holding out at a steelworks in the city of Mariupol for weeks have surrendered under a deal struck with Kyiv. Russia’s defense ministry says 51 of them were heavily wounded and were taken to a hospital in a part of the eastern Donetsk […]
Sweden, Finland to submit NATO membership bid Wednesday
by Marc Preel with Elias Huuhtanen in Helsinki © Agence France-Presse Stockholm, SWEDEN (AFP) — Finland and Sweden announced they will submit their bids to join NATO together Wednesday, despite Turkey’s threat to block the military alliance’s expansion. “I’m happy we have taken the same path and we can do it together,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said Tuesday during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometre […]
Biden attacks white supremacist ‘poison’ after racist shooting
by Nicholas Kamm with Sebastian Smith in Washington © Agence France-Presse Buffalo, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday called out what he branded the “poison” of white supremacist ideology behind a deadly mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, and said that racism is being stoked for political gain. Speaking in the city where a white teen is accused of murdering 10 African Americans in a neighborhood supermarket, Biden said, “What […]
US consumers remain resilient even as prices rise
by John Biers with Heather Scott in Washington © Agence France-Presse New York, UNITED STATES (AFP) — US consumers continued to increase spending in April, remaining resilient in the face of accelerating inflation, but retail giant Walmart still saw a big hit to its bottom line due to rising costs, according to reports released Tuesday. Home Depot, however, benefitted from the ongoing spending spree, reporting higher profits and a better outlook for the year. The […]





