‘Back in the game’: SpaceX ship blasts off with 2 astronauts

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MAY 30, 2020 @ 1600 GMT | Cape Canaveral, United States | A SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, May 30, 2020. For the first time in nearly a decade, astronauts blasted towards orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company.(AP Photo)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A rocket ship built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company thundered away from Earth with two Americans on Saturday, ushering in a new era in commercial space travel and putting the United States back in the business of launching astronauts into orbit from home soil for the first time in nearly a decade.

NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode skyward aboard a white-and-black, bullet-shaped Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, lifting off at 3:22 p.m. from the same launch pad used to send Apollo crews to the moon a half-century ago. Minutes later, they slipped safely into orbit.

“Let’s light this candle,” Hurley said just before ignition, borrowing the historic words used by Alan Shepard on America’s first human spaceflight, in 1961.

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Trump’s plan to celebrate space launch hits weather snag

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MAY 28, 2020 @ 1700 GMT | U.S President Donald Trump gestures as he participates in a tour of NASA facilities before viewing the SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2 Launch at Kennedy Space Center, Wednesday, May 27, 2020, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Marillyn Hewson, chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin, looks on at right. (AP Photo)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s plan to celebrate the first space launch of American astronauts from U.S. soil in nearly a decade on Wednesday hit a snag when the mission was postponed at the last minute because of bad weather. But the president said he plans on returning to Florida for Saturday’s rescheduled launch.

The president and first lady Melania Trump arrived at Cape Canaveral to a steady drizzle more than an hour before the scheduled 4:33 p.m. EDT liftoff. But officials announced shortly before the scheduled launch that it would have to be put off.

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Stocks rise on Wall Street, but US braces for 100,000 deaths

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MAY 26, 2020 2 1700 GMT | New York, United States | A man wearing a protective face mask passes the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, May 26, 2020, as employees arrive for the partial reopening of the trading floor. (AP Photo)

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks surged on Wall Street to their highest levels since the business shutdowns took hold in the U.S. over two months ago, climbing on optimism Tuesday about the reopening economy even as the nation’s official death toll from the coronavirus closed in on totaling 100,000 which includes New York state, currently topping the list with 29000 plus.

With infections mounting rapidly in places like Brazil and India, a top global health official warned that the crisis is far from over.

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Job losses among young risks creating ‘lock-down generation’

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MAY 27, 2020 @ 1500 GMT | FILE – In this March 17, 2020, file photo, people wait in line for help with unemployment benefits at the One-Stop Career Center in Las Vegas. The coronavirus pandemic has been particularly brutal to the tourism-dependent economies of Nevada and Hawaii, lifting the unemployment rate in both states to about one-quarter of the workforce. (AP Photo)

GENEVA (AP) — More than one in every six young workers have stopped working during the coronavirus pandemic, the U.N. labor agency reported Wednesday, warning of long-term fallout that could lead to a “lock-down generation” if steps aren’t taken to ease the crisis.

The International Labor Organization, in its fourth edition of its report on the impact of the pandemic on jobs, says that work hours equivalent to 305 million full-time jobs have been lost due to the COVID-19 crisis, with it being felt most sharply now in the Americas, an epicenter of the outbreak currently.

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Hong Kong leader says security law not a threat to freedoms

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MAY 26, 2020 @ 1400 GMT | Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam listens to reporters’ questions during a press conference in Hong Kong, Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Lam tried again Tuesday to defend a new national security law that China’s parliament is going to impose on Hong Kong. (AP Photo)

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader said Tuesday that national security legislation proposed by China’s legislature will not threaten the semi-autonomous territory’s civil rights, despite widespread criticism of the move as an encroachment on freedom of speech and assembly.

The city’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, told reporters that there was “no need for us to worry” over the move being considered by China’s ceremonial National People’s Congress.

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Muslims celebrate major holiday amid curfews, virus fears

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MAY 24, 2020 @ 1500 GMT | Sarajevo, Bosnia | Bosnian muslims, some wearing face masks to protect themselves from the COVID-19 infection, attend Eid al-Fitr prayers in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, May 24, 2020. Muslims worldwide are marking a muted religious festival of Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan a usually joyous three-day celebration that has been significantly toned down due to the new coronavirus outbreak.(AP Photo)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Muslims around the world on Sunday began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with millions under strict stay-at-home orders and many fearing renewed coronavirus outbreaks.

The three-day holiday is usually a time of travel, family get-togethers and lavish daytime feasts after weeks of dawn-to-dusk fasting. But this year many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims will have to pray at home and make due with video calls.

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China boosts spending for virus-hit economy, takes up HK law

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MAY 22, 2020 @ 1700 GMT | Beijing, China | Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivers the government work report during the opening session of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Friday, May 22, 2020. (AP Photo)

BEIJING (AP) — China’s No. 2 leader on Friday promised higher spending to revive its pandemic-stricken economy and curb surging job losses but avoided launching a massive stimulus on the scale of the United States or Japan.

Premier Li Keqiang told lawmakers Beijing would set no economic growth target, usually a closely watched feature of government plans, in order to focus on fighting the outbreak. The virus battle “has not yet come to an end,” Li warned.

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Trump allies lining up doctors to prescribe rapid reopening

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MAY 20, 2020 @ 1700 GMT | FILE – In this Feb. 29, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump is greeted by Matt Schlapp, Chairman of the American Conservative Union, as the president arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, at National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md. Republicans are recruiting “pro-Trump” doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the U.S. economy as quickly as possible despite a group of doctors who said not to reopen. The plan was discussed in a May 11 conference call with a senior staffer for the Trump re-election campaign.(AP File Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican politicians are recruiting “extremely pro-Trump”, pro-economy doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

The plan was discussed in a May 11 conference call with a senior staffer for the Trump reelection campaign organized by CNP Action, an affiliate of the GOP-aligned Council for National Policy. A leaked recording of the hourlong call was provided to The Associated Press by the Center for Media and Democracy, a progressive watchdog group.

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Trump muses about hosting G-7 summit in US after all

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MAY 19, 2020 @ 1500 GMT | US President Donald Trump smiles as he holds a debit card handed to him by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that will be used to send payments by the Treasury Department during a Cabinet Meeting in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, May 19, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he’s considering holding an in-person meeting in the U.S. with the leaders of the world’s major economies after all because it would be a “great sign to all” of things returning to normal during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump had scheduled the Group of Seven summit for June 10-12 at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. But in March, he announced he was canceling the annual meeting because of the pandemic and that the leaders would confer by video conference instead.

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Asian stocks up on hopes for vaccine and economies reopening

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MAY 19, 2020 @ 1400 GMT | People wearing face masks walk past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Asian shares rose Tuesday on optimism about a potential vaccine for the coronavirus after hopes for a U.S. economic recovery in the second half of the year sent Wall Street into a rebound.(AP Photo)

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares rose Tuesday on optimism about a potential vaccine for the coronavirus after hopes for a U.S. economic recovery in the second half of the year sent Wall Street into a rebound.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1.9% in morning trading to 20,517.42. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 2.0% to 5,569.20. South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.8% to 1,972.73. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.8% to 24,362.80, while the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.5% to 2,889.42.

“The mood is assertively risk-on with sentiment having been tipped over by fresh hopes sparked for a COVID-19 vaccine,” said Jingyi Pan, market strategist for IG.

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