Author: News Desk

Ty Gibson, 20, of Greensboro, North Carolina, brushed off speculation last week on TikTok that his favorite video sharing platform was going to be banned. By Thursday, users panicked after a glitch on the service erased video views, a measure of video popularity. Suddenly, news reports of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s threats to block Chinese-owned apps like TikTok hit home as he watched other users flood the app with goodbyes. U.S. lawmakers have raised national security concerns over TikTok’s handling of user data, and said they were worried it would be required to share data with the Chinese…

Ukraine’s parliament passed a bill on Tuesday ending a decade-long ban on gambling in a move aimed at boosting budget revenues by almost $150 million a year. Ukraine’s economy has been gutted by a six-year-long military conflict with Russia-backed separatists in the east and is under additional pressure from the coronavirus pandemic. The government expects casinos, bookmakers and slot machine operators to contribute at least four billion hryvnias (about $148 million) to the state budget annually through taxes and licence fees. Lawmaker Oleh Marusyak, a member of the president’s Servant of the People party and author of the bill, said…

Kuwait has reported 666 new coronavirus cases, of which 421 are citizens, taking the total confirmed cases in the country to 56,174, according to the health ministry. 3 patients died of the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 396. Kuwait has the world’s 34th highest number of coronavirus infections just over UAE. Meanwhile, 805 new recoveries have been reported in the country, raising the total recoveries to 46,161. Kuwait has done 3,721 NP swab tests in the past 24 hours, as the country ramps up its efforts to test more people and detect cases early.…

Saudi Arabia has reported 2,692 new cases and 48 deaths from coronavirus, taking the total cases to 237,803. The death toll raised to 2,283 after reporting the new deaths. Saudi is holding the 14th position for most coronavirus cases worldwide, just below Italy. Meanwhile, 7,718 patients fully recovered from the virus, bringing the total recoveries to 177,560. In line with recent trends, the majority of the new cases are in Jeddah (263), followed by Al Hafouf (220) and Riyadh (211). https://twitter.com/media_ksa/status/1283027316092948484?s=20

India has recorded 100,000 new coronavirus cases in the past four days, as the country struggles to gain control of the worsening pandemic. The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday announced another 28,498 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s total to 906,752. Sunday marked the fourth consecutive day of highest daily jumps in cases and if the trend continues, it’s likely India will hit 1 million COVID-19 infections by the end of the week. India now has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, after the United States and Brazil, according to…

Japan’s annual defence review accuses China of pushing its territorial claims amid the coronavirus pandemic and suspects Beijing of spreading propaganda and disinformation as it provides medical aid to nations battling the disease. China “is continuing to attempt to alter the status quo in the East China Sea and the South China Sea,” Japan said in the defence white paper, approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government on Tuesday. The white paper described “relentless” intrusions in waters around a group of islets claimed by both nations in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu…

Oman has registered fourteen deaths and a drop of 1,389 new cases of coronavirus, of which the majority of the cases are from citizens by 1,050 and the rest 339 from foreigners. This takes the total COVID-19 cases in the sultanate to 59,568. The sultanate reported over 2,000 daily cases of COVID-19 yesterday. The death toll reached 273 after reporting the new deaths. Meanwhile, 730 new recoveries were announced, bringing the total to 37,987. 4,044 tests were conducted across the sultanate in the past 24 hours. So far 248,831 COVID-19 tests have been conducted. In March, Oman began to introduce…

A body found in a lake in the US state of California has been identified as the missing Glee star Naya Rivera, police say. Rivera, 33, went missing on Wednesday after going boating with her four-year-old son at Lake Piru. He was found alone and asleep on the boat. Divers and teams using sonar equipment found the body earlier on Monday. Rivera is best known for playing the cheerleader Santana Lopez in the hugely popular musical comedy TV series Glee. At a news conference on the shore of the lake on Monday, Sheriff Bill Ayub of the Ventura County Sheriff…

Bahrain has registered 535 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, among 297 expatriate workers and 238 of the new cases are contacts of active cases. The new cases were detected after conducting over 9,200 COVID-19 tests. 1 death was registered in the kingdom, the deceased is a 57-year-old female citizen. ♦ Bahrain adds $470 million in coronavirus impact spending to 2020 budget ♦ Incoming passengers must shoulder the cost of mandatory COVID-19 testing ♦ What are the side effects of post COVID-19?, explains Dr. Jameela Al Salman Meanwhile, 674 new recoveries have been recorded, bringing the total recoveries to 29,099. The total cases have driven…

The number of coronavirus infections around the world hit 13 million on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, climbing by a million in just five days. The pandemic has now killed more than half a million people in six-and-a-half months, and World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there would be no return to the “old normal” for the foreseeable future, especially if preventive measures were neglected. “Let me be blunt, too many countries are headed in the wrong direction, the virus remains public enemy number one,” he told a virtual briefing from WHO headquarters in Geneva. “If…