North America

28 May 2020; AFP: After a day of suspense, SpaceX's landmark launch to the International Space Station -- the first crewed mission to blast off from US soil in almost a decade -- was scrubbed Wednesday due to fears of a lightning strike.

With NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley strapped into the Crew Dragon capsule, the launch pad platform retracted and rocket fueling underway, SpaceX made the call to abort.

VANCOUVER/TORONTO (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies Co’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was dealt a setback by a Canadian court on Wednesday as she tries to avoid extradition to the United States to face bank fraud charges, dashing hopes for an end to her 18-month house arrest in Vancouver.

The ruling, which could further deteriorate relations between Ottawa and Beijing, elicited immediate strong reaction from China’s embassy in Canada, which said Canada is “accomplice to United States efforts to bring down Huawei and Chinese high-tech companies.”

(Reuters) - American Airlines Group Inc must reduce its management and support staff by about 30% and may have to cut frontline employees as it downsizes due to the coronavirus outbreak, showed a letter to employees made public on Wednesday.

All major U.S. airlines have said they will need to shrink in the fall, once U.S. government payroll aid that bans involuntary job cuts expires on Sept. 30.

Competitor United Airlines Holdings Inc has also said it will need to reduce its management and administrative staff by about 30%.

WASHINGTON, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The narrative that "China covered up the coronavirus" is inaccurate and so are the claims supporting the narrative, said an opinion piece published recently in U.S. magazine The National Interest.

The article, written by Mitchell Blatt, an editorial assistant at The National Interest, was entitled "Don't Listen to the 'China Covered Up the Coronavirus' Narrative".

WASHINGTON, May 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — In the decentralized American system, the COVID-19 pandemic is draining public finances in many cities and states, and without help from the federal government, experts say the consequences will be lasting and the recovery slower.

“There cannot be a national recovery if the state and local governments are not funded,” New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Threatening to shut down Twitter for flagging false content. Claiming he can “override” governors who dare to keep churches closed to congregants. Asserting the “absolute authority” to force states to reopen, even when local leaders say it’s too soon.

As he battles the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump has been claiming extraordinarily sweeping powers that legal scholars say the president simply doesn’t have. And he has repeatedly refusing to spell out the legal basis for those powers.

MIAMI (AP) — It was mid-January and Jordan Goudreau was itching to get going on a secret plan to raid Venezuela and arrest President Nicolás Maduro when the former special forces commando flew to the city of Barranquilla in Colombia to meet with his would-be partner in arms.

UNITED NATIONS, May 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic could push as many as 86 million more children into poverty by the end of 2020, a joint study by Save the Children and UNICEF showed.

That would bring the total number of children affected by poverty worldwide to 672 million, an increase of 15 percent over last year, the two aid agencies said in a statement.

Nearly two-thirds of those children overall live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man was shot to death as violent protests over the death of a black man in police custody rocked Minneapolis for a second straight night Wednesday, with protesters looting stores near a police precinct and setting fires.

Police said they were investigating the death as a homicide and had a suspect in custody, but were still investigating what led to the shooting.

WASHINGTON, May 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States said it was ending waivers in its sanctions for nations that remain in the Iran nuclear accord, bringing the deal further to the verge of collapse.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was responding to Iran’s “brinkmanship” of nuclear steps, which have been aimed at pressuring the United States to remove sanctions as called for by the 2015 accord.

“These escalatory actions are unacceptable and I cannot justify renewing the waiver,” Pompeo said in a statement.