USA

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The chief executive of a California technology company resigned after the release of a video showing him using vulgar and racist language toward an Asian family at a restaurant.

Solid8 CEO Michael Lofthouse resigned from the San Francisco Bay Area tech startup Saturday, KPIX-TV reports.

Lofthouse issued a statement announcing his departure from Solid8, but he did not say if he was leaving voluntarily or at the request of the company.

“My comments towards the families involved were racist, hurtful and deeply inappropriate,” Lofthouse said.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — With the United States grappling with the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world, Florida hit a grim milestone Sunday, shattering the national record for a state’s largest single-day increase in positive cases.

Deaths from the virus have also been rising in the U.S., especially in the South and West, though still well below the heights hit in April, according to a recent Associated Press analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican governor rumored to be eyeing a run for the White House in 2024 said Sunday that the GOP needs to be a “bigger tent party” after President Donald Trump leaves office.

Maryland’s Larry Hogan, who has been known to break with Trump, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he doesn’t “know what the future holds in November.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — China has fast become a top election issue as President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden engage in a verbal brawl over who’s better at playing the tough guy against Beijing.

The Trump campaign put out ads showing Biden toasting China’s Xi Jinping, even though Trump did just that with Xi in Asia and hosted the Chinese leader at his Florida club. Spots from the Biden campaign feature Trump playing down the coronavirus and praising Xi for being transparent about the pandemic, even though it’s clear China hid details of the outbreak from the world.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite a barrage of criticism from both Democrats and Republicans, the new chief of U.S. global media is plowing ahead with changes to the Voice of America and other international broadcasters that are heightening concerns about their future as independent news organizations.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Twenty-one people suffered minor injuries in an explosion and fire Sunday on board a ship at Naval Base San Diego, military officials said.

The blaze was reported shortly before 9 a.m. on USS Bonhomme Richard, said Mike Raney, a spokesman for Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Seventeen sailors and four civilians were hospitalized with “non-life threatening injuries,” Raney said in a brief statement. He didn’t provide additional details.

Previously, officials said at least one person was treated for smoke inhalation.

WASHINGTON, July 11. /TASS/: The New York Times article alleging that Russia was offering cash to militants in Afghanistan for killing the troops of the US and their coalition allies is a "hit job", US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

"This was just another phony hit job by the nytimes. They had no source, they made it up. Fake news!" Trump wrote.

NEW YORK, July 12. /TASS/: Ex-spouse of the world’s richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos MacKenzie has become the richest woman in the US, Forces announced Saturday.

In July 2019, MacKenzie Bezos received 4% share of the world’s largest online retailer during a divorce process. At the moment of the divorce, this share was worth about $38.3 billion. However, Amazon stocks significantly increased in price during the coronavirus pandemic, Forbes says.

UNITED NATIONS, July 11 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Saturday adopted a resolution, with 12 votes in favor and three abstentions, on the mandate renewal for the cross-border humanitarian mechanism in Syria.

Resolution 2533 decides to renew the border crossing of Bab al-Hawa for 12 months, until July 10, 2021. China, Russia and the Dominican Republic voted in abstention. Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, made remarks in explanation of China's vote.

12 July 2020; MEMO: A UN official has said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) was a prime suspect in the case of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, reports Anadolu Agency.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Execution Agnes Callamard said even though she does not have evidence against the MBS, but in terms of ordering and inciting the killing, he is a prime suspect.