USA

WASHINGTON, Jun 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States may see 200,000 deaths because of the coronavirus at some point in September, a leading expert said, while total US coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million on Wednesday as governments relax restrictions.

Ashish Jha, the head of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, said in an interview that without drastic action, the number of US deaths would march on.

UNITED NATIONS, June 11 (Xinhua) -- With the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on top of armed conflict and natural disasters in Afghanistan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday that it hopes to reach 11.1 million people there with aid.

The OCHA put the cost of assisting them at 1.1 billion U.S. dollars.

"Even before the pandemic reached Afghanistan, 9.4 million people needed humanitarian assistance to obtain food, clean water, basic healthcare and other essentials," the office said.

NEW YORK, June 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Thursday with the Dow plunging more than 1,800 points amid a broad market sell-off.

The 30-stock index shed 1,861.82 points, or 6.9 percent, to 25,128.17. The S&P 500 sank 188.04 points, or 5.89 percent, to 3,002.1. The Nasdaq decreased 527.62 points, or 5.27 percent, to 9,492.73. The major averages posted their worst day since mid-March.

All the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors tumbled, with energy and financials down 9.45 percent and 8.18 percent, respectively, leading the losses.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time in nearly three years, three American aircraft carriers are patrolling the Indo-Pacific waters, a massive show of naval force in a region roiled by spiking tensions between the U.S. and China and a sign that the Navy has bounced back from the worst days of the coronavirus outbreak.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee said Thursday the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates “the gross inequality” of a world where almost half the population is unable to connect to the internet.

He told a high-level U.N. meeting “our number one focus must be to close the digital divide.”

(AP) ---The first experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. is on track to begin a huge study next month to prove if it really can fend off the coronavirus, while hard-hit Brazil is testing a different shot from China.

Where to do crucial, late-stage testing and how many volunteers are needed to roll up their sleeves are big worries for health officials as the virus spread starts tapering off in parts of the world.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Army Gen. Mark Milley, the nation’s top military officer, added to the already extraordinary tension between the Pentagon and President Donald Trump on Thursday, declaring he’d been wrong to stride in uniform with Trump past protesters who had been cleared from Lafayette Square to a photo op at a church.

Milley said his presence in combat fatigues amid protests over racial injustice “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joe Biden is adopting an increasingly aggressive stance as he looks to break out of a monthslong campaign freeze imposed by the coronavirus outbreak.

WASHINGTON (AP) — At the White House, aides now routinely flout internal rules requiring face masks. The president’s campaign is again scheduling mass arena rallies. And he is back to spending summer weekends at his New Jersey golf club.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man recently released from jail in Central California was shot and killed at the end of a 36-hour hunt that followed the shooting of a sheriff’s deputy and other attacks that wounded three other law enforcement officers.

Mason James Lira, 26, was killed Thursday afternoon after he emerged from a brushy riverbed in Paso Robles where he’d hidden all night, climbed a steep hillside and ran toward a vineyard, authorities said.