USA

(AP) --- Tropical Storm Cristobal could soon renew its strength by uniting with another storm system coming from the west to form one giant cyclone, forecasters say.

After drenching much of the South, forecasters now expect the remnants of Cristobal to bring fierce winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms to much of the Midwest by Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy entered a recession in February as the coronavirus struck the nation, a group of economists declared Monday, ending the longest expansion on record.

The economists said that employment, income and spending peaked in February and then fell sharply afterward as the viral outbreak shut down businesses across the country, marking the start of the downturn after nearly 11 full years of economic growth.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A judge on Monday kept bail at $1 million for a former Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder in George Floyd’s death.

Derek Chauvin, 44, said little during an 11-minute hearing in which he appeared before Hennepin County Judge Jeannice M. Reding on closed-circuit television from the state’s maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his allies have seized on calls to “defund the police” as a dangerous example of Democratic overreach as the Republican president fights for momentum amid crises that threaten his reelection.

HOUSTON (AP) — The black man whose death has inspired a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice will be buried in Houston Tuesday, carried home in a horse-drawn carriage.

George Floyd, who was 46 when he was killed, will be laid to rest next to his mother. On May 25, as a white Minneapolis officer pressed a knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes, the dying man cried out for his mother.

NEW YORK, Jun 8 (APP): Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell says that he will not vote for Donald Trump, calling the president’s approach to politics “dangerous for our democracy” and asserting that Trump has “drifted away” from the Constitution.

Powell, who is a Republican and a retired general, said he plans to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden, who clinched the Democratic nomination last week, in the November presidential election.

08 June 2020; MEMO: Former US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders yesterday called Israel’s plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank “illegal” and urged for action to be taken to stop them.

In a recorded message aired during a rally against the annexation plans in Tel Aviv, Sanders said: “It has never been more important to fight for justice, and stand up for the future we all deserve.”

LOS ANGELES, June 8 (NNN-Xinhua) — Thousands of people in California on Sunday took part in the 11th straight day of peaceful protests over the death of African American man George Floyd in police custody while the National Guard troops are leaving Los Angeles, the second largest city of the United States.

SEATTLE, June 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A man drove his car into a crowd of protesters in Seattle on Sunday, then shot and wounded a demonstrator who confronted him as he came to a stop, according to police and eyewitness video.

Seattle police said firefighters took the man who was shot to the hospital and that he was in stable condition. No one else was injured, the police said.

The suspect was seen in the video exiting his car as protesters began to surround it. He brandished what appeared to be a gun, dashed through the crowd and turned himself over to police.

PARIS, June 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus worldwide is now above 6.9 million, according to latest figures collated by Johns Hopkins University.

The US has by far the largest number of cases, accounting for almost 30% of the global total. It also has the world’s highest death toll, followed by the UK and Brazil.