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Hard-line Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi wins Iran presidential election in landslide victory amid lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic's history after a panel under the watch of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei disqualifies Raisi's strongest competition

World

Vladimir Putin says US threats are done within the context of its domestic political process, with assumptions that the US has such might it can get away with it and can make some mistakes, adding that problems accumulate and a moment comes when they cannot be solved anymore, a mistake which led to the downfall of the Soviet Union
Simple drones and balloons explain large part of US military UFO observations, most likely Russia or China is exploiting UFO stigmatization to conduct extensive and exceptionally successful espionage operations, according to team of military analysts who have spent years analyzing the available data
Britain to sail a Type 45 destroyer and an anti-submarine Type 23 frigate to the Black Sea in May amid rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia, aiming to show solidarity with Ukraine and Britain's Nato allies, the carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will stand ready to support with RAF F-35B Lightning stealth jets and Merlin submarine-hunting helicopters
US State Department announces new guidelines encouraging engagement between US and Taiwan government officials in federal buildings or Taiwan’s de facto embassy in New York, following the Trump administration’s elimination of old hampering guidelines
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledges to work on global corporate minimum tax rate among more than 140 countries, with German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz now hoping to put an end to worldwide race to the bottom in taxation and the Biden administration wants to raise minimum corporate tax from 10.5% to 21%
Russia bewildered after US Secretary of State unveiles an export ban on defense articles and defense services to the country, despite Moscow not receiving any US arms since the lend-lease program during World War II in 1945
Denmark first European nation to tell Syrian migrants to return home after deeming Damascus and surrounding area safe, stripping 94 Syrians of residency permits and sending them to deportation camps, saying country has been clear from the start that the residence permit is temporary
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says US must pay if it wants to keep the two-decade-old troop deployment agreement, when speaking to military troops, adding that it is a shared responsibility, but the US share of responsibility does not come free
The UK will introduce a new visa for eligible Hong Kong residents at the end of January granting them the right to come and live in the UK, and eventually become citizens, 5.4 million Hong Kong residents are eligible, Britain estimates that about 300,000 will take up the visa offer over the next five years
6,500 Honduran migrants in caravans trying to cross the border into Guatemala heading north to the US, less than a week before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, whose aides have expressed concerns about growing numbers of migrants seeking to enter the country in the early days of his administration

Miscellaneous

Psychoanalyst Dr. Donald Moss writes article claiming whiteness is a malignant, parasitic like condition with no permanent cure and which triggers perverse appetites particularly targeting nonwhite peoples, published in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association
Uttar Pradesh bride dies suddenly on wedding day, groom instead marries her sister on the same day with dead body of original betrothed lying in next room, family says change of plans was a tough call and that they have never witnessed such mixed emotions
Art school professor stages protest against Pablo Picasso outside Barcelona museum, claims to not believe in cancel culture but feels need to highlight artist's supposed sexism and abuse of women
Amazon unveils coffin-like wellness chamber to offer warehouse workers time to focus on their mental health, featuring potted plants, a small fan and a computer to watch relaxation videos, retail giant deletes Twitter clip unveiling chambers after online ridicule
More than 60 % of Nestlé's traditional food and drinks do not meet an internationally recognized health standard such as the Australian health star rating system and some of the companies categories and products will never be healthy no matter how much money is spent improving them, according to internal presentation to top executives
3,000 year old Scythian DNA could be used for human clones, suggests Russian defense minister Sergey Shoigu, magazine Popular Mechanics fears new army will be created consisting of genetically superior ancient warriors
Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard becomes first transgender athlete in Olympic Games, competed as a man until gender transition in 2013, has since won multiple medals as a women despite attempts to ban her from competitions
German philosopher Juergen Habermas will not accept this year’s Sheikh Zayed Book Award from the United Arab Emirates, reversing an earlier decision, as reason he cites the very close connection of the institution with the existing political system there, the winners in each of the award’s eight categories are granted a prize of 750,000 UAE dirhams
Walter Mondale dies at 93, was US vice president under Jimmy Carter but became most known as presidential candidate in 1984 and for the huge margin with which he lost, 13 electoral votes against 525 for Ronald Reagan
Spock is not rational but terrible at making predictions, 83% of things he says are impossible happen and the more confident he is the more wrong he is, says Julia Galef after analyzing all Star Trek episodes and films

Media

British news channel GB News vows to be anti-woke and that they will have no no-go areas which has triggered outrage on the left despite claiming to be heaving with diversity, recruits high profile presenters from BBC, ITV and Sky as well as a former Labour MP
Video site LiveLeaks shuts down, has been leading platform for material banned from other sites, has been at center of several major political and military disclosures
Facebook freezes Nicolás Maduro's account for 30 days for repeatedly stating that carvacrol works as a miracle medication against COVID-19, Facebook's spokesman comments that they follow WHO's guidelines saying there currently is no medication to cure the virus
Donald Trump will return to social media in 2-3 months with his own platform which is going to completely redefine the game, has been having high-powered meetings with various teams and numerous companies have approached the former president, according to his advisers Jason Miller
CNN hemorrhages viewers since Donald Trump left office, dropping 49% since Inauguration Day from 3.1 million primetime viewers to 1.6 million and 58% among key demographic of adults age 25-to-54 most important to advertisers
Indian authorities threaten to jail local Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter staff if companies don't abide to government requests to remove information on protests over agricultural bills which have drawn thousands of farmers to rally in the Indian capital
Disney slaps The Muppet Show with offensive content disclaimer, warning viewers the show features stereotypes and mistreatment of people or cultures and that "these stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now", wanting it to "spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together"
Facebook blocks pages from domestic and international news organisations as well as state governments in Australia in escalation of dispute with the government over law to require it to share news revenue with news outlets, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Facebook is as arrogant as they were disappointing
Rush Limbaugh loses battle against lung cancer at age 70, was foremost star of talk radio and for three decades one of the most influential individuals in US politics
China bans BBC World News claiming it seriously violated broadcasting regulations, saying BBC’s relentless fabrication of lies of the century in reporting China runs counter to the professional ethics of journalism, comes a week after Chinese state channel was kicked off Britain's TV screens

Politics

Japan prime minister Abe Shinzo resigns due to health concerns, recently became the longest sitting prime minister in the post world war two era, Abe has a brief stint as prime minister between 2006 and 2007 when he was also forced to resign due to chronic illness which was later claimed to have been successfully medicated
National Justice Party founded in US by members of alt-right, front man Mike "Enoch" Peinovich says in speech that freedom is a European concept and can not be upheld without European people, new party will work for rights of whites in US and the world
Ivanka Trump changes political party affiliation, registers as Republican to vote for her father in New York primary, has previously been Democrat and seen as bridge to moderates but has over time moved in a conservative direction
Orthodox Church locks horns with Montenegrin government over new anti-ecclesiastical legislation, law gives state leave to seize ecclesiastical property from churches who cannot produce ownership titles notarised before 1918, thousands march through streets of Podgorica amid clerical hymn chants decrying "[the State] ... snatching people's souls", gloves come off as President Milo Djukanovic attacks the Orthodox Church for undermining Montenegrin independence, The Church has 12 million followers in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro
Greta Thunberg throws down the gauntlet at Bristol climate rally, rain-soused teenagers bellow "The ocean is rising and so are we" and other equally stirring slogans, Greta—donning her iconic yellow mac—attacks political complacency in face of impending climate apocalypse
Sweden's foreign ministry summons Chinese ambassador with the intention of demanding immediate release and consular access to Gui Minhai, apprehended and detained by Chinese authorities in 2018 for sale of literature vilifying the Chinese state apparatus
Donald Trump's adviser and confidant Roger Stone sentenced to 40 months' imprisonment, found guilty on five counts of obstructing House Intelligence Committee investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Trump retweets Tucker Carlson segment calling for pardon, request for retrial filed by Stone's legal team
Arts Council England (ACE) threaten to withold public funding for museums and arts organisations who don't implement diversity quotas, appalled ethnic non-whites should be so woefully underrepresented in arts, report unearths a number of unnerving statistics - only 6% of workforce disabled as opposed to 21% in the national labour force
EU arch-bureaucrat Josep Borrell tells Munich Security Conference the European Union must learn to embrace its oft-derided hegemonic structure by "developing an appetite for power", the EU must throw equivocation, dawdling and prudence to the winds and learn to act, a conciliatory EU won't be able to challenge U.S. dominance in global politics
Bernie Sanders says Bloomberg doesn't have enough clout with younger generations to defeat Trump, history of 'racist' policies, minimum wage law criticisms and cautious skepticism towards taxes on the wealthy tantamount to political suicide among younger voters, according to Sanders

Opinion

Matthew Crawford: When science is elevated to authority to rule society it is distorted into a scientistic religion, manipulation becomes necessary to make public opinion conform to official intepretation of research results, leads to unstable regime which provokes stronger and more militant counterreactions
Peter Hitchens: The West pushes for war with Russia, which is a broken former superpower with the economy of about the same size as Italy's, imagine how US would act if Soviet had won the cold war, engulfed the former Nato nations into the Warsaw Pact, encouraged Texas and California to form an independent Spanish-speaking nation hostile to the US and based troops along the American border
Peter Hitchens: Scotland Yard’s raid on Polish Church of Christ the King in Balham during Good Friday devotions proof of revolution where much we used to know and believe is being insistently destroyed, with Johnson Government’s contemptuous indifferent to how insulting their actions are to those who acknowledge a power higher than them, but if the police had come in with Communist emblems on their cap-badges the Poles probably would have thrown them out, but free countries are incredibly easy to turn into despotisms, because nobody can believe what is happening
Kevin Karp: EU press Northern Ireland’s onerous post-Brexit arrangement as key for the Good Friday Agreement, while using it as a political prop to claw the rest of Britain back into the EU regulatory straitjacket, whatever the damage this causes to peace in Northern Ireland, spurring the recent sectarian violence and validating EU’s condescending disregard for British interests
Helen Buyniski: New York Times warns against critical thinking to stop your attention being captured by evil conspiracy theorists, urging its readers to keep picking up their deeply-held beliefs from approved sources without thinking too deeply about their implications and spending no more than 90 seconds on fact-checks – in Google's top search results
Hans-Hermann Hoppe: Political exploitation of Covid-19 frighteningly successful, the state kills and makes ill more people than it saves with protective measures, at the same time local leaders are given opportunities to challenge central power and the critical importance of decentralized decision making is demonstrated
Ricardo Duchesne: White men are the most resented group because they are responsible for almost 100% of the greatest achievements in all fields of human endeavor in all of history, created all fields of academic study, were the foremost thinkers, artists, statesmen and explorers
Peter Hitchens: The lockdown and destruction of statues show the pillars of freedom and civilization are rotten as police chiefs and political leaders kneel like conquered slaves to the new gods of woke, and while the Left controls every lever of power, ignorant armies seek the final abolition of Britain as we face nothing less than a regime change
Norman Lewis: British media has united into an undifferentiated authoritarian mob demanding tough draconian action by the government, from restricting movement to shutting down the economy, and have become an indispensable part of the government’s propaganda bullhorn and surveillance
Bryan Caplan: 15.8% probability that Bernie Sanders is secretly a communist according to my calculation using Bayes' theorem, crypto-communism should be considered a serious risk as indicated in history by Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela and Ho Chi Minh

Europe

All parties in Germany's grand coalition government agree to ban the flag of Palestinian Islamic group Hamas, the move comes after several antisemitic incidents occurred last month in Germany during anti-Israel rallies, last year Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah was banned and designated a terrorist organization making it illegal to show public support for Hezbollah
Damien Tarel who slapped Emmanuel Macron is handed an 18-month jail sentence, saying the President represents the decay of the country and that if he had challenged him to a duel at sunrise he doubts Macron would have responded
Belarus declares Day of National Unity as a new national holiday to be celebrated on 17 September, symbolizing restoration of historical justice and reunification of the Belarusian nation that was forcibly divided in 1921 in line with the Treaty of Riga, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union, invaded and then occupied the eastern half of Poland
Thousands of people march in protest against plans to open Chinese Fudan University campus in Budapest, funded mainly by a USD 1.5 billion loan from China, with critics saying it increases Beijing's influence in Hungary and the EU
King's College London apologizes for causing harm by emailing picture of Prince Philip after left-wing staff complains about the late royal being racist and sexist, embarrassed donors withdraw funding
Pro-independence parties win a majority in Scotland’s parliament and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says she will push ahead with plans for a second independence referendum, adding there is no democratic justification for Boris Johnson to ignore the will of the people
Amnesty International apologize to Alexei Navalny and say they will re-designate him as prisoner of conscience, stripping him of that status on February 24 may have further violated his rights
Priti Patel appoints Robin Simcox as Britain’s new commissioner for countering extremism, the appointment is controversial as he has claimed islamophobia is a word used to limit free speech, violent extremism is a dreamed up way to avoid saying ‘Islamic‘ och ‘Islamist‘ extremism, the definition of hate crime is far too broad and Extinction Rebellion, Unite Against Fascism and the far left need monitoring
Czech Republic expells 18 Russian diplomats identified as secret service personnel over suspicions Russian intelligence services GRU were involved in the ammunitions depot explosions in Vrbětice in the Zlín District in 2014, killing two employees of a private company
French officials in Morez find five gold bars and 1,000 gold coins valued at €600,000 in an old three-storey building in the town centre, when the last of four brothers and sisters, all without children, who had lived in the building died the town hall bought the house, Morez, like many other towns in France, buy up and renovate old buildings to attract families back to its emptying centre

North America

Ladislas Kenderesi is facing mutiny charges from the Canadian military for giving a speech at an anti-mask rally in Toronto, he asked his fellow military members to not take the unlawful order to distribute the covid-19 vaccine and protect the citizens from foreign and domestic threats, mutiny charges haven not been laid in Canada in over 80 years
Over 120 retired US generals sign open letter warning country is in deep peril from full-blown assault on its constitutional rights, outlining threats to its survival in conflict between supporters of socialism and Marxism and supporters of constitutional freedom and liberty
Hollywood elite school Harvard-Westlake introduces Diversity, Equality and Inclusion programme where children are being groomed in wokeness and which teaches students they are racists and oppressors because they are white, with one mother saying she would rather be called a murderer in Hollywood than a racist
BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors buys a $1.4 million home in an upscale mostly white enclave in Los Angeles, residents of Topanga Canyon are 88% white and 1.8% black, Cullors founded BLM with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in 2013 and assumed leadership of the Black Lives Matter Global Network in the summer of 2020, BLM brought in $90 million in donations last year
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issues executive order banning government-issued vaccine passports statewide, saying vaccinations against Covid-19 cannot be government-mandated and state residents’ choice to not receive one should not prevent them from going about their lives
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa fatally shoots ten people at the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, officers arrive within minutes and shoot the suspect in the leg, no motive for the shooting has been publicly released
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issues order forbidding local authorities penalizing residents not wearing masks and removing restrictions on businesses in counties without a high number of hospitalizations as of March 10
Texas Justice of the Peace Tomas Ramirez and three women arrested on 150 counts of voter fraud in the 2018 Medina County Primary Election, involves allegations of vote harvesting at assisted living centers, Ramirez was elected justice of the peace in 2018 and was suspended after his arrest
US House of Representatives passes USD 1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package, including a new metro station near Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco district and a minimum-wage increase from USD 7.25 to USD 15, with only 9% going toward fighting the virus according to Republicans
While Florida ensured restaurants been able to operate at minimum half-capacity and businesses haven't been fined for defying Covid-19 orders they have yielded very similar development in number of infections and deaths as California, which has implemented stringent rules including lockdowns

Latin America

At least 79 inmates die in riots at prisons in three cities in Ecuador as two rival gangs were trying to gain criminal leadership within the detention centres and an escape attempt, with 800 police offices helping to regain control of the facilities
Young Venezuelans have turned to selling online sexual content of themselves on OnlyFans to avoid joining the exodus of five million migrants who have already left the socialist country, most subscribers are foreigners paying in USD, Venezuela has the world's highest inflation levels and a constantly depreciating currency
32-year-old Mexican doctor goes into convulsions within 30 minutes of being injected with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, remains in intensive care after suffering from encephalomyelitis, an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, has a history of allergic reactions
Jair Bolsonaro more popular than ever to surprise of critics of his attitude toward pandemic, Brazil president has downplayed risks, encouraged people to face the virus in manly fashion and said that wearing face masks is for faires
91% of seats in Venezuelan legislature claimed by government allies after opposition boycotts election, the US and EU has disavowed elections as manipulated by Maduro regime
Argentina’s government is considering a one-off tax on the super-rich, the tax would start at 2% and rise depending on wealth starting at a fortune of 2.7 million USD affecting about 12 000 people
The Cuban government has turned 72 state-run shops into "dollar stores", shelves, unlike many regular supermarkets dealing in local currency, are well stocked with basic food and hygiene products but must be paid for in USD, the government denies the new stores are part of a "dollarisation" process turning the USD into the official currency as has happened in Panama, Ecuador and El Salvador
Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for covid-19, is said to have mild fever and receiving treatment including hydroxychloroquine and azitromycin
London court rules British government recognizes Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president in case to decide which leader controls USD 2 billion worth of Venezuelan central bank gold stored in Bank of England, Nicolas Maduro’s lawyers say they will appeal judgement
Argentina miss already delayed bond payments after missing payments on USD 503 million on Friday in country’s ninth sovereign default, source says ongoing talks between Argentina and its creditors are making substantial progress

Asia

Hong Kong lawmakers object to government facilitation of the organisation of Gay Games Hong Kong, Junius Ho does not want officials involved leaving it up to the civil society's business to arrange them because he does not want to earn what he considers dirty money, local LGBT+ activist and Director of the Hong Kong Pride Parade Wylie Yeo slammed the lawmakers’ comments calling them homophobic garbage
Indian hospitals report more than 8,000 cases of Mucorales fungal infection which is primarily spread among covid-19 patients, spread is increased by steroid treatment which counters lung inflammation but increases blood sugar levels
Khemia HI Vibe Frequency hair salon owner Yazmina Jade Adler is refusing customers who have received a Covid-19 vaccine, she cites unknown health effects of the mRNA vaccine not being covered by the public liability insurance and the 1000s of reported side effects this shot has shown so far as reasons, in Queensland, it is not illegal to discriminate against someone for medical reasons
Residents of Norfolk Island are calling for a return to self-rule to save their culture, in 1979 it became Australia’s first non-mainland territory to be granted limited self-rule, in 2009 its chief minister agreed to surrender the island’s self-governing status to Australia for a bailout and in 2015 Canberra ultimately abolished the Legislative Assembly and appointed its own administrator while introducing property taxes and a social security system
China sends twelve fighter aircrafts into Taiwan’s air defence zone on Wedenesday in stepped-up show of force around the island, Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu says they will fight a war if needed and defend themselves to the very last day
Suspected suicide bombing wounding fourteen people outside Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Palm Sunday, with the congregation inside the church at the time the two suspects blew themselves up
At least 114 people killed by Myanmar military junta on Saturday in crackdowns on the protests across the country, with children among the dead, the junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing says the military will protect the people and strive for democracy
All ethnic armed organizations will be removed from Myanmar's list of terrorist groups, says committee representing Myanmar's elected lawmakers who are presently unseated by military coup, arrests and charges against organizations fighting for national equity and self-determination to be declared illegitimate
Sri Lanka will ban the wearing of the burqa and shut more than a thousand Islamic schools, Minister for public security Sarath Weerasekera said the burqa is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently and the islamic schools were flouting national education policy
A Beijing divorce court has ordered a man to compensate his wife with 50 000 yuan for the housework she did during their marriage, the ruling was made according to the new civil code in the country, which came into effect this year, the presiding judge said housework constitutes intangible property value

MIDDLE EAST

Hard-line Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi wins Iran presidential election in landslide victory amid lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic's history after a panel under the watch of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei disqualifies Raisi's strongest competition
Yamina leader Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid reach deal to form new governing coalition consisting of partners that span the Israeli political spectrum, ending the record-setting 12-year rule of Benjamin Netanyahu, the agreement still needs to be approved by the Knesset
Requests for permits to carry a weapon spike in Israel after the riots in Lod and Ramla, normally, 270 applications are made weekly, but between May 10 and May 16, 1,926 were received, all Israeli citizens can apply for a license to carry a firearm once they reach the eligible age
Israel Defence Forces announce it killed five senior Hamas leaders in targeted strikes, the dead include head of Hamas military intelligence security department and head of the military intelligence counterespionage department, adding "looks like our intel was better"
Israeli police in night-time clashes with thousands of rock-hurling Palestinians at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday amid potential eviction of Palestinians from homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers, leaving 205 Palestinians and 17 Israeli officers injured
Egypt prepares move to new capital this summer, the unnamed New Administrative Capital is located 45 km from the Nile on virgin land, designed to operate with smart technology and expected to house at least 6 million residents when finished
Iraqi security forces kills ISIS terrorist commander Abu Yaser al-Issawi, who claimed to be the leader of the group in Iraq and its deputy caliph, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi
Saudi Arabia officially bans Turkish products, the Saudi government has been reported to contact individual businesses and order them not to trade with Turkish companies or buy any products made in Turkey, it has also launched a campaign to discourage its citizens from travelling to Turkey
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab set to announce the resignation of his government after the explosion in Beirut which killed at least 163 people and has stirred public outrage and spurred a string of ministers to step down
At least 10 dead and hundreds wounded in a massive explosion at Beirut's port, General Abbas Ibrahim said it appears the explosion was caused by highly explosive material confiscated years ago stored in a warehouse

Africa

Guinea declared new Ebola outbreak on Sunday when tests came back positive after three people died and four fell ill in the southeast, in first resurgence there since the 2013-2016 outbreak which killed at least 11,300 people
Archaeologists unearth 5,000-year-old mass-production brewery that could produce about 22,400 litres of beer at a time in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos, a mixture of grains and water was heated in the 40 earthenware pots in each of its eight sectors
More than 270 elephants have mysteriously collapsed and died in Botswana since early May, poaching has been ruled out while Covid-19 has not, the country is home to around 130,000 elephants which is a third of Africa’s total
At least 82 killed in ethnic protests in Ethiopia and military deployed in Addis Ababa after Oromo musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa was shot dead in what police called a targeted killing and prominent Oromo opposition leader Bekele Gerba as well as media mogul Jawar Mohammed were arrested, the Oromo who make up the country's largest ethnic group have long complained of being excluded from power
Tourism minister of Ghana invites black Americans to return to Africa, suggests they should not stay where they are not wanted but instead build new life on ancestral continent
Opposition activists in Zimbabwe say torture and sexual abuse is used by state security services to discourage protests, MDC members claim to have been arrested at roadblock and subjected to humiliating treatment for two days before being released
Libyan government forces retake eight cities west of Tripoli from militias loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar, secure the road from the Tunisian border to the Abu Grein area, more than 1,000 government soldiers killed by Haftar's forces since last April
Democratic Republic of Congo records second Ebola death in days following seven weeks without a new case, WHO reports, had been due on Sunday to mark end to outbreak, a group of angry men threw stones at team attempting to decontaminate first victim's home and trace his contacts
Chad's army says it has killed 1,000 Boko Haram terrorists and lost 52 soldiers in a 10-day old operation following an ambush by the jihadists where nearly 100 soldiers were killed
Zimbabwe’s police use water cannon to disinfect markets and exterior of a block of residential flats in highly populated areas of Harare, the country has recorded one death from nine cases of Covid-19 and went into a 21-day lockdown on Monday

Economy

Royal Dutch Shell is acquiring ubitricity the owner of the UK’s largest public electric vehicle charging network, for an undisclosed amount marking the oil giant's expansion into the fast-growing on-street EV charging market
Idaho legislators introduce House Bill 7 allowing state funds to be held in physical gold and silver to help secure state assets against the risks of inflation and financial turmoil, South Carolina and Wyoming are considering similar measures
Record sales of Christmas trees in Australia leads to tree farms closing earlier than planned, four-year production cycles cause difficulties balancing supply and demand when sales peak
Hertz pays 340 employees USD 16.2 million in retention bonuses before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with USD 19 billion in debt, has furloughed or laid off half its work force, stock price down 97% since late February
Scandinavian airline SAS signs SEK 3.3 billion three-year revolving credit facility agreement where 90% is guaranteed by the Swedish and Danish states approved by the European Commission, the company says it will further its dialogue with the Norwegian government regarding NOK 1.7 billion state guaranteed funding and that it will seek additional governmental support to ensure its providing of critical Scandinavian airline infrastructure
Boeing pulls out of Embraer merger talks, saying the Brazilian plane maker has not met conditions needed to complete USD 4.2 billion civil aerospace tie-up deal
Japan decides on USD 930 cash handout for every citizen to lessen the economic Covid-19 blow, originally planned on giving 300,000 yen to qualified households that had lost income but changed that as the payments were seen as too complicated and too small
Bill Gates resigns from boards of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway, states intention to focus more on philantropic efforts, remains involved in Microsoft which he founded 45 years ago and where he remains a top shareholder with 1.36% of shares
Bank of England bid to thwart Covid-19 recession drives Euro Zone banks index .SX7E 1.5% higher by kindling hope of ECB following suit, precarious 6% gain dashed as U.S. stock market opens sharply lower, British minister of finance say he will do "whatever it takes" to protect the UK economy, BoE gives UK banks provisional leave to tap capital reserves
Federal Reserve takes flak from President Trump for not cranking out the stimulus necessary to thwart looming Coronavirus downturn, insists the US take a leaf out of Europe's playbook and set the "lowest rates in the world"

Technology

Kawasaki Heavy Industries builds world’s first of 80 planned tankers for liquified hydrogen, the tanker is 116 meters long and can transport 75 tons of liquified hydrogen kept at temperatures of minus 253 degrees Celsius, the Japanese government’s plan for 2050 is having hydrogen and ammonia serve as the fuel for 10 percent of electric power generation
Third of staff quit as software company Basecamp refuses to let internal work tools become platform for political activism and shuts down employee committee formed to promote diversity, equity and inclusion
Nuclear power industry hurts itself by false claims that accidents are impossible, should instead focus on the fact that low doses of radioactivity is harmless, says Jack Devanney in book about why nuclear power has flopped
Valve will not allow Super Seducer 3: The Final Seduction to be released in any form on Steam citing it does not ship sexually explicit images of real people, the first two games remain available on Steam, the game revolves around the art of pickup artistry
Satellite ELSA-d which uses magnets to clean up space debris will launch this weekend, consists of two spacecraft developed by Japanese firm Astroscale which will perform a series of tests of the new method
Flying cars remain a dream despite enthusiast predicting breakthrough for more than a century, several manufacturers are still optimistic and New Hampshire has passed Jetson Bill which allows pilots to drive roadable aircraft to and from airports
Apple develops car and plans to start production in 2024, started designing the vehicle from scratch in 2014 and project lead is Doug Field who previously worked for Tesla, key component is unique battery technology which is said to be less expensive and increase range
Lockheed U-2 remains leading spy plane after 65 years in service and now gets 30 years extension after beating modern planes and drones in competition for development resources
Segway ends production of iconic self-balancing transportation device which was hailed as revolutionary but remained a curiosity, brand name lives on as well as thousands of patents used in e-scooters, hoverboards and other successor technologies
Texas Instruments removes support for C-based and assembly-based programs on the TI-84 Plus CE and the TI-83 Premium CE to minimize security risks and impede cheating, the development community views the decision as the end of an era

Science

Norwegians have as much sex as they had 20 years ago, unlike rest of the West where sexual activity is generally declining, according to survey with 4,000 participants
Chinese Tianwen-1 spacecraft successfully lands on Mars' surface on the vast plain Utopia Planitia on Saturday, leaving its orbit where it's been since March, the rover Zhurong is later to depart from its platform to conduct inspections on the ground
Nasa’s science rover Perseverance streaks through the Martian atmosphere and lands safely on the floor of a vast crater, the six-wheeled rover being the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world will search for possible fossilized signs of microbes
Method for blocking sunlight developed by balloon test over northern Sweden although first version will not disperse darkening particles, Harvard scientist are behind project which is controversial as it may decrease interest in cutting greenhouse gas emissions
Sharing bed with dogs beneficial for length and quality of sleep say researchers who surveyed 962 American women, dogs disturb less than human bed fellows and give stronger feelings of comfort and security, cats as disruptive as humans and the least comfort inducing of the three species studied
Previously unknown whale species discovered in waters west of Mexico, US marine biologists were looking for beaked whales when they notice individuals with unusual teeth placement and unique calls, water samples taken in hope of doing DNA analysis
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus, which essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis
The Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Roger Penrose for the discovery that black hole formation is a prediction of the general theory of relativity and to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy
Hundreds died or developed heart failure in Britain as result of not seeking treatment for their heart attack due to Covid-19 fears, with 5,000 fewer admissions with heart attack than expected by the end of May, according to University study published in The Lancet
22-year-old Grey parrot outperforms 21 Harvard students and 21 6- to 8-year-old children in complex version of shell game where participants needed to track locations of fluffy pom-poms hidden under cups that swapped places an increasing number of times

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