35 US STATES RELEASE FORMAL OPENING PLANS AMID CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC   

As many as 35 of the 50 American states have released formal opening plans,

as U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday exuded confidence that much

better days are ahead for the country that has seen more than 61,000 deaths

over the past two months due to COVID-19.

“We mourn, and I have to say this so strongly we mourn every life tragically

lost to the invisible enemy. And we are heartened that the worst of the pain

and suffering is going to be behind us,” Mr. Trump said, during a White

House roundtable with industry executives on “Opening Up America Again”.

By Wednesday, more than 61,000 Americans have lost their lives due to

coronavirus and over 10 lakhs have tested positive with COVID 19; the

highest for any country in the world.

Most industries and business activities remain shut and over 95% of the

countryÂ’s 330 million population have been under stay-at-home orders. Over

26 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits and the number

is expected to go up to more than 30 million.

The U.S. economy has come to a standstill. It grew by negative 4.8% in the

first quarter. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump exuded confidence that economy would

be back to track by the fourth quarter.

“We think we really have crossed a big boundary, and much better days are

ahead, and I often say I see the light at the end of the tunnel very

strongly,” Mr. Trump said.

IRAN SAYS REOPENED FOR BUSINESS AS NO END IN SIGHT TO VIRUS CRISIS

Iran reopened for business despite its persistent coronavirus (COVID-19)

outbreak as there was no end in sight to the crisis, President Hassan

Rouhani said on Wednesday, as 80 new deaths were announced. “Due to

uncertainty about when this virus will end, we are preparing for work,

activity and science,” said President Hassan Rouhani.

“We have to follow all the medical instructions, but work and production are

as essential as these precautions,” he told a televised cabinet meeting.

His remarks came as the Health Ministry announced that 80 new deaths from

COVID-19 had taken the countryÂ’s overall toll to 5,957. Ministry spokesman

Kianoush Jahanpour said another 1,073 people tested positive for the virus

in the past 24 hours.

All but 20,000 of the 93,657 people who contracted the illness since

mid-February have been discharged from hospital, he told a televised news

conference.

Iran has struggled to contain the coronavirus outbreak since reporting its

first cases – two deaths in the Shiite holy city of Qom – on February 19.

The actual numbers of those killed and sickened by the virus are widely

thought to be much higher than the Iranian government's official tolls.

Despite still battling the virus, the government has allowed many businesses

to reopen since April 11 after shutting most down in mid-March to stem the

spread of the disease.

NEARLY HALF OF WORLD'S WORKFORCE RISKS LOSING LIVELIHOODS IN PANDEMIC: ILO

Some 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy, representing nearly half

of the global labour force, are in immediate danger of losing their

livelihoods due to the coronavirus pandemic, the International Labour

Organization (ILO) said on Wednesday.

The U.N. agency's latest report sharply raised its forecast for the

devastating impact on jobs and incomes of the COVID-19 disease. "It shows I

think in the starkest possible terms that the jobs employment crisis and all

of its consequences is deepening by comparison with our estimates of 3 weeks

ago," ILO Director-General Guy Ryder told a briefing, foreseeing a "massive"

poverty impact.

Already, wages of the world's 2 billion informal workers plunged by an

estimated global average of 60% in the first month that the crisis unfolded

in each region, the ILO said.

Informal workers are the most vulnerable of the 3.3 billion global

workforce, lacking welfare protection, access to good healthcare, or the

means to work from home, it stressed.

DONALD TRUMP SAYS WILL RESUME TRAVELLING NEXT WEEK TO HOLD ‘WILD’ CAMPAIGN

FOR NOVEMBER 3 ELECTION

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday heÂ’ll resume flying around the

country from next week and looks forward to holding “wild” campaign rallies

as soon as he can.

Trump told reporters in the White House that he is “going to Arizona next

week and we look forward to that.” This will be his first cross-country trip

since the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the United States.

He added that he will visit Ohio, one of the key swing states in the

November presidential election, “very soon.” The Arizona trip is focused on

the economic recovery effort and is not a campaign rally, “because it’s too

soon” for crowded events in stadiums, Trump explained.

But the Republican -- facing a tight re-election battle against Democratic

challenger Joe Biden and burdened by dire approval ratings -- made clear he

wants to get back to his once frequent rallies as soon as possible.

“Hopefully in the not too distant future we’ll have some massive rallies and

people will be sitting next to each other,” he said.

“I can’t imagine a rally where you have every fourth seat full.... That

wouldn’t look too good,” he added.

“I hope that we’re going to be able to do some good old-fashioned 25,000

person rallies where everyone’s going wild because they love our country.”

At a meeting with industry leaders, Trump sounded an upbeat message,

insisting that the US economy will quickly bounce back from the staggering

costs of the shutdown required to stop the spreading novel coronavirus.

AS COVID-19 INFECTIONS DWINDLE, HONG KONG PROTESTS GAIN STEAM

More than 100 protesters gathered at lunchtime in the Landmark Atrium mall

in Central, a prestigious business and retail district, despite social

distancing rules that prohibit public gatherings of more than four amid the

COVID-19 pandemic.

They sang a protest anthem, “Glory to Hong Kong,” and held up signs reading

“Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now” and “Hong Kong Independence.” One protester

hung a banner cursing Hong Kong police and their families.

"The protests had calmed down previously because of the coronavirus, but now

we must step up and let the world know that we have not given up,” said Mich

Chan, who works in the legal industry. “We’re still fighting for what we

fought for last year.”

Police entered the mall about half an hour after the protest began, urging

people to leave and warning those assembled that they were violating social

distancing rules and participating in an unlawful assembly. The police

detained several protesters but later let them go, with no arrests made.

The protest followed similar ones in malls on Sunday and Tuesday in which

police dispersed the crowds. They are a continuation of a movement that

began last June to protest an extradition bill that would have allowed

detainees in Hong Kong to be transferred to mainland China. Although the

bill was later withdrawn, the demonstrations continued, with protesters

demanding full democracy and an independent inquiry into police behavior.

CORONAVIRUS: US ECONOMY SHRINKS AT FASTEST RATE SINCE 2008

The US economy suffered its most severe contraction in more than a decade in

the first quarter of the year, as the country introduced lockdowns to slow

the spread of coronavirus.

The world's largest economy sank at an annual rate of 4.8%, according to

official figures released on Wednesday.

It marked the first contraction since 2014, ending a record expansion.

But the figures just hint at the full crisis, since many of the restrictions

were not put in place until March.

The pandemic "is causing tremendous human and economic hardship across the

United States and around the world", policymakers at America's central bank

said on Wednesday.

The US has tried to cushion the economic blow with nearly $3tn (£2.4tn) in

new spending, including direct payments to many families. The Federal

Reserve has also taken with a slew of emergency steps, including lowering

interest rates to near zero.

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the bank would

maintain those levels until it was "confident that the economy has weathered

recent events and is on track". But he warned that the ongoing crisis would

"weigh heavily" on the economy.

"Will there be a need to do more? I would say the answer to that will be a

yes," Mr Powell said at a virtual press conference.

Since mid-March, more than 26 million people in the US have filed for

unemployment, and the US has seen historic declines in business activity and

consumer confidence. Forecasters expect growth to contract 30% or more in

the three months to June.

"This is off the rails, unprecedented," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at

Moody's Analytics. "The economy has just been flattened."

RUSSIA SLAMS US ARGUMENTS FOR LOW-YIELD NUKES

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday rejected U.S. arguments for

fielding low-yield nuclear warheads, warning that an attempt to use such

weapons against Russia would trigger an all-out nuclear retaliation.

The U.S. State Department argued in a paper released last week that fitting

the low-yield nuclear warheads to submarine-launched ballistic missiles

would help counter potential new threats from Russia and China.

It charged that Moscow in particular was pondering the use of non-strategic

nuclear weapons as a way of coercion in a limited conflict — an assertion

that Russia has repeatedly denied.

The State Department noted that the new supplemental warhead “reduces the

risk of nuclear war by reinforcing extended deterrence and assurance.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry sees it otherwise.

The ministryÂ’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, commented on the State

DepartmentÂ’s paper at a briefing on Wednesday, emphasizing that the U.S.

shouldnÂ’t view its new low-yield warheads as a flexible tool that could help

avert an all-out nuclear conflict with Russia.

Zakharova cast the U.S. deployment of low-yield warheads as a destabilizing

move that would result in “lowering the nuclear threshold.”

38 KILLED IN SOUTH KOREA CONSTRUCTION SITE FIRE

A fire at a construction site in South Korea killed at least 38 people and

injured another 10 on Wednesday, fire authorities said.

The fire broke out when workers were building a warehouse in the city of

Icheon, about 80 km southeast of Seoul, they said.

They said “rapid combustion” occurred while workers were working on an

underground level of the warehouse, adding that they are investigating the

cause of the blaze.

A total of 410 people including 335 firefighters, were mobilised to respond

to the accident.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in asked related Ministries to do their

utmost efforts for the search and rescue operation by mobilising all

available resources, presidential blue house spokesman Kang Min-seok said.

The fire was extinguished five hours after it occurred at 1:32 pm, Yonhap

News Agency said.