President Trump said the White House coronavirus task force will continue indefinitely and Airbnb plans to lay off a quarter of its workforce. WSJ’s Jason Bellini has the latest on the pandemic. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

The Trump administration steps up assertions that the coronavirus originated at a lab in Wuhan, governments around the world start to allow businesses to reopen, millions of imported masks fall short of N95 standards. WSJ’s Jason Bellini has the latest on the pandemic. Photo: Scott Keeler/Zuma Press

Sales decline 2.83% to Rs 616.61 crore

Sales rise 25.20% to Rs 3186.96 crore

Total Operating Income rise 11.47% to Rs 21740.68 crore

However, the management of the Company expects the operations to remain sub-normal in the immediate future, with a possibility of intermittent disruptions based on the evolving situation and varying Government guidelines and permissions. The Company continues to closely monitor the situation and shall take appropriate action as per regulatory guidelines.

On 08 May 2020

Swaraj Engines' net profit fell 4.9% to Rs 15.84 crore on a 8.5% decline in net sales to Rs 175.13 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.

VST Industries said that the company has resumed its manufacturing operations with restricted capacity and manpower considering the permission granted by the State Government of Telangana.

On a consolidated basis, Shree Cement's net profit jumped 57.6% to Rs 535.93 crore on 2.1% decline in net sales to Rs 3,415.14 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.

Adani Enterprises on Friday (8 May) said it has incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary company, "Nanasa Pidgaon Road" on 8 May 2020.

Adani Transmission's consolidated net profit dropped 60% to Rs 59 crore on a 3% decline in operational revenue to Rs 2220 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.

ICICI Bank on Saturday (9 May 2020) said its net profit rose 26.04% to Rs 1,221.36 crore on 12.09% rise in total income to Rs 23,443.66 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.

The number of people in Italy who've died with COVID-19 infections has topped 30,000. The Health Ministry registered 243 deaths on Friday, bringing the total of those who died in the country to 30,201. Italy was the first country in Europe with a major outbreak of the coronavirus. Authorities say many more likely died with the infection at home or in nursing homes without being diagnosed. With 1,327 more cases registered in the 24-hour period ending Friday evening, Italy now tallies 217,185 confirmed coronavirus infections. Some 11,000 more people have recovered from the illness than are currently positive for the infection. Lombardy in the north continues to be the hardest-hit region, accounting for nearly one-half of the latest cases registered on Friday. Health and government authorities are concerned that partial easing earlier in the week of some lockdown measures, such as re-opening of public parks and gardens, could see an uptick in contagion if people ignore safety-distance ...

Arguing that a one-time payment of USD 1,200 to most of the Americans during the coronavirus outbreak is not enough, three top Democratic senators introduced a legislation on Friday to provide a recurring USD-2,000 monthly check to those struggling to make ends meet during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act, introduced by former presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Ed Markey, proposes to provide a monthly USD-2,000 check to every individual with an income below USD 120,000 throughout and for three months following the coronavirus pandemic. According to the proposal, married couples who file jointly would receive USD 4,000; USD 2,000 per child up to three children and it would be implemented retroactively from March. The coronavirus pandemic has caused millions to struggle to pay the bills or feed their families, Harris said. The previous CARES Act, she argued, gave Americans an important one-time ...

US lawmakers have introduced a legislation in Congress to give unused green cards or permanent legal residency status to thousands of foreign nurses and doctors to meet the urgent needs of the overstretched healthcare sector in the country. The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act would allow for recapturing green cards that were approved by Congress but unused in past years, allowing thousands of additional medical professionals to serve permanently in the United States. The legislation would send green cards to 25,000 nurses and 15,000 doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that places like Iowa have the professionals they need to serve patients for years to come, a media release said. The move is likely to benefit a large number of Indian nurses and doctors, who are either on H-1B or J2 visas. In the House of Representatives, it has been introduced by lawmakers Abby Finkenauer, Brad Schneider, Tom Cole and Don Bacon. The bipartisan Senate companion bill is led by Senators ..

China continues to hide and obfuscate COVID-19 data from the world, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday, asserting that he has seen a significant amount of evidence suggesting that a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan was underperforming and the virus could well have emanated from there. "I have seen a significant amount of evidence that suggests that the lab was underperforming, that there were security risks at the lab and that the virus could well have emanated from there," Pompeo told Ben Shapiro in an interview. "But I am happy to suspend the decision about that. What we need are answers. There are still people dying," he said. By Friday, more than 78,000 Americans had died and 13 lakh tested positive for the coronavirus. Globally, more than 273,000 people have died and 39 lakh tested positive for the disease. The American economy and those of the rest of the world have come to a standstill. "We have got an economy now that is really struggling and it is all a ..

An appeals court should let a June 23 primary election in New York state proceed without voters and poll workers being forced to risk exposure to the coronavirus to vote for a Democratic candidate for president when the race is essentially over, lawyers for the state said Friday. The written arguments were filed by Attorney General Letitia James and Senior Assistant Solicitor Judith N. Vale after a judge ordered the state to include the presidential race on the ballot even though former Vice President Joe Biden is essentially running unopposed. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan has scheduled oral arguments for next Friday. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres said it was unconstitutional to eliminate the Democratic presidential primary after delegates for withdrawn candidates Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang complained that doing so weakens their standing at the Democratic Convention. She noted that a primary for contested races across New York state was ...

In Texas, where the Republican governor was praised by President Donald Trump for loosening restrictions, hair salons and barber shops were allowed to reopen Friday, following earlier restarts of restaurants and retailers. Republican Senator Ted Cruz flew up from Houston to get his hair cut at a Dallas salon that became a rallying cry for conservative protests against lockdown orders after the owner refused to shut down and was jailed. She was later ordered released. California, which imposed the first statewide stay-home order in the U.S., was taking more modest steps. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom allowed clothing stores, sporting goods shops, florists and other retailers to start operating curbside pickup Friday, with many employees required to wear masks. Pennsylvania announced that 13 counties, including much of the Pittsburgh area, can loosen restrictions next week, following a similar move for a swath of rural northern Pennsylvania. South Carolina restaurants can reopen with

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates has predicted that next year's coronavirus-delayed Tokyo Games may ultimately be amongst the great games ever, if not the greatest. The Sydney-born Coates, who oversees planning for the Tokyo Olympics for the International Olympic Committee, told the AOC's annual general meeting on Saturday that he would put aside any of his parochialism while hoping that Tokyo would supplant Sydney as the best ever. At the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Games, then IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch described the Australian event as the best Olympic Games ever during the closing ceremony. The best-ever"claims for Tokyo by Coates, who did not go into further details, come despite spiraling costs for the Japan games, which will now begin on June 23, 2021. Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics, but a government audit report last year said it was at least twice that much. It's all public money except for $5.6 billion .

American stock car auto racing's comeback later this month from the coronavirus pandemic will cost three tracks their 2020 season races with more schedule adjustments coming soon. That was the word Friday from the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the closed-cockpit series that is the most popular form of US auto racing. Races at Sonoma, California; Joliet, Illinois and Richmond, Virginia were named those moved to ovals without spectators this month to jumpstart the US revival of sport in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown. Sonoma Raceway officials said the road course tried to find a new date to replace June 14 but couldn't "given the ongoing uncertainty around large events in California." It will be staged instead on May 27 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which will host a regularly scheduled race three days earlier in what will essentially be made-for-television events. A planned June 21 race at Chicagoland will be the May 17 comeback event at ...

China has reported 15 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases, taking their total to 836 while one new imported COVID-19 infection was confirmed, health officials said on Saturday. According to China's National Health Commission (NHC), as for Friday 836 asymptomatic cases, including 63 from overseas, were still under medical observation. The NHC said one imported case of coronavirus was reported on Friday and 15 new asymptomatic cases, all domestic ones, were confirmed in the country. Most of the asymptomatic cases were being reported from first coronavirus epicentres Hubei province and its capital Wuhan where no confirmed cases were reported for the 35 days, the local health commission said. Normalcy is returning to the province as the lockdown has been lifted and offices, business and factories have been opened since last month. The province still has 628 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, after 13 new cases were reported on Friday, the commission said. Death toll in China ...

Tyson Fury is mentally stronger than Anthony Joshua and would overcome his British rival in similarly commanding fashion to how he defeated Deontay Wilder, according to the WBC heavyweight champion's coach Andy Lee. Fury got his hands on one of the four major world belts again when he ended Wilder's long reign as champion, knocking the previously unbeaten American down twice on the way to a seventh-round stoppage in February. While he is contractually obliged to face Wilder for a third time and Joshua is scheduled to take on Kubrat Pulev next, the outbreak of coronavirus and subsequent suspension of major boxing shows has clouded the issue. Speculation is rife that a domestic bout could take priority but Lee can only see one outcome in a fight that would determine the undisputed world heavyweight champion. "I think (Joshua) is still an improving fighter," Lee told Sky Sports. "A little bit of inexperience and mentally he's not as strong as Tyson. "I think Tyson would beat him in eight

Indian Olympic Association President Narinder Batra's tenure as the chief of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has been extended till May next year after its annual congress was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to postpone the Congress, which was earlier scheduled to begin in New Delhi on October 28, was taken at an online meeting of the FIH Executive Board on Friday. "I'm looking forward to the numerous tournaments and competitions ahead of us, which we are preparing with full dedication and passion with all National Associations involved," Batra said. The exact date of the postponed congress will be confirmed as soon as possible, the FIH said in a statement. "This decision, made due to the current uncertainties following the global COVID-19 pandemic, is based on Art. 12.1 of the FIH Statutes, covering cases of force majeure," it added. The postponement means the tenures of all the current FIH office-bearers get extension until next year's ...

President Donald Trump, who's taken to calling the US the king of ventilators, is making plans to ship 8,000 of the breathing machines to foreign countries by the end of July to help in their fight against the coronavirus. That's a long way from the early days of the virus when US medical workers were wondering if a shortage of ventilators would force them to make painful decisions about which patients would get them. Now, the US has a surplus and the president is sharing them with other countries a goodwill gesture that also helps him offset criticism about his own early response to the pandemic. The White House did not respond to a request for specifics about how many ventilators have been sent so far, or the criteria for determining which countries will get them. But an administration official familiar with the effort provided the 8,000 figure as part of a list of actions aimed at supporting health systems abroad. The official was not authorized to discuss the projection publicly .

Video released Friday from a Maryland police officer's body camera captures him warning the man to drop a knife and get down on the ground before he fatally shot the man as he charged at the officer. Montgomery County Police Sgt. David Cohen fired the first of at least five shots about one minute after he exited his patrol vehicle and confronted Finan H. Berhe, 30, in a residential parking lot on Thursday afternoon. Put the knife down! Cohen screamed as Berhe ran toward him and then stopped, momentarily backing away from the officer, who was pointing a gun at him. Get on the ground! I don't want to shoot you! Cohen shouted just before Berhe started running at the officer again. As the officer opened fire, Berhe collapsed and dropped an object he was holding. Man down! a man shouted after the shooting stopped. Police said investigators recovered a knife that Berhe was brandishing when Cohen shot him. Berhe died at a hospital, police said. No officers were injured. Department spokesman

Amazon Prime Video has given a second season order for Greg Daniels' show "Upload". The season two renewal comes just a week after the show premiered on Amazon Prime Video, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The single-camera sitcom, featuring Robbie Amell and Andy Allo, takes place in the near future, where people who are near death can be "uploaded" into a virtual afterlife of their choice. "I am thrilled to continue a great relationship with Amazon Studios and this wonderful cast and find out what happens next to Nora and Nathan and Ingrid and their 2033 world. With this news I can stop drawing my season 2 flip book," Daniels said in a statement. "Upload" is executive produced by Daniels and his producing partner Howard Klein.

Ruchi Ghanashyam retired as the Indian High Commissioner to the UK early this month in an unusually discreet way given the constraints related to the coronavirus lockdown, bidding farewell to her team at the India House in London virtually over a conference call. However, there has been little impact on her workload as she continues to be flooded with queries and requests as the first repatriation flight for Indian nationals takes off from London for Mumbai on Saturday. The 60-year-old former diplomat, who is yet to fully pack her bags or say all her goodbyes, is confident that her tenure comes to a close at a time when India-UK relations are poised for real take-off. "India and the UK have strategic ties and a deep relationship which spans almost every area we can think of," said Ghanashyam in a farewell interview. "This depth was even more visible during this time of crisis, when we worked closely together to assist with the repatriation of each other's nationals, facilitated the ...

Several American lawmakers have introduced a legislation in Congress to offer the 40,000 unused green cards to thousands of foreign nurses and doctors to meet the urgent needs of the overstretched healthcare sector in the US, the worst hit nation by the coronavirus pandemic. The US has nearly 1,284,000 cases of confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 77,000 people have died due to the highly contagious disease. The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act would allow for recapturing green cards that were approved by Congress but unused in past years, allowing thousands of additional medical professionals to serve permanently in the United States. The legislation would send green cards to 25,000 nurses and 15,000 doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that states like Iowa have the professionals they need to serve patients for years to come, a media release said. The move is likely to benefit a large number of Indian nurses and doctors in the US, who are either on H-1B or J2 visas. The ..

Filmmaker Mike Flanagan is set to tackle the film adaptation of yet another book from celebrated author Stephen King. Flanagan, who previously helmed the film version of King's novel"Doctor Sleep", is now adapting a scrip from the author's 2014 book "Revival". The filmmaker also has the option to direct the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project has been set up at Warner Bros and will be produced by Flanagan and Trevor Macy through their banner Intrepid Pictures. "Revival" centres around the relationship between a heroin-addicted musician and a dubious faith healer with a hidden agenda. The minister is obsessed with trying to find a way to communicate with his departed wife and child but ends up connecting to a Lovecraftian horror. Flanagan and Macy have earlier teamed for the 2017 adaptation of King's novel "Gerald's Game", which released on Netflix. They also collaborated on the 2018 Netflix series "The Haunting of Hill House".

World Cup winning-Australia captain Meg Lanning has used the extra time in hand amid the COIVD-19 pandemic to provide a virtual batting class to Ireland women's cricket squad. Lanning was joined by former Ireland skipper Isobel Joyce in the initiative that took place this week to help the players keep their skills sharp during the forced break from cricket. The duo touched upon a number of topics, including the mental preparation going into a big game, shot selection and an analysis of the Australian captain's T20I century against England last year. The session was chaired by Irish women's team head coach Ed Joyce and also featured Australia boss Matthew Mott. "Any time you can pick the brains of experienced cricketers such as Meg and Isobel is valuable, and I know that our entire squad enjoyed this unique opportunity," Ireland skipper Laura Delany said. "People often underestimate the mental aspect of the game, and both players spoke about the importance of mental preparation before .

/ -- In 2019, global PV inverter shipments increased by 18% on a YOY basis with total shipments reaching 126,735 MW according to the report released by Wood Mackenzie. Growatt shipped a total capacity of over 5GW for the year and ranked No.8 among the inverter suppliers. The company has been pursuing a global strategy of localization in recent years and has gained strong growth momentum across the world. "Over the years, we've established 13 offices and warehouses worldwide, and we've also built strong and experienced local teams in key markets," said Lisa Zhang, Growatt Marketing Director. "Besides our extensive service network, we've developed the X generation inverters, which feature high efficiency, safety, intelligence as well as elegant design. These advanced PV solutions have brought us additional advantages over other suppliers in the market." Growatt has been present in Europe for 10 years and its products are well received in the region for its high efficiency, superior ...

The US women's national team has filed an appeal against a legal setback in their equal pay lawsuit, saying they are being paid less than the men even though they win twice as much. In dismissing their equal pay claim last Friday, Judge Gary Klausner said the case was unwarranted because they had previously turned down an offer in the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations to be paid along the lines of the US men's team. "The argument that women gave up a right to equal pay by accepting the best collective bargaining agreement possible in response to the Federation's refusal to put equal pay on the table is not a legitimate reason for continuing to discriminate against them," said USWNT spokesperson Molly Levinson on Friday night. She listed a series of grievances in the motion to appeal which was filed in a federal district court in California and is part of a larger lawsuit for equal pay. Levinson said the women are being discriminated against because they are not getting as ..

In a worrying development, a five-year old boy has died in New York from a rare inflammatory illness linked to the coronavirus, while the death of another seven-year-old boy is being investigated for possible links to the mysterious pediatric syndrome. The New York State Department of Health is investigating several cases of the severe illness in children and child deaths that may be linked to the serious inflammatory disease called "Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Associated with COVID-19." There have been 73 reported cases in New York where children are experiencing symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock-like syndrome possibly due to COVID-19. On Thursday, a 5-year-old boy died in the New York City from these COVID-related complications, Cuomo said. Officials in Westchester County in upstate New York say that a 7-year-old boy died late last week at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Valhalla. Michael Gewitz, Physician-in-Chief of Maria Fareri Children's ..

A new series based on actor Hilary Duff's character from "Younger" is in works at ViacomCBS. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the company is working with "Younger" creator Darren Star on the spin-off show that will see Duff returning as Kelsey Peters. The new show could be headed to Paramount Network, where the original series was slated to move for its sixth season. But the plans were shelved and the show remained in its original home on TV Land, which is owned ViacomCBS. "Younger", which started in 2015, features Sutton Foster as Liza Miller, a 40-year-old divorcee who has to manage her career in a publishing company having faked her identity as a younger woman to get her job, while her romantic and professional lives are measured against ups and comings. Duff's Kelsey Peters is a book editor at Empirical Press who befriends Liza after they start working together. The show also stars Nico Tortorella, Peter Hermann, Miriam Shor, Debi Mazar, Molly Bernard and Charles Michael

The WHO and the UN's postal agency have released a commemorative postage stamp on the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, with the head of the global health body expressing gratitude to a top Indian-origin UN official. In May 1980, the 33rd World Health Assembly issued its official declaration that "the world and all its peoples have won freedom from smallpox." It was ended on the back of a 10-year WHO-spearheaded global effort that involved thousands of health workers around the world to administer half a billion vaccinations to stamp out smallpox. "When WHO's smallpox eradication campaign was launched in 1967, one of the ways countries raised awareness about smallpox was through postage stamps when social media like Twitter and Facebook was not even on the horizon," World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "I especially want to thank my friend Mr Atul Khare, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support, for ...

Adult animated comedy series Santa Inc, featuring Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman, has been picked up by upcoming streaming platform HBO Max. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the eight-episode series comes from writer, showrunner, and executive producer Alexandra Rushfield. It follows Candy Smalls (Silverman), the highest-ranking female elf in the North Pole. When the successor to Santa Claus (Rogen) is poached by Amazon on Christmas Eve, Candy goes for her ultimate dream -- to become the first woman Santa Claus in the history of Christmas, the plotline read. The project comes from Lionsgate and Rogen, Evan Goldberg and James Weaver's Point Grey Pictures. Rushfield, Silverman, Amy Zvi and Rosa Tran will serve as executive producers. I have long dreamed of a taking a beloved holiday tradition and adding a feminist agenda and some R rated comedy and when I read this script from Ali, with Seth and Sarah attached to voice, I knew that it was a perfect fit for us at Max, said Suzanna ...

Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy, the duo whose extraordinary magic tricks astonished millions until Horn was critically injured in 2003 by one of the act's famed white tigers, has died. He was 75. Horn died of complications from the coronavirus on Friday in a Las Vegas hospital, according to a statement released by publicist Dave Kirvin. Today, the world has lost one of the greats of magic, but I have lost my best friend, Siegfried Fischbacher said in the statement. From the moment we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world. There could be no Siegfried without Roy, and no Roy without Siegfried. He was injured in October 2003 when a tiger named Montecore attacked him on stage at the Mirage hotel-casino in Las Vegas. He had severe neck injuries, lost a lot of blood and later suffered a stroke. He underwent lengthy rehabilitation, but the attack ended the long-running Las Vegas Strip production. The darker-haired of the flashy duo, Horn was credited with the idea of ...

Pakistan on Saturday began easing the month-long lockdown despite a steady rise in the number of the coronavirus cases which rose to 27,474 after health authorities reported a big jump of 1,637 infections and 24 deaths in a single day. Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that Pakistan would begin easing its nationwide lockdown in a phase-wise manner by allowing various businesses to open up from Saturday, citing the economic crisis due to the shutdown, which was enforced in the country in March end. The first phase of easing lockdown began as the government announced removing restrictions by allowing more business to open and operate from dawn to 5pm. The federal government was trying to provide maximum relief to the people but due to the current economic conditions of the country, the lockdown must be eased, the Express Tribune quoted Khan as saying. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Adviser to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ajmal Wazir said the provincial government .

Jihadists burst into the gold mine where Moussa Tambura worked in Burkina Faso, forbidding everyone from smoking and drinking. It wasn't long before the men returned and leveled the place to the ground. They attacked the site, killed people and burned houses, said Tambura, 29, clenching his fists. He was able to find work again after fleeing to Bouda, another town in country's north that still has small-scale mining. Still, he struggles to provide for his family since his new job isn't as lucrative as his old one. Jihadists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State organization have been overrunning gold mines like Tambura's one by one as they try to gain control of Burkina Faso's most lucrative industry. The extremists are then collecting a protection tax from communities living around the gold mines and also forcing the miners to sell them the gold exclusively, which is then smuggled and sold across the border in places like Benin, Ghana or Togo. The violence already has shuttered ...

"Grey's Anatomy" star Caterina Scorsone and her musician husband Rob Giles have decided to part ways after 10 years of marriage. According to People magazine, Scorsone and Giles have decided to co-parent their three daughters: Eliza, seven, Paloma "Pippa" Michaela, three, and Arwen, who was born in December. "Caterina and Rob have separated. They remain friends and are committed to co-parenting their children in a spirit of love," the duo's representative said in a statement. The actor, known for playing Amelia Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy, tied the knot with Giles in 2009.

The number of people dying from the coronavirus in Ohio's nursing homes has continued to increase at an alarming pace. Close to 500 residents of long-term care centers have died of COVID-19 in the past three weeks, according to data released by the state this week. That's nearly double the total reported for the previous two weeks. The increase in deaths could be attributed to a significant jump or a backlog of cases being added over the past week, said Melanie Amato, a spokeswoman for the state health department. Since mid-April, more than 4,300 nursing home residents and staff members have tested positive for the virus. The numbers don't tell the entire story of how the virus has devastated nursing homes during the pandemic because the Ohio Department of Health has only released the totals for just the past three weeks. Before that, the state didn't require local health departments to report nursing home deaths linked to the virus.

When Eliud Kipchoge made history by beating the two-hour mark for the marathon, the Kenyan was wearing a pair of controversial Nike running shoes that has sent rival companies scrambling to play catch-up in a business worth billions of dollars. The likes of Adidas, Asics, Brooks, Hoka, New Balance and Saucony have recently released or are about to unveil their own carbon-fibre versions of running shoes. Critics claim the new shoes are the equivalent of mechanical doping, while supporters hail them as a revolutionary technical advance in footwear after decades of stagnation. Nike said its Vaporfly range, unveiled in 2016, was an "example of how product design can capture the fascination of an entire sporting community and, more broadly, inspire new benchmarks of athletic potential", boasting an improvement in times by up to four percent. Elite athletes wearing versions of the Vaporfly, the carbon plates of which lend a propulsive sensation to every stride, have set a rash of personal ..

CBS network has given straight-to-season orders to TV spin-offs based on movies The Equalizer and Silence of the Lambs. The Silence of the Lambs series, titled Clarice, features Pretty Little Liars actor Rebecca Breeds as FBI agent Clarice Starling, the character portrayed by Jodie Foster and later Julianne Moore on the big screen. In The Equalizer reboot, Queen Latifah will play the role of a retired special-ops agent, the part previously essayed on TV and film by Edward Woodward and Denzel Washington. Chris Noth, Lorraine Toussaint, Tory Kittles, Liza Lapira, and Laya DeLeon Hayes also star. According to Entertainment Weekly, CBS also greenlit to series a new comedy from Chuck Lorre along with Marco Pennette titled B Positive. The network is planning to premiere the shows sometime later this year or in 2021.

Watford chairman Scott Duxbury says at least six of the 20 English Premier League clubs are concerned about the plan to use neutral stadiums to finish the season. Duxbury says there is no altruism in the Premier League and that there are 20 different vested interests, which sometimes align but more often than not work purely to protect each individual club. Ahead of Monday's crunch meeting of topflight clubs, the Hornets have joined Brighton and Aston Villa in making clear their opposition to the current Project Restart plans. With nine rounds left, Watford is 17th in the league and looking to fight off relegation amid a challenging backdrop brought on by the coronavirus outbreak. Duxbury says some clubs are happy to sign up to 'Project Restart' because arguably there is only an upside in participating in this compromised format. It means Liverpool can win the title, other clubs can book their place in Europe next season or potentially fight their way up the table from a position of ..

Federal investigators have found reasonable grounds that a government whistleblower was punished for speaking out against widespread use of an unproven drug that President Donald Trump touted as a remedy for COVID-19, his lawyers said. Dr Rick Bright headed the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a unit of Department of Health and Human Services that focuses on countermeasures to infectious diseases and bioterrorism. He had received a job performance review of outstanding before he was summarily transferred last month, with his agency email cut off without warning. Investigators with the Office of Special Counsel made a threshold determination that HHS violated the Whistleblower Protection Act by removing Dr Bright from his position because he made protected disclosures in the best interest of the American public," his lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks said in a statement Friday. The OSC is an agency that investigates allegations of egregious personnel practices in

A plaque commemorating three bank employees who died of asphyxiation when their workplace was firebombed during a protest march 10 years ago was unveiled in Athens Saturday. Many officials, led by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, attended the ceremony. Leaders of two leftist parties, Syriza and the Communist Party, had laid wreaths on the site in central Athens earlier. The three employees, a man and two women, all in their 30s, died on May 5, 2010, when the Marfin Bank branch in central Athens was firebombed by anarchists taking part in a large protest march against the first austerity agreement Greece had signed with its creditors just days earlier. One of the victims was four months pregnant. The fire spread quickly and, although most employees made it out safely, some were trapped inside. Those who made it onto balconies found that many in the crowd below were shouting for them to burn for having shown up for work despite a call for a general strike. Firefighters could ...

The president of French soccer club Lyon says players in the men's and women's teams all tested negative for the coronavirus. The squads were tested by club doctors at Lyon's training center and "there were no positive cases," Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas told regional newspaper Le Progrs. The men's French league was canceled with 10 rounds of matches remaining amid coronavirus concerns, with Paris Saint-Germain declared champion and Lyon finishing outside the European places in seventh. Aulas had argued fervently for it to be completed in late August with a playoff system, but with PSG staying the champion given its large lead before play was stopped. Lyon's women's team reached the French Cup semifinals before women's matches were canceled.

The first Air India flight from the UK, scheduled as part of the Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indians stranded overseas due to the coronavirus lockdown, took off from London's Heathrow Airport on Saturday and will land in Mumbai in the early hours of Sunday. Around 250 Indian students and tourists were seen queuing with their luggage at the airport from early on Saturday as they prepared for the journey home. Each one of them underwent temperature tests before boarding and could face 14 days of quarantine at a hotel or other location designated by the Maharashtra government on landing, with those details to be made available on arrival in Mumbai. "Finally going back to India! Although it was at the last moment but I was lucky enough to get the ticket of the first flight to India under Vande Bharat Mission," said a relieved Indian student, who was part of a group of seafarers who came to the UK for an examination. "We got continuous updates from NISAU (National Indian Students ...

A shootout erupted on Saturday at a protest in western Afghanistan by residents demanding economic assistance, leading to the deaths of at least six people, including a local reporter and two police officers, officials said. Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian said the protesters had gathered outside the governor's office in Feroz Koh, the capital of the western Ghor province. They were demanding relief after weeks of restrictions aimed at containing the coronavirus pandemic. He said some people at the protest opened fire at police, igniting a gun battle that killed the six people and wounded another 19, including nine police. The ministry has launched an investigation and plans to send a delegation to the province. Afghanistan was already mired in poverty before the onset of the pandemic, which has infected nearly 3,800 people in the country and killed at least 109. Many Afghans rely on day labour, which has dried up because of the closure of nonessential businesses.