Dollar changes hands around 108.81 yen level in early trade in Tokyo

May saw rebounds across multiple industries with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, including retail trade that registered a 16.4 percent surge to mark its largest monthly increase since 1961.

May’s gains offset some of the March and April declines, economic activity remained 15 percent below February’s pre-pandemic level.

In May, 17 of 20 industrial sectors posted increases.

Both goods-producing industries rose 8 percent while the services-producing sector was up 3.4 percent.

Preliminary information indicates an approximate 5 percent increase in GDP for June and an approximate 12 percent decline in real GDP in the second quarter of 2020.

Owing to their preliminary nature, these estimates will be revised on Aug. 28 with the release of the official GDP for June and the second quarter.

(XINHUA)

“I announce that June 6, 2021, will be the date for the early parliamentary elections and we will do our best to give success to this elections by protecting it and provide its needs,” al-Kadhimi said in a televised speech.

“I ask the parliament to send the electoral law to the presidency for approval, and that the electoral commission to enjoy full independence, in addition to that the elections to be held under international observers,” al-Kadhimi said.

Al-Kadhimi’s comments came after he held a meeting on Thursday with the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), during which he confirmed that the government “is proceeding with the early elections, which is one of the main goals of the government program.”

Late last year, the Iraqi parliament passed most of the elections draft, but differences remained on a few articles due to political row among the political blocs.

On May 6, al-Kadhimi was sworn in as the new prime minister in Iraq, following the approval of the parliament on most of his cabinet members.

(XINHUA)

It was the first day since the end of the State of Alarm, which ended on June 21, when the total number of cases surpassed 1,500. It was also the third day in a row that Spain diagnosed over 1,000 infections, resembling figures from the beginning of the lockdown.

The cases reported on Friday were concentrated in four regions — Aragon (511), Madrid (372), the Basque country (158) and Andalusia (107). Catalonia registered 64 infections in the last 24 hours.

The ministry said that another ten people had died in the last seven days.

As of Friday, the number of coronavirus cases totaled 288,522 since the beginning of the pandemic.

At a summit with regional leaders on Friday, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the health crisis “an economic and social emergency.”

Sanchez insisted that Spain must focus on economic recovery after it registered an “unprecedented” collapse in its second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP). According to the National Statistics Institute, GDP sank by 18.5 percent quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter of 2020.

“Very tough months await us, but we are going to get out of this,” Sanchez said.

(XINHUA)

According to the report, the project was carried out in the southern city of Ashkelon, by Kando, an Israeli company of smart wastewater management solutions, along with the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) and Ben Gurion University.

The researchers used Kando’s technology, which can identify the outbreaks’ location and intensity, providing the data needed to develop and deploy effective responses.

This technology includes an array of sensors, along with advanced algorithms, AI, Internet of Things (IoT) and advanced data modeling methods.

Thus, after placing the sensors in sewage pits throughout Ashkelon, the researchers were able to locate remnants of the coronavirus.

The results indicated an ability to identify early outbreaks at neighborhoods and even at specific streets, by detecting high concentrations of the virus.

Kando CEO Ari Goldfarb told the newspaper that “monitoring sewage water is like conducting a blood test for a whole city.”

(XINHUA)