Ukrainian army leaving battered city for fortified positions
Ukrainian officials say their country’s forces are withdrawing from a besieged eastern city to move to stronger positions. The industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to a huge chemical factory on the city’s edge, where they holed up in its sprawling underground structures with civilians. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Friday that the Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk, which has been reduced mostly to rubble and seen its population decline from an estimated 100,000 to 10,000.
Juul can keep selling e-cigarettes as court blocks FDA ban
A federal court has put a temporary hold on the government’s order for Juul to stop selling its electronic cigarettes. Juul filed the emergency motion so it can appeal the sales ban from the Food and Drug Administration. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington granted the request later Friday. A day earlier, the FDA said Juul must stop selling its vaping device and its cartridges. The agency said Juul didn’t give it enough information to evaluate the potential health risks of its e-cigarettes. In its court filing, the company disagreed, saying it provided enough.
Relief efforts intensify in Afghanistan after devastating earthquake
Relief efforts ramped up Friday to aid victims of the deadly earthquake that struck an impoverished region of southeastern Afghanistan this week in a disaster that killed hundreds and devastated a country already teetering on economic collapse nearly a year after the Taliban seized power. As hopes of finding survivors faded, a second earthquake Friday jolted Geyan, the district hit hardest by the 5.9 magnitude temblor Wednesday. The follow-up quake killed at least five people and injured another 11, according to local officials. That added to the hundreds killed and many others injured Wednesday in the provinces of Paktika and Khost, which are both on the border with Pakistan.
After years of acrimony, China and Australia Cautiously reach out
Four years after Australia’s ties with China entered a downward spiral, with Australia emerging as an energetic counterweight to Beijing’s growing might, the two countries have begun to explore whether they can patch things up. Since Australia’s new, center-left government came to power last month, leaders in both countries have signaled that they want to ease the tensions of recent years. Their disputes over technology, trade barriers, accusations of illicit Chinese influence in Australian politics, and each country’s military plans have sometimes erupted in vitriol. China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, said Friday that the change of leadership in Canberra was an “opportunity of possible improvement of our bilateral relations.”
Severe heat waves are enveloping the world
Millions of Americans are again in the grips of dangerous heat. Hot air blanketed Europe last weekend, causing parts of France and Spain to feel the way it usually does in July or August. High temperatures scorched northern and central China even as heavy rains caused flooding in the country’s south. Some places in India began experiencing extraordinary heat in March, although the start of the monsoon rains has brought some relief. It is too soon to say whether climate change is directly to blame for causing severe heat waves in these four powerhouse economies — also the top emitters of heat-trapping gases — at roughly the same time, just days into summer.
US outlines compensation rules for some Havana syndrome victims
The State Department on Friday released its rules and guidelines for providing financial support to victims of Havana syndrome, the mysterious ailments that have affected U.S. diplomats, CIA officers and others since 2016. The payout for a confirmed brain injury will be $140,475, according to the State Department regulations. Officials and family members with severe injuries that prevent them from working or maintaining relationships will qualify for $187,300. CIA guidelines for paying its injured officers will be kept secret. But U.S. officials said the agency’s rules are broadly similar. The cause of the syndrome remains a mystery.
NASA pauses Psyche, a mission to a metal-rich asteroid
Computer software delays pushed back the launch of a NASA spacecraft to explore what appears to be a metal asteroid that may be the core of a protoplanet that was blown apart in the early days of the solar system by a giant collision. Now the mission will not get off the ground at all this year, NASA announced Friday. The spacecraft, named Psyche after the asteroid it is to visit in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, is at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and had been scheduled to launch from there Aug. 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
By wire sources