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BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets have followed Wall Street higher following gains for U.S. technology stocks. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced. Wall Street turned in its sixth gain in seven days as Apple, Amazon and Microsoft rose. U.S. stocks have recovered most of this year's losses, helping to push up global prices, despite rising numbers of coronavirus infections that threaten to derail economic improvement. Investors are buying technology and other companies they expect to emerge stronger from the global downturn. On Wednesday, Wall Street turned in its sixth gain in seven days when the benchmark S&P 500 index closed up 0.8%. Amazon, Apple and Microsoft accounted for half that rise.
UNDATED (AP) — President Donald Trump is threatening to withhold federal money if schools don’t reopen in the fall. And he says the guidelines his own federal health officials have created for schools to reopen are too impractical and expensive. Shortly after Trump tweeted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines were “very tough & expensive,” Vice President Mike Pence announced that the agency plans to release additional school guidance next week. Even as Trump continued to pressure state and local officials to fully reopen, New York City officials announced that most of their students would only attend in-person classes two or three days in the fall. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says bringing back students for only a few days a week fails them.
DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s resort island of Bali has reopened after a three-month virus lockdown. It will allow local people and stranded foreigners to resume public activities gradually before foreigner arrivals resume in September. The island's normally bustling beaches and streets emptied in early April except for special patrols to ensure health protocols to contain the coronavirus were observed. Authorities restricted public activities, closed the airport and shuttered shops, bars and many other places. Shuttered places will gradually reopen to locals and stranded foreigners. The island will open to Indonesians from other parts of the country on July 31 and new foreign arrivals on Sept. 11.
HONOLULU (AP) — The National Park Service says boat tours to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor will resume this week. The National Park Service says the Pearl Harbor National Memorial will open for limited tours and boat rides to the USS Arizona on Friday. A statement from the service Wednesday says national parks across the U.S. are reopening on as case-by-case basis and in a phased approach. The Pearl Harbor tours will consist a 45-minute program that includes a tour aboard a U.S. Navy vessel to the site where the Arizona sank.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a national security aide who played a central role in President Donald Trump’s impeachment case, has announced his retirement from the Army. In a scathing statement released by his attorney, he accuses the president of running a “campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation.” The statement says Vindman is leaving the Army after more than 21 years after it had been made clear “that his future within the institution he has dutifully served will forever be limited.” Vindman had testified that he didn’t think it was “proper” for Trump to “demand that a foreign government investigate” former Vice President Joe Biden and his son’s work with the energy company Burisma in Ukraine.
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