Give the polls a rest

August 13, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

News of who's up and who's down in the 2016 presidential race is virtually meaningless this far before the primaries begin.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

To read this post and thousands more articles, subscribe today!

Huge explosions sparked at a warehouse for dangerous material in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin have killed at least seven people and injured hundreds, officials and state media outlets said Thursday. The state-run Beijing News said on its website that between 300 and 400 people had been admitted to hospitals in the city, east of Beijing. It says the explosions shattered windows and knocked off doors of buildings in the area. Police in Tianjin said an initial blast took place late Wednesday night at shipping containers of a warehouse for hazardous materials owned by a logistics company. The official Xinhua News agency said an initial explosion triggered other blasts at nearby businesses. The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts before midnight, the first with an equivalent of 3 tons of TNT, and the second with the equivalent of 21 tons.

China's currency fell to a four-year low on Wednesday, slumping for a second day, after a central bank devalution on Tuesday, and government sources believe the yuan may be allowed to slide even further to help the country's exporters. The yuan traded in China hit a low of 6.4510 per US dollar, its lowest since August 2011, and the currency fared worse in international trade, touching 6.59 to the dollar. The currency has lost 3.5 percent against the US dollar in China in the last two days, and around 4.8 percent in global markets after the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, changed the way it calculates the reference rate around which the yuan is allowed to trade in a two percentage point band.

Iran's foreign minister who negotiated his country's nuclear deal with world powers discussed ways of ending Syria's civil war with President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Wednesday, as attacks surged around the Syrian capital, killing at least 36 people and wounding dozens. Stepped-up rebel shelling and government airstrikes came just a few hours before Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Damascus, where he discussed a four-point proposal Iran wants to offer to the United Nations as a way out of Syria's grinding conflict.

Locked in a sun-baked football stadium without food, drinking water or sanitation, about 1,000 refugees queued for hours on Wednesday to register with Greek authorities on the island of Kos, which is now at the forefront of a humanitarian crisis sweeping the financially broken country. After sending police reinforcements, the government promised to charter a commercial ship to house up to 2,500 immigrants on the island where authorities have been overwhelmed by a spike in arrivals. Alekos Flambouraris, an aide to the prime minister, said the vessel would be used to provide shelter and check documents.

The toxic waste gushing from a Colorado mine and threatening downstream water supplies in at least three states will continue to be dangerous whenever contaminated sediments get stirred up from the river bottom, authorities said Wednesday, suggesting that there's no easy fix to what could be a long-term calamity. The immediate impact of the 3 million gallon spill was easing as the orange-tinted contamination plume becomes more diluted on its way into Lake Powell along the Utah-Arizona border. But the strong dose of arsenic, cadmium, lead and other heavy metals is settling out as the wastewater travels downstream, layering river bottoms with contaminants sure to pose risks in the future.

Kraft Heinz says it is cutting about 2,500 jobs as part of its plan to slash costs after the food companies combined. Spokesman Michael Mullen says affected workers are in the US and Canada and were to be notified in person. About 700 of the cuts were coming in Northfield, Illinois, where Kraft had been headquartered. The company would not specify where other cuts were taking place but said that all the jobs were salaried. It said none of the job cuts involved factory workers.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

Are you sure?

Forgot to add folder?

Tags Error