BitGou: Tuesday Briefing: U.S. Senate Democrats aim to expand voting as Republicans seek to rein it in

2021年5月11日星期二

Tuesday Briefing: U.S. Senate Democrats aim to expand voting as Republicans seek to rein it in

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

by Linda Noakes

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Israeli-Palestinian clashes escalate, pipeline hackers wanted cash not chaos, and cow dung is not a COVID cure

Today's biggest stories

People sit on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial looking toward the Washington Monument, May 10, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

U.S.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate hope today to advance sweeping election reform legislation making it easier for Americans to cast ballots, despite intense opposition from Republicans, many of whom support new restrictive voting rules at the state level.

The 886-page bill would expand mail-in voting that was used widely in last year's presidential election because of the coronavirus pandemic and would lengthen the hours of in-person balloting.

Supplies of gasoline tightened further in parts of the United States as the shutdown of the nation’s biggest fuel pipeline by hackers entered its fifth day, raising concern about price spikes at the pumps heading into the summer driving season. In an unusual statement, the hackers said their aim was cash, not chaos.

U.S. regulators authorized Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children as young as 12 and said they could begin receiving shots as soon as Thursday, widening the country’s inoculation program as vaccination rates have slowed significantly.

A Palestinian woman carrying a baby evacuates following an Israeli air strike on a building, amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, in Gaza City, May 11, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

WORLD

Palestinians fired uninterrupted barrages of rockets into Israel, as its military pounded Gaza with air strikes, in a dramatic escalation of clashes. We report from Sheikh Jarrah, a tiny neighbourhood of East Jerusalem that has become an emblem of the Palestinian struggle.

India's coronavirus crisis showed scant signs of easing, with a seven-day average of new cases at a record high and international health authorities warning the country's variant of the virus poses a global risk. Meanwhile, Indian doctors have been forced to warn against cow dung as a COVID cure.

At least seven school children and one teacher were killed and many more wounded after a lone teenage gunman opened fire in a school in the Russian city of Kazan, prompting a Kremlin call for tighter gun controls.

China's population grew at its slowest in the last decade since the 1950s as births declined, sowing doubt over Beijing's ability to power its economy as it succumbs to the same ageing trends afflicting developed nations like Japan.

BUSINESS

Global stock markets are set for a second day of sharp losses as the combination of inflation worries and an anti-monopoly drive in China sends the world's mightiest tech giants tumbling.

Some of the world's biggest chip buyers, including Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet's Google, are joining top chip-makers such as Intel to create a new lobbying group to press for manufacturing subsidies from the U.S. government.

Elon Musk has asked his followers in a Twitter poll whether Tesla should accept payment in dogecoin, just days after he said that his commercial rocket company SpaceX will accept the meme-inspired cryptocurrency.

More than half of 100 companies with the lowest median employee wages in the S&P 500 Index boosted CEO pay by changing the rules for assessing executive performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by a left-leaning policy group.