Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce also announced an additional $50 million for upgrades to ventilation systems and $18 million for online learning amid concerns over student safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With focus on greater connectivity, India on Thursday announced several developmental projects in the Maldives, including a $ 500 million Greater Malé Connectivity Project (GMCP), billed as the largest ever infrastructure project in the country.

A Chinese national and three of his Indian associates have been arrested in a crackdown on an illegal online gambling racket being run by a China-based company, the police said on Thursday. The Chinese national and his associates were arrested by the Hyderabad police from Delhi on Wednesday and brought to Hyderabad on Thursday.

An unprecedented surge in the Covid-19 pandemic in India on Thursday saw the number of fresh cases as well as deaths from the virus touch record highs. New infections during the day went past 66,000 while fatalities touched 1,008.

Police have registered two separate FIRs against 19 men — most of them are members of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) — for their “direct involvement” in Tuesday night’s violence in east Bengaluru. All the 19 accused belonging to a particular minority community have been identified in the FIRs.

The Union government told the Supreme Court on Thursday that there was no legal sanctity in the recording of statements of 56 people by Mumbai police in the suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput as the state police had not registered an FIR that empowers police to legally investigate a crime.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has urged all Americans to ‘mask up’ outdoors for the next three months - at the same time as health officials warned disobeying their Covid-19 orders will cause unprecedented suffering. Read Full Article at RT.com

A Department of Justice investigation has found that Yale University is discriminating against white and Asian applicants, in violation of federal civil rights law, but the school calls the accusation “meritless.” Read Full Article at RT.com

President Donald Trump rejected his rival Joe Biden’s call for a nationwide face mask mandate, saying he trusted elected governors to make science-based decisions about the Covid-19 pandemic that best fit their states. Read Full Article at RT.com

More users in the United States downloaded chat app WeChat and its encrypted alternative Signal, after President Donald Trump threatened to ban WeChat, owned by Chinese company Tencent, according to Sensor Tower data shared with Reuters on Thursday. 

Former UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier intends to reclaim the belt he lost to Stipe Miocic when the two face off again in Las Vegas on Saturday, but regardless of the result, the 41-year-old says that this time he's retiring for good.

RB Leipzig pulled themselves into the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in their short history with an unlikely 2-1 win over the highly experienced Atletico Madrid in Lisbon on Friday.

Russia’s well-known writer and documentary filmmaker, the nephew of famous filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, fell in love with the taiga and the Yenisei River to the extent of moving there, having founded in the northern Krasnoyarsk Region a museum, where visitors may learn how locals live

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said that Israel and the UAE reached an agreement on full normalization of the bilateral relations

According to Yuri Karayev, he «is always against any violence against reporters»

Somali National Army (SNA) on Wednesday killed 16 al-Shabab extremists and injured 20 others in a fierce fight in Ba'adweyn town in the central region of Mudug, a military officer confirmed on Thursday.

Read Full Article at RT.com

A vintage clothing store in Savannah, Georgia has backed down from a plan to charge only white customers a $20 fee to book appointments to shop, saying it had been slammed with both negative feedback and threats of lawsuits. Read Full Article at RT.com

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has urged all Americans to ‘mask up’ outdoors for the next three months - at the same time as health officials warned disobeying their Covid-19 orders will cause unprecedented suffering. Read Full Article at RT.com

University admissions service Ucas said 358,860 people from across the UK have been accepted so far this year - a 2.9 per cent increase compared to results day 2019.

The Department of Health today increased the total number of those who have died within 28 days of being diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK to 41,347.

Авторы обращения призывают власти Белоруссии освободить всех задержанных участников акций протеста и отказаться от новых арестов, а также немедленно начать диалог с представителями оппозиции. Для этого лидеры четырех стран считают необходимым создать "круглый стол" по национальному примирению.

Voici les événements prévus en septembre à la Maison de la Culture. Le programme est susceptible d'être modifié. 

August 13, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The United States on Thursday imposed visa restrictions on former Sudanese officials and others who work to undermine the efforts of Hamdok government to achieve a democratic transition in the country. The Secretary of State is implementing visa restrictions on individuals residing both inside and outside Sudan "responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged, directly or indirectly, in undermining Sudan's civilian-led transitional government's efforts to (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY, United States (US)

Serena Williams survived another scare to beat older sister Venus 3-6 6-3 6-4 on Thursday in the latest instalment of their reluctant on-court sibling rivalry to reach the quarter-finals of the inaugural Top Seed Open in Lexington, Kentucky.

Plant-based burger maker Impossible Foods said on Thursday it secured US$200 million in funding, less than six months after it raised the largest investment ever for a food tech startup, bringing total funds raised since its founding in 2011 to US$1.5 billion.

Apple Inc on Thursday removed popular video game "Fortnite" from its App Store for violating the company's in-app payment guidelines, prompting developer Epic Games to initiate legal action against the iPhone maker.

After police in Belarus violently dispersed protests against election results, arresting thousands, the country’s police minister apologized to ‘random’ people caught up in the violence, but not those he called rioters. Read Full Article at RT.com

Newsweek was pushed into defending an op-ed questioning Kamala Harris’ eligibility for the position of vice president based on the 14th amendment after numerous critics slammed it as “racist birtherism.” Read Full Article at RT.com

The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman said on Thursday that Moscow has seen evidence of outside meddling in the unrest currently engulfing neighboring Belarus. But Maria Zakharova said Russia is not one of the guilty parties. Read Full Article at RT.com

The Palestinian ambassador to the UAE is being recalled over Abu Dhabi’s decision to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called “treason.” Read Full Article at RT.com

Israel is still committed to annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, PM Benjamin Netanyahu said, after a peace deal with the UAE was reached. As part of the deal, Tel Aviv agreed to suspend the annexation. Read Full Article at RT.com

The Austin City Council unanimously voted to cut its police department budget by $150 million on Thursday, after officers and the city’s top cop faced months of criticism over the killing of an unarmed Black and Hispanic man, the use of force against anti-police brutality protesters and the investigation of a demonstrator’s fatal shooting by another citizen.