News in pictures: 'Horrifying' shooting of naked woman, Trump spurns science, cricketer Sreesanth's plea, Douyin soars, COVID worry, Beirut fire, US migrants, Indian economy...

TRUMP SPURNS SCIENCE ON CLIMATE: US President Donald Trump on Monday ignored the scientific consensus that climate change is playing a central role in historic West Coast infernos and renewed his unfounded claim that failure to rake forest floors and clear dead timber is mostly to blame for the fires. Trump's Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, in his own speech Monday said the destruction and mounting death toll across California, Oregon and Washington require stronger presidential leadership and labeled Trump a "climate arsonist". https://gn24.ae/a7b8b5f2be84000

COVID CASES NEAR 5 MILLION IN INDIA: India confirmed more than 83,000 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing its total caseload to nearly 5 million. The Health Ministry also reported 1,054 new deaths, driving total fatalities up to 80,776. With 4.93 million confirmed cases, India has the second-highest total in the world after the US infections have maintained an upward surge amid an ease in coronavirus restrictions nationwide. Maharashtra, with more than 1 million cases, remains the worst-affected state in India, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. India, however, also has the highest number of recovered patients in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University. The country's recovery rate stands at 77.8%, with nearly 3.8 million people recovering from the virus so far, according to the Health Ministry. https://bit.ly/32wldt1

BOAT CAPSIZES, MANY MIGRANTS FEARED DEAD: The UN migration agency said Tuesday that a boat carrying migrants bound for Europe capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, leaving at least two dozen people drowned or missing and presumed dead, the latest shipwreck off the North African country. Safa Msehli, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration, said that Libya's coast guard intercepted three boats on Monday, and one of them had capsized. She said the coast guard retrieved two bodies, and survivors reported 22 others were missing and presumed dead. At least 45 survivors on the three boats were returned to the shore. All migrants were men, with a majority from Egypt and Morocco, she said. https://bit.ly/35yU6zr

CRICKETER SREESANTH'S PLEA: Indian fast bowler S. Sreesanth said, "call me and I will come and play cricket anywhere". Sreesanth, who was part of the 2007 World T20 and 2011 World Cup-winning Indian teams, made this statement after his seven-year ban ended recently. The Board of Control for Cricket in India had banned Sreesanth for life in August 2013 for his alleged involvement in the spot-fixing scandal that rocked the 2013 Indian Premier League (IPL). In 2015, however, a special court in Delhi acquitted him of all charges. https://bit.ly/33yvS5y

'INDIA TO RETURN TO PRE-COVID AVIATION FIGURES AFTER DIWALI': India's Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday told the Rajya Sabha that by the time its Diwali (a prominent festival in India) and towards the end of the year, India would have pre-COVID aviation figures of 3,00,000 passengers a day. The upper house was discussing the Aircraft (Amendment) Bill when Puri made the statement. https://bit.ly/33xtpIu

SONY'S PLAYSTATION 5 FORECAST: Sony Corp. has cut its estimated PlayStation 5 production for this fiscal year by 4 million units, down to around 11 million, following production issues with its custom-designed system-on-chip for the new console, according to people familiar with the matter. The Tokyo-based electronics giant in July boosted orders with suppliers in anticipation of heightened demand for gaming in the holiday season and beyond, as people spend more time at home due to the coronavirus. But the company has come up against manufacturing issues, such as production yields as low as 50% for its SOC, which have cut into its ability to produce as many consoles as it wishes, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the deliberations aren't public. Yields have been gradually improving but have yet to reach a stable level, they added. Sony shares erased gains and closed down 2.4% Tuesday, their lowest level since July.

BYTEDANCE'S CHINESE VERSION OF TIKTOK HITS 600 MILLION DAILY USERS: Douyin, the Chinese version of short video app TikTok, hit 600 million daily active users in August, an executive with parent company ByteDance said on Tuesday, a 50% jump since the start of the year. Users in China are not able to access the TikTok app, which is wildly popular with teenagers worldwide and the subject of a fierce rift between Beijing and Washington over security concerns, but can use Douyin, which is similar in design. Four-year-old Douyin's more than 22 million creators have earned a total of 41.7 billion yuan ($6.15 billion) over the past year, ByteDance China chief executive officer Kelly Zhang said during an online conference. She said Douyin aimed to help them double that income over the next year. https://bit.ly/3kk8TlG

'HORRIFYING' SHOOTING OF NAKED WOMAN BY FIGHTERS: Mozambique's army has condemned the apparent execution of a naked woman by men wearing military uniforms, shown in video footage, where she is beaten with a stick before being shot in the back as she tries to flee. In the unverified footage, which circulated on Monday, the group taunt the woman, referring to her as 'al-Shabaab' - a local term for an insurgent group that has been operating in the northern-most province of Cabo Delgado since 2017, with no known link to the Somali group of the same name. One hits her in the head and body with a stick before others shoot and, they say in the video, kill her on the side of the road. In a statement, the army, engaged in a battle with insurgents in the province, said it considered the images shocking and horrifying, and "above all condemnable".

WHALES STRANDED IN CROCODILE-INFESTED AUSTRALIAN RIVER: Australia's northern tropical rivers are reknowned for being crocodile-infested, so the appearance of migrating humpback whales in one waterway has baffled marine scientists, who assume they simply took a wrong turn and got stuck. Marine ecologist Jason Fowler discovered three whales on a fishing trip with friends two weeks ago. He and five friends were sailing in the East Alligator River, some 26 kms (16 miles) inland in Kakadu National Park in the country's remote north, when he saw a plume of water from the muddy river. "I called out to my crewmates, 'dolphin!', but at the back of my mind I was thinking, 'that's not a dolphin, that's huge'," Fowler said. "I knew they were humpbacks (but) I could not convince myself it was actually a whale so far up a tropical muddy river that was full of crocodiles." Humpbacks like to be in open sea at least 30 metres (10 feet) deep, but they appeared stuck in a 15-metre "hole" in a river that was otherwise 5-6 metres, Fowler said, adding it was the first known case of whales in the tropical inland habitat.

FIRE BRIEFLY ERUPTS IN CENTRAL BEIRUT COMMERCIAL DISTRICT: A fire erupted in a landmark building in central Beirut's commercial district on Tuesday before being put out, a civil defence official said. The fire erupted in a futuristic seafront building that was close to completion after years of construction. Lebanese broadcaster al-Jadeed earlier showed images of smoke billowing from the building.

UK UNEMPLOYMENT CLIMBS TO 4.1% ON VIRUS FALLOUT: Britain's unemployment rate jumped above four percent in July on economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, official data showed on Tuesday. The rate grew to 4.1 percent in the three months to the end of July from 3.9 percent the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. The number of people claiming jobless benefits stood at 2.7 million in August, up almost 121 percent since March when Britain went into lockdown over the virus. https://bit.ly/3hsvhqZ

FIVE HELD WITH FAKE CURRENCY IN GOA: A team from Panaji Police (Indian state of Goa) station arrested five persons who had come from Chandigarh a week ago and were using fake Indian currency notes in parts of Panaji and Porvorim. According to the Superintendent of Police, North Goa, Utkrisht Prasoon, the team has seized fake notes with the face value of Rs 2,96,400 from them.

INDIA'S ECONOMY TO SHRINK BY 9 PER CENT: India's economy is expected to contract by 9 per cent this year -- worse than the 4 per cent contraction it had forecast three months ago, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday. However, it expects India to bounce back with 8 per cent growth next year as the country begins to emerge from the economic devastation caused by coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In the first quarter of the current fiscal year, India's GDP contracted by a record 23.9 per cent as lockdowns stalled consumer and business spending. https://bit.ly/3hsvhqZ

COUPLE PLEDGE ONE MILLION MEALS TO HELP FIGHT HUNGER IN US: Singer Brad Paisley and his wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley have pledged one million meals to help fight hunger in the US. According to Fox News, the couple had opened a free grocery store earlier this year has decided to provide around one million free nutritious meals in September. The initiative billed as the Million Meal Donation Tour started off in Detroit last week.

JAYALALITHA'S CLOSE AIDE SASIKALA TO BE RELEASED FROM PRISON: VK Sasikala, a close associate of former Tamil Nadu (south Indian state) chief minister late Jayalalitha, is likely to be released from the Central Prison, Bengaluru on January 27, 2021 where she is serving a sentence in connection with a disproportionate assets case. Her release, however, might be deferred to February 27, 2022 if she does not pay the "in-default fine amount".

BADMINTON'S THOMAS AND UBER CUP POSTPONED: Badminton's showpiece Thomas and Uber Cup was postponed Tuesday after a string of countries withdrew over coronavirus fears, officials said, in a major blow to the sport's restart. The men's and women's world team championships had been set to take place in Denmark next month, and would have been the first international tournament since the pandemic halted badminton in March. But the Badminton World Federation said it had taken the "tough decision" to delay the event as the pull-outs meant they were not able to deliver a high enough level of competition. No new dates were announced for the tournament, which has now been postponed three times, but the BWF said it wouldn't take place before 2021. https://bit.ly/3hyudSG

US COURT SIDES WITH TRUMP ON DEPORTING IMMIGRANTS: A US court of appeals on Monday gave the green light for the Trump administration to expel hundreds of thousands of nationals from four countries who had been granted protected status for humanitarian reasons. In a 2-1 ruling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said a federal court in San Fransisco had erred when it issued an injunction protecting more than 300,000 immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan from being deported from the US. President Donald Trump's administration has sought to end the Temporary Protected Status granted to these people - who have several hundred thousand American children - on the grounds that their countries which were previously wracked by unrest were now safe. https://gulfnews.com/world/americas

VIETNAM JAILS FOUR PEOPLE OVER BRITAIN TRUCK TRAGEDY: Vietnam has jailed four people over their roles in the death of 39 migrants found in a refrigerated truck in Britain last year, state media said. The deaths of the 31 men and eight women from Vietnam, who were found in a vehicle near London in October 2019, highlighted the enormous risks of illegal migration to Europe and sparked an international outcry. The four defendants - the youngest aged 26 and the oldest 36 - were given prison sentences of between two and a half years and seven and a half years by a court in central Ha Tinh province on Monday, according to the official provincial newspaper. They were found guilty of "organising, brokering illegal emigration", it said, adding that two others had been given suspended sentences. https://gn24.ae/a7b8d3f10684000