Fresh flight disruptions threaten US Fourth of July holiday weekend travel

By Doyinsola Oladipo and Rajesh Kumar Singh NEW YORK (Reuters) -The number of people traveling by air in the United States for the Fourth of July holiday is expected to surpass pre-COVID levels for the first time in four years, but recent flight disruptions raise fresh questions about airlines’ readiness to handle the summer travel…

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Hollywood actors extend contract talks, temporarily averting strike

By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Hollywood’s actors union and major Hollywood studios agreed on Friday to keep negotiating through mid-July, staving off the immediate threat of a second labor strike in the entertainment business this summer. The SAG-AFTRA union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said they would extend their…

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Bosnia envoy revokes Bosnian Serb laws defying the state, peace deal

By Daria Sito-Sucic SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Bosnia’s international peace overseer, Christian Schmidt, on Saturday annulled two laws that Bosnian Serb parliament had adopted defying the constitution and the terms of a peace deal that ended the Balkan country’s war in the 1990s. Schmidt, who as international High Representative in Bosnia has powers to impose laws…

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Venezuela blasts U.S. for critique over barred opposition candidate

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government on Saturday said it rejected the U.S. stance around the South American country’s upcoming elections, calling it “interference,” a day after the U.S. criticized Venezuela’s decision to disqualify an opposition candidate. Maria Corina Machado, one of the favorites to win the Venezuelan opposition’s nomination for president in an October primary,…

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Ukraine, US agree: counteroffensive creeps ahead, measured in blood

By Olena Harmash (Reuters) – Ukraine has been publicly cautious in counting gains in a counteroffensive it launched this month to reclaim territory occupied by Russian forces, and on Friday its president and a U.S. general acknowledged that progress is measured in blood. The top U.S. military officer, Army General Mark Milley, told an audience…

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Pope names Argentine bishop, author of kissing book, to top Vatican post

By Philip Pullella (Reuters) – Pope Francis has named an Argentine theologian and prolific author who decades ago wrote a book on the healing properties of kissing to be the Catholic Church’s new doctrinal chief, one of the Vatican’s top posts. A Vatican statement on Saturday said Francis had chosen fellow Argentine Archbishop Victor Manuel…

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China urges Netherlands to not abuse export control measures

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has urged the Netherlands to not hinder bilateral cooperation in the semiconductor industry and to not abuse export controls, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. The statement was made in response to questions from the media, it said. It also said the two countries have communicated frequently and at…

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Biden proposes new measures for student loan relief after Supreme Court defeat

By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Friday announced new measures to provide student loan relief to Americans and condemned the U.S. Supreme Court for blocking a plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in debt that was popular with his voters. Thwarted by the conservative-leaning court, Biden told…

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