The United States reported nearly 1,500 coronavirus deaths across the nation on Wednesday. The figure was the highest single-day death toll since May, pushing the country’s total death toll since the start of the pandemic to 166,027.  Wednesday’s death toll also means the U.S. has averaged over 1,000 COVID-19 fatalities each day for more than two consecutive weeks. With the United States leading the world in the total number of coronavirus deaths and infections, with 5.1 million cases, public health advisers have expressed concern about new rules for hospitals to report COVID-19 data.   FILE – The Department of Health and Human Services building is seen in the evening in Washington.The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to send the data to a new database operated by the Department of Health and Human Services Department, instead of to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying the change would streamline the data collection process. But in a letter written to HHS Secretary Alex Azar last month, nearly three dozen current and former members of a department advisory committee say hospitals are “scrambling to determine how to meet daily reporting requirements.” The experts warn the change would mean the country would lose “decades of expertise in interpreting and analyzing crucial data” about the virus that would help guide the CDC in crafting strategies in mitigating the outbreak.   New Zealand faces surge In New Zealand, a new coronavirus outbreak that prompted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to put the city of Auckland under a new lockdown is growing.    Medical staff prepare to take a COVID-19 tests at a drive through community based assessment centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, Aug. 13, 2020.Authorities in the northern city Thursday reported 13 new community infections, all of them connected to a family of four who tested positive for the virus, becoming the country’s first new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 in 102 days.  The new confirmed cases bring the total number of active new cases to 36, including one person who entered New Zealand from overseas.    Prime Minister Ardern placed Auckland’s 1.6 million people under a three-day lockdown Tuesday, mandating that its 1.6 million citizens stay indoors except for essential trips.  Police checkpoints were established at the city’s borders to turn away anyone attempting to leave.  Ardern has also ordered strict social distancing measures for the rest of the country.     FILE – Shoppers are seen at a mall in Wellington, New Zealand, July 16, 2020.Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s health minister, said Wednesday investigators are searching a cold storage facility where one of the infected people worked, on the chance the virus was imported, but other experts believe it was more likely it had been spreading in Auckland for weeks.      The new outbreak has also prompted Ardern to delay the dissolution of parliament, a decision that could lead to the postponement of parliamentary elections scheduled for September 19.     Among the world’s 20.6 million total confirmed infections, including nearly 750,000 deaths, New Zealand has one of the lowest numbers in either category, with just 1,589 cases and 22 deaths.  Ardern imposed a strict nationwide lockdown in March in the outbreak’s earliest days and closed New Zealand’s borders to international travel, while introducing a widespread testing and tracing regime.   
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Another 963,000 unemployed U.S. workers filed for government jobless compensation last week, the government’s Labor Department reported Thursday, but it was the first time since March that the weekly total had fallen below a million claims.For 20 straight weeks, more than a million jobless workers had sought government assistance as the virus unrelentingly attacks communities large and small throughout the country, forcing employers to shut down their businesses or curtail their operations and lay off workers.But last week’s claims total, while still high, was an improvement, down 228,000 from the week before.Unemployment benefit claims have fallen sharply since late March in the earliest days of the pandemic’s assault on the U.S. economy when 6.9 million Americans sought relief in a single week. But before then, the worst recorded single week was in 1982, when 695,000 sought benefits, and every week during the coronavirus pandemic has been well above that four-decade-old figure.Even with last week’s improved jobless claims number, the country’s economic recovery has slowed, with the government reporting last week that 1.8 million new jobs were added in July, down sharply from the 4.8 million new jobs reported in June.Until the end of July, the U.S. was sending an extra $600 a week to the jobless workers on top of less generous state unemployment benefits. But the White House and opposition Democrats in Congress have been unable to reach a new agreement on extending the coronavirus aid to jobless workers or families, businesses and state and local governments throughout the country.President Donald Trump last weekend signed an executive order he said would send an extra $400 a week to jobless workers, if states contributed $100 of that amount, and temporarily end the 7.65% payroll tax for working Americans earning less than $100,000 a year. But details of the assistance have been slow to emerge and the additional aid could take weeks to be implemented.Democratic lawmakers want to extend the $600-a-week payments through the end of 2020, but Republicans say the figure is too high, with some unemployed workers collecting more in jobless benefits than they were paid while working. The higher figure, the Republicans say, is an incentive to stay home and not return to work, although some employers have eliminated jobs their workers once held.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows representing Trump had been negotiating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer over the jobless benefits and other aid to boost the flagging U.S. economy that has been staggered by the coronavirus pandemic.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, left, walk to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 5, 2020.But the talks ended last week and an attempt to resume them Wednesday proved futile. Trump said a deal is “not going to happen.”The Commerce Department says the American economy plummeted 9.5% between April and June, the biggest quarterly plunge in records dating back seven decades.The three-month drop, combined with a 4.8% dip from January through March, officially dipped the U.S. economy into a recession as it struggles to regain its footing. The unchecked pandemic, with a surging number of new cases, has left more than 166,000 Americans dead and infected nearly 5.2 million.It is estimated that more than 30 million U.S. workers remain unemployed, although not all are collecting assistance. Since March, 56 million people have collected unemployment insurance at one time or another.Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says a full economic recovery depends on the country’s ability to control the virus, something it has been unable to do so far.“A full recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it’s safe to engage in a broad range of economic activities,” Powell said recently.The southern tier of U.S. states that had escaped the brunt of the pandemic in March and April has been particularly hard hit. Their governors reopened businesses — too soon, some now acknowledge — and younger people started socializing in public again at bars and restaurants without embracing such preventive practices as wearing a face mask or social distancing themselves from others by at least two meters.Now, some state governors are ordering these businesses shut down again. Investment bank Goldman Sachs said 70% of the country has either reversed reopening plans or delayed them.Key U.S. economic officials are predicting the country’s full recovery from the pandemic will take a lengthy period, extending well into 2021.The Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank, has predicted that the U.S. unemployment rate, 11.1% in June, will improve to 9.3% by the end of 2020 and to 6.5% by the end of next year. 
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Шведська компанія Embracer Group повідомляє про купівлю української компанії з розробки ігор 4A Games за 36 мільйонів доларів США. За повідомленням, купівля здійснена через дочірню компанію Embracer – Saber Interactive – 13 серпня.

Як зазначають у шведській компанії, до купівлі український розробник також довгий час був партнером медіакомпанії Deep Silver, яка також входить до групи Embracer.

Читайте також: Від «лови маслину» до Кобзаря. У культовій комп’ютерній грі знайшли «москаля»​

«Через цю угоду Saber Interactive отримує визнану команду з понад 150 людей у двох студіях – на Мальті та в Україні, а також їхню власну, кращу в своєму роді, власноруч розроблену технологію First-Person-Shooter («стрілок від першої особи»). Попередня ціна покупки дорівнює приблизно 36 мільйонам доларів, виплачених грошима без боргових зобов’язань та щойно випущеними акціями, що дають прав голосу, а також потенційні виплати в разі виконання заданих цілей, в сумі максимум 35 мільйонів доларів», – йдеться в заяві Embracer.

За повідомленням, 4A Games очікує, що чиста сума від продажі за період з січня по грудень 2020 року становитиме близько 20 мільйонів євро, з них 12 мільйонів – чистого прибутку.

За результатами угоди група Embracer отримала контроль над 100% акцій 4A Games.

«Група Embracer та Saber Interactive – ідеальні партнери для 4A Games і для наступної фази росту. Разом ми зможемо розбудувати франшизу Metro та сфокусуватися на забезпеченні нашої фанбази мультиігровим досвідом», – цитує пресреліз Embracer голову правління 4A Games Діна Шарпа.

4A Games відома передусім розробкою серії ігор Metro. Остання частина франшизи, Metro Exodus, вийшла в лютому 2019 року на PC, Xbox One та PlayStation 4 і отримала високі оцінки гравців та критиків.
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Global markets were mixed Thursday.In Asia, the Nikkei in Tokyo finished its trading session up 1.7 percent. Sydney’s S&P/ASX index was down 0.6 percent. Seoul’s KOSPI index was 0.2 percent higher, while the TSEC index in Taipei was up 0.7 percent.In late afternoon trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.3 percent, Shanghai’s Composite was up nearly 1.5 points, but unchanged percentage-wise, and Mumbai’s Sensex was down 0.2 percent.European markets were in a slump at the start of their trading sessions. The FTSE index was down 1 percent, Paris’s CAC-40 was down 0.2 percent, and the DAX index in Frankfurt was down 0.1 percent.In commodities trading, gold was down 0.4 percent, selling at $1,940.10 an ounce.  U.S crude was selling at $42.61 per barrel, down 0.1 percent, and Brent crude was also down 0.1 percent, selling at $45.37 per barrel.All three major U.S. indices were trending negatively in futures trading.   
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A new coronavirus outbreak that prompted New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to put the city of Auckland under a new lockdown is growing.Authorities in the northern city Thursday reported 13 new community infections, all of them connected to a family of four who tested positive for the virus, becoming the country’s new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 in 102 days. The new confirmed cases bring the total number of active new cases to 36, including one person who entered New Zealand from overseas.Prime Minister Ardern placed Auckland’s 1.6 million people under a three-day lockdown Tuesday, mandating that its 1.6 million citizens stay indoors except for essential trips.  Police checkpoints were established at the city’s borders to turn away anyone attempting to leave. Ardern has also ordered strict social distancing measures for the rest of the country.Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s health minister, said Wednesday that investigators are searching a cold storage facility where one of the infected people worked, on the chance the virus was imported, but other experts believe it was more likely it had been spreading in Auckland for weeks.The new outbreak has also prompted Ardern to delay the dissolution of parliament, a decision that could lead to the postponement of parliamentary elections scheduled for September 19.Medical workers dispose of trash bags containing hazardous biological waste into a pile outside the Hospital del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, which treats patients with COVID-19, in Veracruz, Mexico, Aug. 12, 2020.Among the world’s 20.6 million total confirmed infections, including nearly 750,000 deaths, New Zealand has one of the lowest numbers in either category, with just 1,589 cases and 22 deaths. Ardern imposed a strict nationwide lockdown in March in the outbreak’s earliest days and closed New Zealand’s borders to international travel, while introducing a widespread testing and tracing regime.In the United States, another collegiate athletic conference is postponing its fall sports schedule due to the pandemic. The Big East Conference announced Wednesday none of its 11 member schools will hold contests in men’s and women’s cross country track and soccer (football), and women’s volleyball and field hockey, after consulting with its internal COVID-19 task force.The decision by the Big East comes a day after the Big Ten and the Pac-12 announced they were calling off all of their fall sports competitions, including their lucrative schedule of American-style football games. The Big East does not participate in football.The Big Ten and Pac-12, along with the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern and Big 12, make up the so-called “Power Five” major college athletic conferences, whose gridiron football programs are not only among the best in the nation, but also bring in billions of dollars in revenue from ticket sales and national television contracts.The prospect of any U.S. college football being played during the traditional fall season amid the pandemic was thrown into doubt well before the Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed their seasons. Three other conferences, along with a handful of independent college programs, have either postponed or canceled their football seasons. But the ACC, SEC and Big 12 said Wednesday they plan to carry on with their football seasons, although with a limited number of games.Meanwhile, one of the world’s top golf tournaments – The Masters – will be played this year with no spectators.It’s the third major U.S. golf match to be fan-free this year. The PGA Championship was played last week with no one watching from the sidelines. The U.S. Open, which was moved from June to September, will also have no spectators.The Masters is usually held every April at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. The club has been closed because of the coronavirus, and this year’s tournament has been postponed until November.
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U.S. officials have opened an office in New Mexico dedicated to investigating cold cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people.  The office in Albuquerque is part of an effort to address violence against Native Americans and Alaska Natives, particularly women and girls.  It’s the fourth of seven offices that are being established across the country as part of the Operation Lady Justice Task Force created via executive order by President Donald Trump in November.  The goal is to develop protocols for law enforcement to respond to missing and slain indigenous persons cases and to improve data collection. “We want to see victims and their families receive closure, and will direct our efforts towards that goal,” said Tara Katuk Sweeney, the U.S. Interior Department’s assistant secretary for Indian affairs. “The Albuquerque cold case office is joining those in Minnesota, South Dakota and Montana that are beginning the work of resolving their cold cases.”  Other offices will be established in Arizona, Alaska and Tennessee. They’ll be staffed with special agents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and will coordinate efforts by local, federal and tribal law enforcement personnel to address what federal officials described as a staggering number of people from tribal communities who have gone missing or have been killed. Since 2019, officials with the Interior Department and Bureau of Indian Affairs say they have undertaken a number of efforts to address the crisis, from conducting more criminal investigations to battling illicit drug activity and sex trafficking.  A partnership also was formed with the U.S. Justice Department’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which has led to the development of new tribal-affiliation data fields to help law enforcement capture information to track cases of missing and murdered persons in Indian Country. Officials say there has been a 60% increase in Indigenous-person entries into the system since last year. 
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Thousands protested in Belarus for the fourth straight night Wednesday against what they said was the fraudulent election of President Alexander Lukashenko for a sixth term.Demonstrators in Minsk formed human chains to try to block police from approaching.Witnesses said on one street in the capital riot police fired rubber bullets at people who stood on their balconies to cheer the demonstrators.Earlier Wednesday, groups of women also formed human chains and carried bouquets of flowers as police stood by, making no effort to disperse them.Similar demonstrations were held in other Belarusian cities.As many as 6,000 people have been arrested and hundreds injured after police used tear gas, clubs and rubber bullets to break up the nightly marches.They include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Vital Tsyhankou, who was badly beaten by police, the Associated Press reported, along with two independent Belarusian television reporters.People flocked to the jails to look for missing relatives.Lukashenko has said he will not be intimidated.“The core of these so-called protesters are people with a criminal past and (those who are) currently unemployed,” he said Wednesday.European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called for a meeting of foreign ministers Friday to talk about Belarus. He is threatening sanctions against “those responsible for the observed violence, unjustified arrests and falsification of election results.”The Belarusian election commission declared Lukashenko the winner of Sunday’s presidential election with 80 percent of the vote and 10 percent for the only serious challenger, former teacher Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.She entered the race at the last minute after police arrested her husband, an opposition blogger who was planning to run for president.Tsikhanouskaya fled to Lithuania Tuesday for what she said was the safety of her children.Lukashenko has frequently been called Europe’s last dictator because of his suppression of free speech and human rights while showing little tolerance for dissent. He has ruled Belarus since it declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.Many of the protesters are also angry at his refusal to take any significant action to fight the coronavirus.Lukashenko has sought to lighten his image as a brutal dictator who cozies up to the Kremlin by seeking closer relations with the European Union and United States.
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President Donald Trump is planning to visit four election battleground states next week as the Republican competes for attention with Democrats who will formally nominate Joe Biden as their presidential candidate.A source familiar with the planning said Trump plans stops in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona and Pennsylvania, all of them states that may prove crucial to determining the winner of the Nov. 3 election.Democrats are holding their mostly virtual convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, next week. The Milwaukee Sentinel Journal said the Trump campaign was considering holding an event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.Trump, struggling to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession, has been looking for ways to blunt the momentum of Biden after the Democrat chose California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate.The incumbent president, seeking a second four-year term, trails Biden in many opinion polls both nationally and in many swing states, although Trump insists he is making up ground.Trump’s travel next week is likely to be a mix of official White House and campaign-related events. He is planning a stop in Biden’s home town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, the source said.The Trump campaign declined to comment on next week’s travel.Typically a candidate from one party will sit out most of the week in which the opposing party holds its nominating convention since most of voters’ attention will be focused on the convention.But Trump has shown himself to be no adherent to political tradition and with his campaign appearances reduced by the pandemic, he is under pressure to get out more and make the case for why he should be re-elected. 
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The top U.S. general for military operations in the Middle East is warning of a potential Islamic State resurgence should the international community not act quickly to repatriate and deradicalize former members and supporters of the terror group who are in Syrian camps. “We’re buying ourselves a strategic problem [where] 10 years down the road, 15 years down the road, we’re going to do this all over again. I would prefer to avoid that,” General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said during an online forum Wednesday hosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). The U.S.-led international coalition against Islamic State declared victory over the terror group last year, but an “interconnected ecosystem of problems” that requires an international agreement remains, McKenzie said. FILE – General Frank McKenzie, center front, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, walks as he visits a military outpost in Syria, January 25, 2020.Nations have tried to reach a global consensus on what to do with captured IS fighters and their families, with many countries refusing to take back citizens who left their country to fight in Iraq and Syria. Travel concerns due to the coronavirus pandemic have halted repatriation discussions. Officials say horrible conditions at Syria’s al-Hol camp, which houses captured Islamic State fighters along with tens of thousands of displaced men, women and children, have fueled radicalization. The facility has also recently confirmed its first COVID-19 cases, raising fears that the deadly virus may spread. “If we stay where we are, we’re going to have huge problems: huge problems in the near term with lots of people potentially dying, and then huge problems in the long-term because I have yet to see a scheme that can talk about deradicalization at scale,” McKenzie said. “I don’t have an answer besides repatriation. We either deal with this problem now or deal with it exponentially worse a few years down the road,” the CENTCOM commander added. Concerns of a resurgent Islamic State come as the United States wants to pull more American forces from Iraq and Syria. The U.S. pulled some of its forces from Syria in 2018 and began exiting bases in Iraq in March of this year. Last month, McKenzie confirmed in a VOA interview that U.S. forces could continue to fight IS and support Iraqi forces with fewer troops, adding that the reduction will be done in close consultation with Iraq and international allies.VOA Exclusive: CENTCOM Chief Says US Can Do Job in Iraq with Fewer ForcesGen. Kenneth ‘Frank’ McKenzie also told VOA that Afghan Taliban is not living up to peace commitments and that idea of Russian bounties on US troops is ‘morally abhorrent’ Speaking to USIP on Wednesday, McKenzie stressed that the U.S. was also not going to be in Syria “forever,” while hinting the solution would require a gradual exit on an unclear timeline. “There’s not going to be a significant victory celebration. There’s not going to be a clear-cut military victory [against IS],” McKenzie said. Meanwhile, Turkey’s unilateral moves against the terror group in northern Syria have complicated the situation, with the U.S. general acknowledging he does not have a clear idea of what is taking place inside Turkish-controlled areas of the country. “I just don’t know, I’ve got no visibility,” he said. U.S. military leaders have criticized Turkey’s offensive into northern Syria, which pushed out members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a largely Kurdish group allied with the United States who had successfully expelled IS from the area. Turkey sees the group as a threat linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has carried out several attacks in Turkey. Tensions further escalated last month as SDF officials expressed dismay after Turkish intelligence agents infiltrated al-Hol to smuggle out a Moldovan woman and her four children. It is unclear why such an operation was necessary, according to the SDF, claiming all that Moldova had to do was ask to repatriate the woman. “The global coalition asked the countries to get their citizens back [with] no response. Moldova did not ask for this woman,” Sinam Mohamad, the U.S. representative of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the SDF’s political wing, told VOA. McKenzie on Wednesday said he had “no evidence” that anybody was smuggled out of al-Hol. National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed reporting. 
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Officials in Scotland said three people died Wednesday and at least six others were injured when a passenger train derailed near the northeastern city of Stonehaven. The British Transport Police force said officers were notified of the accident about 9:40 a.m. local time. Initial investigators at the scene report the six-car train went off the track about 160 kilometers northeast of Edinburgh, with the locomotive and three cars sliding down an embankment. The full extent of the incident can be seen in aerial video from the scene, with one carriage lying on its side in a hilly, woodland area near the track. The British Broadcasting Company reports the train was traveling from Aberdeen to Glasgow when the derailment occurred. It reports six people were taken to a local hospital following the accident, but their injuries were not believed to be serious. British Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps spoke to reporters Wednesday, saying members of the Rail Accident Investigation Board were on their way to the scene.  It is suspected that a landslide, caused by recent heavy rain in the area, contributed to the wreck. But Shapps stressed that it is still early in the investigation. 
 
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U.S. President Donald Trump has congratulated a supporter of a far-right group for her congressional primary victory in the southern state of Georgia.Trump tweeted Wednesday that Marjorie Taylor Greene was a “real WINNER!” after coming out on top in the Republican primary for Georgia’s 14th congressional district.Congratulations to future Republican Star Marjorie Taylor Greene on a big Congressional primary win in Georgia against a very tough and smart opponent. Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up – a real WINNER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2020Greene is a supporter of QAnon, which promotes an unfounded theory of a “deep state” political system aimed at undermining Trump’s presidency.Greene, also a gun rights activist, defeated John Cowan, who had the support of several high-profile Republicans, with 57% of the vote to Cowan’s 43%.Greene is almost assured of winning the November election to Congress from the heavily Republican district as she faces off against Democrat Kevin Van Ausdal.Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a fellow Republican from Illinois, tweeted after Green’s victory that “Qanon is a fabrication” and that “there is no place in Congress for these conspiracies.”Qanon is a fabrication. This “insider” has predicted so much incorrectly (but people don’t remember PAST predictions) so now has switched to vague generalities. Could be Russian propaganda or a basement dweller. Regardless, no place in Congress for these conspiracies.
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) In this Nov. 22, 2019 photo, GOP congressional candidate Michelle Fischbach discusses Minnesota’s 7th District race at a coffee shop in Minneapolis.In another Minnesota race, Republican Michelle Fischbach won her party primary and will face incumbent Democratic Congressman Collin Peterson in a race Republicans are targeting as a chance to flip a Democratic seat to their party. Voters in the district supported President Donald Trump by a 30-point margin in 2016, but Peterson is one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress and was first elected to represent the district in 1990.Voters also cast primary ballots in the state of Wisconsin on Tuesday. In the 3rd congressional district, incumbent Democratic Congressman Ron Kind easily won his primary.In the district’s Republican race, former Navy Seal Derrick Van Orden defeated public relations professional Jessi Ebben. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker have endorsed Van Orden.The general election is November 3, with the president, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate are up for election. Democrats currently hold the majority in the House, while Republicans are the majority in the Senate.
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Гривня зміцнюється шостий банківський день поспіль, свідчать дані на сайті Національного банку України.

Довідкове значення курсу гривні до долара США на 12:00 встановлене на рівні 27 гривень 53 копійок. Це на 7 копійок менше порівняно з офіційним курсом на 12 серпня.

У широкому коридорі 26,5–27 гривень за долар національна валюта перебувала понад два місяці – від кінця квітня до початку липня. Зроблена 1 липня заява ексголови НБУ Якова Смолія про відставку через політичний тиск на нього спричинила зростання котирувань до 27 гривень 20 копійок за долар і навіть вище.

Упродовж кількох торгових сесій ситуація стабілізувалася, але після призначення головою НБУ Кирила Шевченка девальвація національної валюти прискорилася.

 
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