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HSBC has carved out a lucrative role in global banking over the past 155 years by straddling the line between East and West. Now, a political firestorm over the bank's hometown of Hong Kong could force the bank to choose sides.

Walmart is reportedly close to launching its own membership program that closely resembles Amazon Prime.

The short-form video app TikTok has quickly become a key part of popular culture in the US, serving as a platform for viral memes as well as political satire and activism. Facebook, the dominant force in social media, has tried to copy the app, but so far that has not slowed down its rapid rise.

Thailand's Cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft bill that will legally recognize same-sex civil partnerships and give greater rights to same-sex couples, a potential first for any nation in Southeast Asia if passed into law.

Australia has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Thursday, as the country moves to offer a path to citizenship for those Hong Kongers who wish to leave the city.

When it comes to desirable post-pandemic travel destinations, Hong Kong would be an obvious choice thanks to its capable handling of Covid-19 outbreaks, which has so far limited infections to just 1,300 cases in the city of 7.5 million.

• Flurry of corruption probes in Brazil over emergency Covid-19 funds • Israel had the coronavirus under control. What happened?

Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly has died, the country's President announced.

The bodies of 180 men suspected to be victims of extrajudicial killings have been found in graves in northern Burkina Faso, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

For months, Israel appeared to be an international model of coronavirus success.

Julien was a tennis instructor with steel shoulders, blue eyes and two terraces we could never sit on because he stuffed them both with his marijuana plants.

Europe's economy will contract more sharply this year and take longer to recover from the coronavirus pandemic than previously expected, piling pressure on EU leaders to finalize plans for a huge recovery package.

Civil rights and activist groups blasted Facebook's leadership on Tuesday after meeting with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives to discuss the demands of a large advertiser boycott that now includes hundreds of brands.

Authorities in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia have closed several tourist spots after a case of bubonic plague was confirmed this week.

Adenilson Costa has worked at the Vila Formosa graveyard for a quarter of a century and he says he has never seen the fresh graves fill up so fast.

Authorities in the Netherlands have discovered an apparent torture site hidden inside shipping containers, which were lined with sound-proofing material and filled with assumed torture devices, the country's National Prosecutor's Office has said.

President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro touted the power of unproven medicine as he told the world he had tested positive for coronavirus. CNN's Bill Weir reports that his former health minister and a gravedigger have different views about the pandemic.

Over Independence Day Weekend, 80 artists asked Americans to look up at the skies. Throughout July 3 and 4, messages related to immigration were written at 10,000 feet by World War II military planes, sky-typed over 80 sites related to the country's network of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, immigration courts, and the southern border. The idea was to bring attention to these facilities, which may not be familiar to many Americans.