News Headlines - 17 July 2020

▽Chinese GDP grows 3.2% in second quarter | Financial Times

China’s economy returned to growth in the second quarter, in one of the world’s earliest signs of recovery from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
Gross domestic product grew 3.2 per cent in the three months to the end of June, compared with the same period last year.
The positive economic data follow the first annual decline in decades in the previous quarter, when China’s GDP fell 6.8 per cent as the country struggled to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

▽BOJ expects economy to shrink 4.7% in fiscal 2020 due to pandemic | The Japan Times

The Bank of Japan said Wednesday after its policy meeting that it expects the Japanese economy to shrink 4.7 percent and the consumer price index to fall 0.5 percent in fiscal 2020 through March 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The central bank decided to maintain its ultraeasy monetary policy to bolster the country’s economy, keeping short-term interest rates at minus 0.1 percent while guiding long-term rates at around zero percent.

▽YouTuber Spreads Coronavirus While Shooting Video on Japan's Most Populous Island

Coronavirus cases in Japan have climbed to 23,802, with new infections reported in the Yamaguchi Prefecture... The prefecture confirmed at least three new people were infected, including two men and one woman. The two men were reportedly in contact with a man who traveled across the country for the filming of the video, which was posted on YouTube under the name "Hezu Maryu," according to Japan's Kyodo News.

▽Plastic waste kills a Thai elephant in another wake-up call

A male elephant weighing about 3.5 tons and aged around 20, was found dead in the Khao Khitchakut National Park in central Thailand and a subsequent autopsy revealed the cause of death to have been plastic bags and other items that caused a blockage and infection in the pachyderm’s intestines.

▽Elvis Presley's grandson dies in gunshot suicide: coroner - New York Daily News

Lisa Marie Presley’s son Benjamin Keough died from a self-inflicted “intraoral shotgun wound,” a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles County Coroner confirmed Tuesday.
The 27-year-old grandson of rock icon Elvis Presley was pronounced dead at a home in Calabasas, Calif., on Sunday morning... Keough’s autopsy was completed Monday with the manner of death officially ruled a suicide, the coroner spokeswoman said Tuesday.