News Headlines - 08 August 2020

▽New York Times' digital revenue exceeds print for first time ever - CNN

Digital revenue for The New York Times (NYT) exceeded its print revenue for the first time in its history, the company reported Wednesday in its second quarter report. The Times added 669,000 digital subscriptions for a total of 5.7 million digital-only subscriptions and a total of 6.5 million subscriptions overall. The company set a goal in 2019 to reach 10 million subscriptions by 2025.

▽NASA astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule return to Earth - The Washington Post

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley completed a fiery, high-speed journey back from the International Space Station on Sunday, splashing down in calm Gulf of Mexico waters off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., hundreds of miles from a churning Tropical Storm Isaias in the Atlantic in a triumphal denouement to a historic mission.
It was the first time in the 59-year history of crewed American space travel that astronauts had used the Gulf as a landing site, adding to other firsts that marked a new chapter in NASA’s human spaceflight program: the first launch of American astronauts to orbit from U.S. soil since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011 and the first launch into orbit of humans on vehicles owned and operated by a private company.

▽Mauritius declares emergency over oil leak from Japanese ship

The Mauritius government declared a state of environmental emergency on Friday over a large amount of fuel that leaked into the sea from a stranded Japanese-owned bulk carrier off the country's coast.
The wreckage of the Panama-flagged vessel Wakashio "represents a danger for Mauritius," which does not have the skills to refloat stranded ships, said Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth in a Twitter post, accompanied by an aerial photo showing a dark brown swath of oil leaking from a tilted ship spreading in blue turquoise waters.

▽UAE starts first nuclear reactor at controversial Barakah plant | Al Jazeera

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced on Saturday that it has started operations in the first of four reactors at the Barakah nuclear power station - the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world.
Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), which is building and operating the plant with Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) said in a press release that its subsidiary Nawah Energy Company "has successfully started up Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, located in the Al Dhafrah Region of Abu Dhabi".
That signals that Unit 1, which had fuel rods loaded in March, has achieved "criticality" - a sustained fission chain reaction.

▽Africa tops 1 million coronavirus infections: WHO - The Mainichi

The number of confirmed new coronavirus cases in Africa has topped the 1 million mark, with the death tally now standing at more than 22,000, the World Health Organization said Friday... The surge reflects the over 530,000 infections reported in South Africa, which account for more than half of the total on the continent. The country ranks fifth in the world for confirmed virus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Among 54 African nations, the other hardest-hit countries include Egypt at around 95,000, Nigeria at more than 45,000, Ghana at about 40,000 and Algeria at over 34,000, according to data from the U.S. university.