Brazil will suspend a $324 million Indian COVID-19 vaccine contract that has mired President Jair Bolsonaro in accusations of irregularities, the health minister said on Tuesday, following the guidance of the federal comptroller, the CGU. 
 
The deal to buy 20 million doses of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin shot has become a headache for Bolsonaro after whistleblowers went public, alleging irregularities. One Health Ministry official said he alerted the president about his concerns. 
 
Bolsonaro, whose popularity has faded as Brazil's COVID-19 death toll climbed past 500,000, has denied any wrongdoing.

On Monday, he said he was not aware of any irregularities. But thorny questions refuse to go away, and may pose problems for him ahead of next year's presidential vote. 
 
Brazil Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said at a news conference, his team would probe the allegations during the suspension. 
 
"According to the preliminary analysis of the CGU, there are no irregularities in the contract but, for compliance, the Health Ministry chose to suspend the contract," the ministry said in a statement. 
 
Earlier on Thursday, CNN Brasil reported that the ministry had decided to cancel the contract. 
 
Brazilian federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into the deal, citing comparatively high prices, quick talks and pending regulatory approvals as red flags. It is also being probed by a Senate panel investigating the government's handling of the pandemic. 
 
One of the leading opposition senators on that panel filed a formal criminal complaint against Bolsonaro at the Supreme Court on Monday. Senator Randolfe Rodrigues said he wanted the court to investigate 'the serious allegations' and to find out why Bolsonaro 'did not take any action after being notified of the existence of a giant corruption scheme in the Health Ministry'. 
 
(With inputs from agencies)

Brazil will suspend a $324 million Indian COVID-19 vaccine contract that has mired President Jair Bolsonaro in accusations of irregularities, the health minister said on Tuesday, following the guidance of the federal comptroller, the CGU.

Brazil will suspend a $324 million Indian COVID-19 vaccine contract that has mired President Jair Bolsonaro in accusations of irregularities, the health minister said on Tuesday, following the guidance of the federal comptroller, the CGU. The deal to buy 20 million doses of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin shot has become a headache for Bolsonaro after whistleblowers went public, alleging irregularities. One Health Ministry official said he alerted the president about his concerns. Bolsonaro, whose popularity has faded as Brazil's COVID-19 death toll climbed past 500,000, has denied any wrongdoing. On Monday, he said he was not aware of any irregularities. But thorny questions refuse to go away, and may pose problems for him ahead of next year's presidential vote. Brazil Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said at a news conference, his team would probe the allegations during the suspension. "According to the preliminary analysis of the CGU, there are no irregularities in the contract but, for compliance, the Health Ministry chose to suspend the contract," the ministry said in a statement. Earlier on Thursday, CNN Brasil reported that the ministry had decided to cancel the contract. Brazilian federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into the deal, citing comparatively high prices, quick talks and pending regulatory approvals as red flags. It is also being probed by a Senate panel investigating the government's handling of the pandemic. One of the leading opposition senators on that panel filed a formal criminal complaint against Bolsonaro at the Supreme Court on Monday. Senator Randolfe Rodrigues said he wanted the court to investigate 'the serious allegations' and to find out why Bolsonaro 'did not take any action after being notified of the existence of a giant corruption scheme in the Health Ministry'. (With inputs from agencies)

Brazil to suspend Indian COVID-19 vaccine deal as graft allegations probed

The New York City mayor’s race plunged into chaos Tuesday night when the city Board of Elections released a new tally of votes in the Democratic mayoral primary and then removed the tabulations from its website after citing a “discrepancy.”

The results released earlier in the day had suggested that the race between Eric Adams and his two closest rivals had tightened significantly.

But just a few hours after releasing the preliminary results, the elections board issued a cryptic tweet revealing a “discrepancy” in the report, saying that it was working with its “technical staff to identify where the discrepancy occurred.”

By Tuesday evening, the tabulations had been taken down, replaced by a new advisory that the ranked-choice results would be available “starting on June 30.”

Then, around 10:30 p.m., the board finally released a statement, explaining that it had failed to remove sample ballot images used to test its ranked-choice voting software. When the board ran the program, it counted “both test and election night results, producing approximately 135,000 additional records,” the statement said. The ranked-choice numbers, it said, would be tabulated again.

The extraordinary sequence of events seeded further confusion about the outcome, and threw the closely watched contest into a new period of uncertainty at a consequential moment for the city.

For the Board of Elections, which has long been plagued by dysfunction and nepotism, this was its first try at implementing ranked-choice voting on a citywide scale. Skeptics had expressed doubts about the board’s ability to pull off the process, though it is used successfully in other cities.

Under ranked-choice voting, voters can list up to five candidates on their ballots in preferential order. If no candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice votes in the first round, the winner is decided by a process of elimination: As the lower-polling candidates are eliminated, their votes are reallocated to whichever candidate those voters ranked next, and the process continues until there is a winner.

The Board of Elections released preliminary, unofficial ranked-choice tabulations on Tuesday afternoon, showing that Adams — who had held a significant advantage on primary night — was narrowly ahead of Kathryn Garcia in the ballots cast in person during early voting or on Primary Day. Maya Wiley, who came in second place in the initial vote count, was close behind in third place. The board then took down the results and disclosed the discrepancy.

The results may well be scrambled again: Even after the Board of Elections sorts through the preliminary tally, it must count around 124,000 Democratic absentee ballots. Once they are tabulated, the board will take the new total that includes them and run a new set of ranked-choice elimination rounds, with a final result not expected until mid-July.

Some Democrats, bracing for an acrimonious new chapter in the race, are concerned that the incremental release of results by the Board of Elections — and the discovery of an error — may stir distrust of ranked-choice voting and of the city’s electoral system more broadly.

In a statement late Tuesday night, Wiley laced into the Board of Elections, calling the error “the result of generations of failures that have gone unaddressed,” and adding: “Sadly it is impossible to be surprised.”

“Today, we have once again seen the mismanagement that has resulted in a lack of confidence in results, not because there is a flaw in our election laws, but because those who implement it have failed too many times,” she said. “The BOE must now count the remainder of the votes transparently and ensure the integrity of the process moving forward.”

Garcia said the release of the inaccurate tally was “deeply troubling and requires a much more transparent and complete explanation.”

“Every ranked choice and absentee vote must be counted accurately so that all New Yorkers have faith in our democracy and our government,” she said. “I am confident that every candidate will accept the final results and support whomever the voters have elected.”

And Adams noted the “unfortunate” error by the Board of Elections and emphasized the importance of handling election results correctly.

“It is critical that New Yorkers are confident in their electoral system, especially as we rank votes in a citywide election for the first time,” he said in a statement released Tuesday night. “We appreciate the board’s transparency and acknowledgment of their error. We look forward to the release of an accurate, updated simulation, and the timely conclusion of this critical process.”

If elected, Adams would be the city’s second Black mayor, after David Dinkins. Some of Adams’ supporters have already cast the ranked-choice process as an attempt to disenfranchise voters of color, an argument that intensified among some backers on Tuesday afternoon as the race had appeared to tighten, and is virtually certain to escalate should he lose his primary night lead to Garcia, who is white.

Surrogates for Adams have suggested without evidence that an apparent ranked-choice alliance between Garcia and another rival, Andrew Yang, could amount to an attempt to suppress the votes of Black and Latino New Yorkers; Adams himself claimed that the alliance was aimed at preventing a Black or Latino candidate from winning the race.

In the final days of the race, Garcia and Yang campaigned together across the city, especially in neighborhoods that are home to sizable Asian American communities, and appeared together on campaign literature.

To advocates of ranked-choice voting, the round-by-round shuffling of outcomes is part of the process of electing a candidate with broad appeal. But if Garcia or Wiley were to prevail, the process — which was approved by voters in a 2019 ballot measure — would likely attract fresh scrutiny, with some of Adams’ backers and others already urging a new referendum on it.

By Tuesday night, though, it was the Board of Elections that was attracting ire from seemingly all corners.

Betsy Gotbaum, the city’s former public advocate who now runs Citizens Union, a good-government group, warned that “the entire country is watching” the Board of Elections. “New Yorkers deserve elections, and election administrators, that they can have the utmost faith in,” Gotbaum added.

A comparison between first-place vote totals released on primary night and those released Tuesday offered some insight into how the 135,000 erroneous votes were distributed. The bottom four candidates received a total of 42,000 new votes, roughly four times their actual vote total; the number of write-in ballots also skyrocketed to 17,516 from 1,336. Adams and Yang received the highest number of new votes.

It was not known, however, how the test votes were reallocated during the ranked-choice tabulations, making it impossible to determine how they affected the preliminary results that were released and then retracted.

When accurate vote counts are in place, it is difficult, but not unheard-of for a trailing candidate in a ranked-choice election to eventually win the race through later rounds of voting — that happened in Oakland, California, in 2010, and nearly occurred in San Francisco in 2018.

The winner of New York’s Democratic primary, who is almost certain to become the city’s next mayor, will face Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, who won the Republican primary.

According to the now-withdrawn tabulation released Tuesday, Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, nearly made it to the final round. She finished closely behind Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner, before being eliminated in the penultimate round of the preliminary exercise.

After the count of in-person ballots last week, Garcia trailed Wiley by about 2.8 percentage points. Asked if she had been in touch with Wiley’s team, Garcia suggested there had been staff-level conversations.

“The campaigns have been speaking to each other,” Garcia said in a phone call Tuesday afternoon, saying the two candidates had not yet spoken directly. “Hopefully we don’t have to step in with attorneys. But it is about really ensuring that New York City’s voices are heard.”

Wiley ran well to the left of Garcia on a number of vital policy matters, including around policing and on some education questions. Either candidate would be the first woman elected mayor of New York, and Wiley would be the city’s first Black female mayor.

Adams, a former police captain and a relative moderate on several key issues, was a non-starter for many progressive voters who may have preferred Garcia and her focus on competence over any especially ideological message.

But early results suggested that Adams had significant strength among working-class voters of color, and some traction among white voters with moderate views.

City Councilman I. Daneek Miller, an Adams supporter who is pressing for a new referendum on ranked-choice voting, suggested in a text message on Tuesday that the system had opened the door to “an attempt to eliminate the candidate of moderate working people and traditionally marginalized communities,” as he implicitly criticized the Yang-Garcia alliance.

“It is incumbent on us now to address the issue of ranked voting and how it is being weaponized against a wide portion of the public,” said Miller, co-chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus on the City Council.

Other close observers of the election separately expressed discomfort with the decision to release a ranked-choice tally without accounting for absentee ballots.

“There is real danger that voters will come to believe a set of facts about the race that will be disproven when all votes are in,” said Ben Greenfield, a senior survey data analyst at Change Research, which conducted polling for a pro-Garcia PAC. “The risk is that this could take a system that’s already new and confusing and increase people’s sense of mistrust.”

The New York City mayor’s race plunged into chaos Tuesday night when the city Board of Elections released a new tally of votes in the Democratic mayoral primary and then removed the tabulations from its website after citing a “discrepancy.

The New York City mayor’s race plunged into chaos Tuesday night when the city Board of Elections released a new tally of votes in the Democratic mayoral primary and then removed the tabulations from its website after citing a “discrepancy.” The results released earlier in the day had suggested that the race between Eric Adams and his two closest rivals had tightened significantly. But just a few hours after releasing the preliminary results, the elections board issued a cryptic tweet revealing a “discrepancy” in the report, saying that it was working with its “technical staff to identify where the discrepancy occurred.” By Tuesday evening, the tabulations had been taken down, replaced by a new advisory that the ranked-choice results would be available “starting on June 30.” Then, around 10:30 p.m., the board finally released a statement, explaining that it had failed to remove sample ballot images used to test its ranked-choice voting software. When the board ran the program, it counted “both test and election night results, producing approximately 135,000 additional records,” the statement said. The ranked-choice numbers, it said, would be tabulated again. The extraordinary sequence of events seeded further confusion about the outcome, and threw the closely watched contest into a new period of uncertainty at a consequential moment for the city. For the Board of Elections, which has long been plagued by dysfunction and nepotism, this was its first try at implementing ranked-choice voting on a citywide scale. Skeptics had expressed doubts about the board’s ability to pull off the process, though it is used successfully in other cities. Under ranked-choice voting, voters can list up to five candidates on their ballots in preferential order. If no candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice votes in the first round, the winner is decided by a process of elimination: As the lower-polling candidates are eliminated, their votes are reallocated to whichever candidate those voters ranked next, and the process continues until there is a winner. The Board of Elections released preliminary, unofficial ranked-choice tabulations on Tuesday afternoon, showing that Adams — who had held a significant advantage on primary night — was narrowly ahead of Kathryn Garcia in the ballots cast in person during early voting or on Primary Day. Maya Wiley, who came in second place in the initial vote count, was close behind in third place. The board then took down the results and disclosed the discrepancy. The results may well be scrambled again: Even after the Board of Elections sorts through the preliminary tally, it must count around 124,000 Democratic absentee ballots. Once they are tabulated, the board will take the new total that includes them and run a new set of ranked-choice elimination rounds, with a final result not expected until mid-July. Some Democrats, bracing for an acrimonious new chapter in the race, are concerned that the incremental release of results by the Board of Elections — and the discovery of an error — may stir distrust of ranked-choice voting and of the city’s electoral system more broadly. In a statement late Tuesday night, Wiley laced into the Board of Elections, calling the error “the result of generations of failures that have gone unaddressed,” and adding: “Sadly it is impossible to be surprised.” “Today, we have once again seen the mismanagement that has resulted in a lack of confidence in results, not because there is a flaw in our election laws, but because those who implement it have failed too many times,” she said. “The BOE must now count the remainder of the votes transparently and ensure the integrity of the process moving forward.” Garcia said the release of the inaccurate tally was “deeply troubling and requires a much more transparent and complete explanation.” “Every ranked choice and absentee vote must be counted accurately so that all New Yorkers have faith in our democracy and our government,” she said. “I am confident that every candidate will accept the final results and support whomever the voters have elected.” And Adams noted the “unfortunate” error by the Board of Elections and emphasized the importance of handling election results correctly. “It is critical that New Yorkers are confident in their electoral system, especially as we rank votes in a citywide election for the first time,” he said in a statement released Tuesday night. “We appreciate the board’s transparency and acknowledgment of their error. We look forward to the release of an accurate, updated simulation, and the timely conclusion of this critical process.” If elected, Adams would be the city’s second Black mayor, after David Dinkins. Some of Adams’ supporters have already cast the ranked-choice process as an attempt to disenfranchise voters of color, an argument that intensified among some backers on Tuesday afternoon as the race had appeared to tighten, and is virtually certain to escalate should he lose his primary night lead to Garcia, who is white. Surrogates for Adams have suggested without evidence that an apparent ranked-choice alliance between Garcia and another rival, Andrew Yang, could amount to an attempt to suppress the votes of Black and Latino New Yorkers; Adams himself claimed that the alliance was aimed at preventing a Black or Latino candidate from winning the race. In the final days of the race, Garcia and Yang campaigned together across the city, especially in neighborhoods that are home to sizable Asian American communities, and appeared together on campaign literature. To advocates of ranked-choice voting, the round-by-round shuffling of outcomes is part of the process of electing a candidate with broad appeal. But if Garcia or Wiley were to prevail, the process — which was approved by voters in a 2019 ballot measure — would likely attract fresh scrutiny, with some of Adams’ backers and others already urging a new referendum on it. By Tuesday night, though, it was the Board of Elections that was attracting ire from seemingly all corners. Betsy Gotbaum, the city’s former public advocate who now runs Citizens Union, a good-government group, warned that “the entire country is watching” the Board of Elections. “New Yorkers deserve elections, and election administrators, that they can have the utmost faith in,” Gotbaum added. A comparison between first-place vote totals released on primary night and those released Tuesday offered some insight into how the 135,000 erroneous votes were distributed. The bottom four candidates received a total of 42,000 new votes, roughly four times their actual vote total; the number of write-in ballots also skyrocketed to 17,516 from 1,336. Adams and Yang received the highest number of new votes. It was not known, however, how the test votes were reallocated during the ranked-choice tabulations, making it impossible to determine how they affected the preliminary results that were released and then retracted. When accurate vote counts are in place, it is difficult, but not unheard-of for a trailing candidate in a ranked-choice election to eventually win the race through later rounds of voting — that happened in Oakland, California, in 2010, and nearly occurred in San Francisco in 2018. The winner of New York’s Democratic primary, who is almost certain to become the city’s next mayor, will face Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, who won the Republican primary. According to the now-withdrawn tabulation released Tuesday, Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, nearly made it to the final round. She finished closely behind Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner, before being eliminated in the penultimate round of the preliminary exercise. After the count of in-person ballots last week, Garcia trailed Wiley by about 2.8 percentage points. Asked if she had been in touch with Wiley’s team, Garcia suggested there had been staff-level conversations. “The campaigns have been speaking to each other,” Garcia said in a phone call Tuesday afternoon, saying the two candidates had not yet spoken directly. “Hopefully we don’t have to step in with attorneys. But it is about really ensuring that New York City’s voices are heard.” Wiley ran well to the left of Garcia on a number of vital policy matters, including around policing and on some education questions. Either candidate would be the first woman elected mayor of New York, and Wiley would be the city’s first Black female mayor. Adams, a former police captain and a relative moderate on several key issues, was a non-starter for many progressive voters who may have preferred Garcia and her focus on competence over any especially ideological message. But early results suggested that Adams had significant strength among working-class voters of color, and some traction among white voters with moderate views. City Councilman I. Daneek Miller, an Adams supporter who is pressing for a new referendum on ranked-choice voting, suggested in a text message on Tuesday that the system had opened the door to “an attempt to eliminate the candidate of moderate working people and traditionally marginalized communities,” as he implicitly criticized the Yang-Garcia alliance. “It is incumbent on us now to address the issue of ranked voting and how it is being weaponized against a wide portion of the public,” said Miller, co-chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus on the City Council. Other close observers of the election separately expressed discomfort with the decision to release a ranked-choice tally without accounting for absentee ballots. “There is real danger that voters will come to believe a set of facts about the race that will be disproven when all votes are in,” said Ben Greenfield, a senior survey data analyst at Change Research, which conducted polling for a pro-Garcia PAC. “The risk is that this could take a system that’s already new and confusing and increase people’s sense of mistrust.”

New York mayor’s race in chaos after elections board counts 135,000 test ballots

UN&nbsp;Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to US&nbsp;President Joe Biden's administration to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal aimed at stopping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. 
 
In a report to the UN&nbsp;Security Council, Guterres also urged the United States to 'extend the waivers with regard to the trade in oil with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and fully renew waivers for nuclear non-proliferation projects'. 
 
The 15-member council will on Tuesday discuss the secretary-general's biannual report on the implementation of a 2015 resolution that enshrines the nuclear deal between Iran, the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China. 
 
Guterres' appeal to Washington comes amid talks to revive the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, under which Iran accepted curbs on its nuclear programme in return for a lifting of many foreign sanctions against it. 
 
Former US&nbsp;President Donald Trump abandoned the pact in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions, prompting Tehran to start violating some of the nuclear limits in 2019. 
 
"I appeal to the United States to lift or waive its sanctions outlined in the plan," said Guterres, who also appealed to Iran to return to full implementation of the deal. 
 
Iran has refined uranium up to a purity of roughly 60%, far above the deal's limit of 3.67% and much closer to the 90% suitable for atom bomb cores, though it maintains that it seeks only civilian nuclear power and could quickly reverse its moves if Washington rescinded sanctions and returned to the 2015 deal. 
 
Guterres said: "I continue to believe that a full restoration of the Plan remains the best way to ensure that the nuclear programme of the Islamic Republic of Iran remains exclusively peaceful."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to US President Joe Biden's administration to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal aimed at stopping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to US President Joe Biden's administration to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal aimed at stopping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. In a report to the UN Security Council, Guterres also urged the United States to 'extend the waivers with regard to the trade in oil with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and fully renew waivers for nuclear non-proliferation projects'. The 15-member council will on Tuesday discuss the secretary-general's biannual report on the implementation of a 2015 resolution that enshrines the nuclear deal between Iran, the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China. Guterres' appeal to Washington comes amid talks to revive the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, under which Iran accepted curbs on its nuclear programme in return for a lifting of many foreign sanctions against it. Former US President Donald Trump abandoned the pact in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions, prompting Tehran to start violating some of the nuclear limits in 2019. "I appeal to the United States to lift or waive its sanctions outlined in the plan," said Guterres, who also appealed to Iran to return to full implementation of the deal. Iran has refined uranium up to a purity of roughly 60%, far above the deal's limit of 3.67% and much closer to the 90% suitable for atom bomb cores, though it maintains that it seeks only civilian nuclear power and could quickly reverse its moves if Washington rescinded sanctions and returned to the 2015 deal. Guterres said: "I continue to believe that a full restoration of the Plan remains the best way to ensure that the nuclear programme of the Islamic Republic of Iran remains exclusively peaceful."

UN chief urges US to remove Iran sanctions as agreed in 2015

The United States on Tuesday banned ticket sales for air travel to and from Belarus, acting after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land and arrested a dissident journalist aboard. 
 
The order is Washington's latest response to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's harsh crackdown against months of pro-democracy protests over his alleged rigging of an August 2020 election. The longtime ruler denies election fraud. 
 
The United States and the European Union have refused to recognise his victory and imposed sanctions against top Belarusian officials and other targets. 
 
In issuing the ban, the US&nbsp;Transportation Department said the State Department had determined that limiting travel between the United States and Belarus was in Washington's foreign policy interest following the diversion of the Ryanair flight. 
 
The order still would permit "the operation of any transportation deemed to be in the national interest of the United States, including on humanitarian or national security grounds," according to the text. 
 
It said the order would extend to 'interline' travel in which tickets are purchased through one airline that contain flights operated by multiple airlines. 
 
The directive, under consideration for several weeks, is mostly symbolic since relatively few tickets are purchased for travel to Belarus from US-based travel services. 
 
It is open for public comment until July 1. 
 
After the May 23 forced landing of the Ryanair flight en route from Athens to Vilnius, the US&nbsp;government advised passenger airlines to use extreme caution when flying over Belarus. At the time, the United States stopped short of imposing any restrictions. 
 
The 'Notice to Airmen' does not apply to cargo carriers, such as United Parcel Service and Fedex Corp that fly over Belarus. 
 
United Airlines flies a route to India that sometimes is routed near Belarus, but no other US&nbsp;passenger carrier typically flies through the former Soviet republic's airspace.

The United States on Tuesday banned ticket sales for air travel to and from Belarus, acting after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land and arrested a dissident journalist aboard.

The United States on Tuesday banned ticket sales for air travel to and from Belarus, acting after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land and arrested a dissident journalist aboard. The order is Washington's latest response to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's harsh crackdown against months of pro-democracy protests over his alleged rigging of an August 2020 election. The longtime ruler denies election fraud. The United States and the European Union have refused to recognise his victory and imposed sanctions against top Belarusian officials and other targets. In issuing the ban, the US Transportation Department said the State Department had determined that limiting travel between the United States and Belarus was in Washington's foreign policy interest following the diversion of the Ryanair flight. The order still would permit "the operation of any transportation deemed to be in the national interest of the United States, including on humanitarian or national security grounds," according to the text. It said the order would extend to 'interline' travel in which tickets are purchased through one airline that contain flights operated by multiple airlines. The directive, under consideration for several weeks, is mostly symbolic since relatively few tickets are purchased for travel to Belarus from US-based travel services. It is open for public comment until July 1. After the May 23 forced landing of the Ryanair flight en route from Athens to Vilnius, the US government advised passenger airlines to use extreme caution when flying over Belarus. At the time, the United States stopped short of imposing any restrictions. The 'Notice to Airmen' does not apply to cargo carriers, such as United Parcel Service and Fedex Corp that fly over Belarus. United Airlines flies a route to India that sometimes is routed near Belarus, but no other US passenger carrier typically flies through the former Soviet republic's airspace.

US bans ticket sales for passenger flights to Belarus

Lawyers fighting the extradition of Huawei's chief financial officer to the United States on Tuesday presented internal emails from British bank HSBC that they said disproved US&nbsp;claims that Huawei misled the bank. 
 
CFO Meng Wanzhou's legal team said the emails and documents submitted to a Canadian court showed at least two senior HSBC leaders were aware of connections between Huawei and its Iranian subsidiary, Skycom. HSBC declined to comment. 
 
Meng's lawyers are trying to add the documents to evidence. They are meant to counter US&nbsp;charges that only junior employees of the British bank knew about the true nature of relationship between Huawei and Skycom. 
 
US&nbsp;prosecutors have alleged that Meng misled HSBC about Huawei's business dealings in Iran and may have caused the bank to break US&nbsp;sanctions. 
 
Meng, 49, was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport on charges of bank fraud in the United States. She has been held on house arrest for more than two years while her case moves through the Canadian legal system. 
 
Her legal team has extracted internal documents from HSBC through a court in Hong Kong, and they hope to refer to them in the case's final hearings scheduled for August. 
 
In particular, the defence alleges that two HSBC managing directors viewed Meng's presentation to HSBC about Huawei's business in Iran. They said it made clear Skycom's ownership structure. 
 
Meng and her legal team appeared in the British Columbia Supreme Court on Tuesday on the first day of a two-day hearing where they will argue to add more evidence to support her case. 
 
The evidence shows the US&nbsp;argument is "so defective as to compel the courts to place no reliance on them," Mark Sandler, defence lawyer for Meng, told the court. 
 
Prosecutors representing the Canadian government argued that the evidence and arguments were beyond the scope of an extradition hearing.

Lawyers fighting the extradition of Huawei's chief financial officer to the United States on Tuesday presented internal emails from British bank HSBC that they said disproved US claims that Huawei misled the bank.

Lawyers fighting the extradition of Huawei's chief financial officer to the United States on Tuesday presented internal emails from British bank HSBC that they said disproved US claims that Huawei misled the bank. CFO Meng Wanzhou's legal team said the emails and documents submitted to a Canadian court showed at least two senior HSBC leaders were aware of connections between Huawei and its Iranian subsidiary, Skycom. HSBC declined to comment. Meng's lawyers are trying to add the documents to evidence. They are meant to counter US charges that only junior employees of the British bank knew about the true nature of relationship between Huawei and Skycom. US prosecutors have alleged that Meng misled HSBC about Huawei's business dealings in Iran and may have caused the bank to break US sanctions. Meng, 49, was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport on charges of bank fraud in the United States. She has been held on house arrest for more than two years while her case moves through the Canadian legal system. Her legal team has extracted internal documents from HSBC through a court in Hong Kong, and they hope to refer to them in the case's final hearings scheduled for August. In particular, the defence alleges that two HSBC managing directors viewed Meng's presentation to HSBC about Huawei's business in Iran. They said it made clear Skycom's ownership structure. Meng and her legal team appeared in the British Columbia Supreme Court on Tuesday on the first day of a two-day hearing where they will argue to add more evidence to support her case. The evidence shows the US argument is "so defective as to compel the courts to place no reliance on them," Mark Sandler, defence lawyer for Meng, told the court. Prosecutors representing the Canadian government argued that the evidence and arguments were beyond the scope of an extradition hearing.

Huawei CFO says HSBC emails disprove basis for US extradition claim

Israel's new foreign minister inaugurated its embassy in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday and offered an olive branch to other former adversaries, saying: "We're here to stay." 
 
Yair Lapid's two-day visit, in which he will open an Israeli consulate in Dubai on Wednesday, is the first to the Gulf state by an Israeli cabinet minister since the countries established ties last year. 
 
The trip is also an opportunity for the two-week-old Israeli government of Naftali Bennett, a nationalist, who heads an improbable cross-partisan coalition, to make diplomatic inroads despite long-stymied talks with the Palestinians. 
 
"Israel wants peace with its neighbours - with all its neighbours. We aren't going anywhere. The Middle East is our home," Lapid said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Abu Dhabi high-rise office serving as a temporary embassy. 
 
"We're here to stay. We call on all the countries of the region to recognise that and to come to talk to us," he said.

Brought together by shared worries about Iran and hopes for commercial boons, the UAE and Bahrain normalised relations with Israel last year under so-called 'Abraham Accords' crafted by the administration of then US-President Donald Trump. Sudan and Morocco have since also moved to establish ties with Israel. 
 
Lapid and his Emirati counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan discussed building on the accords to achieve peace and strengthen security in the region, state news agency WAM said. 
 
They signed an agreement for economic and commercial cooperation, which an Israeli spokesman had earlier said would be the 12th since last year's move to forge ties. 
 
US&nbsp;Secretary of State Antony Blinken, welcoming Lapid's visit, said Washington "will continue to work with Israel and the UAE as we strengthen all aspects of our partnerships and work to create a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous future for all the peoples of the Middle East", the State Department said. 
 
The regional rapprochement was deplored by the Palestinians, who want their demands for statehood free of Israeli occupation addressed first. 
 
President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the accords as 'an illusion' and asserted that colonial powers had "implant(ed) Israel as a foreign body in this region in order to fragment it and keep it weak," according to a report on Tuesday by the official Palestinian news service WAFA.

Lapid will on Wednesday visit the site of Expo 2020 Dubai, a world fair opening in October where Israel has built a pavilion. 
 
The UAE formally opened its embassy in Israel, temporarily located in the Tel Aviv stock exchange, this month. 
 
Israel's Abu Dhabi embassy still has only three diplomats and a head of mission, Eitan Na'eh, yet to be confirmed as full ambassador. Its Dubai consulate is similarly located in temporary premises. 
 
(With inputs from agencies)

Israel's new foreign minister inaugurated its embassy in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday and offered an olive branch to other former adversaries, saying: "We're here to stay.

Israel's new foreign minister inaugurated its embassy in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday and offered an olive branch to other former adversaries, saying: "We're here to stay." Yair Lapid's two-day visit, in which he will open an Israeli consulate in Dubai on Wednesday, is the first to the Gulf state by an Israeli cabinet minister since the countries established ties last year. The trip is also an opportunity for the two-week-old Israeli government of Naftali Bennett, a nationalist, who heads an improbable cross-partisan coalition, to make diplomatic inroads despite long-stymied talks with the Palestinians. "Israel wants peace with its neighbours - with all its neighbours. We aren't going anywhere. The Middle East is our home," Lapid said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Abu Dhabi high-rise office serving as a temporary embassy. "We're here to stay. We call on all the countries of the region to recognise that and to come to talk to us," he said. Brought together by shared worries about Iran and hopes for commercial boons, the UAE and Bahrain normalised relations with Israel last year under so-called 'Abraham Accords' crafted by the administration of then US-President Donald Trump. Sudan and Morocco have since also moved to establish ties with Israel. Lapid and his Emirati counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan discussed building on the accords to achieve peace and strengthen security in the region, state news agency WAM said. They signed an agreement for economic and commercial cooperation, which an Israeli spokesman had earlier said would be the 12th since last year's move to forge ties. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, welcoming Lapid's visit, said Washington "will continue to work with Israel and the UAE as we strengthen all aspects of our partnerships and work to create a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous future for all the peoples of the Middle East", the State Department said. The regional rapprochement was deplored by the Palestinians, who want their demands for statehood free of Israeli occupation addressed first. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the accords as 'an illusion' and asserted that colonial powers had "implant(ed) Israel as a foreign body in this region in order to fragment it and keep it weak," according to a report on Tuesday by the official Palestinian news service WAFA. Lapid will on Wednesday visit the site of Expo 2020 Dubai, a world fair opening in October where Israel has built a pavilion. The UAE formally opened its embassy in Israel, temporarily located in the Tel Aviv stock exchange, this month. Israel's Abu Dhabi embassy still has only three diplomats and a head of mission, Eitan Na'eh, yet to be confirmed as full ambassador. Its Dubai consulate is similarly located in temporary premises. (With inputs from agencies)

Inaugurating embassy in UAE, Israel tells region: 'We're here to stay'

The US&nbsp;military appears just days away from completing its withdrawal from Afghanistan, well ahead of the September&nbsp;11 deadline set by President Joe Biden to end America's longest war, US&nbsp;officials told Reuters on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. 
 
The withdrawal of troops and equipment from Afghanistan would not include forces that will remain to protect diplomats at the US&nbsp;embassy and potentially assist securing Kabul airport. 
 
US&nbsp;officials have told Reuters that embassy presence could be around 650 troops. 
 
The US military stopped publicly detailing the pace of its withdrawal after it was more than 50 per cent complete earlier in June. 
 
The disclosure of the brisk pace of the US&nbsp;withdrawal comes as the Taliban insurgency ramps up its offensive throughout the country. The Pentagon now estimates the Taliban control 81 of the country's 419 district centers. 
 
Peace talks in Qatar, meanwhile, have failed to make significant progress. 
 
The Pentagon said earlier on Tuesday that the US&nbsp;withdrawal would not necessarily signify the end of NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, but referred further queries to NATO. 
 
The withdraw of US-led NATO forces has raised concerns that the country could erupt in full-scale civil war, potentially providing al Qaeda space in which to rebuild and plan new attacks on US&nbsp;and other targets. 
 
A United Nations report in January said there were as many as 500 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and that the Taliban maintained a close relationship with the Islamist extremist group. The Taliban denies al Qaeda has a presence in Afghanistan. 
 
US&nbsp;Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected on Wednesday to meet his Germany counterpart at the Pentagon. Germany, which had the second largest contingent of troops after the United States in Afghanistan, announced on Tuesday that it had concluded its withdrawal from Afghanistan. 
 
It was unclear if the pace of the US&nbsp;withdrawal would still allow first for a planned evacuation of thousands of vulnerable Afghan interpreters and their families, something that had been expected before the US&nbsp;pullout.

The US military appears just days away from completing its withdrawal from Afghanistan, well ahead of the September 11 deadline set by President Joe Biden to end America's longest war, US officials told Reuters on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The US military appears just days away from completing its withdrawal from Afghanistan, well ahead of the September 11 deadline set by President Joe Biden to end America's longest war, US officials told Reuters on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The withdrawal of troops and equipment from Afghanistan would not include forces that will remain to protect diplomats at the US embassy and potentially assist securing Kabul airport. US officials have told Reuters that embassy presence could be around 650 troops. The US military stopped publicly detailing the pace of its withdrawal after it was more than 50 per cent complete earlier in June. The disclosure of the brisk pace of the US withdrawal comes as the Taliban insurgency ramps up its offensive throughout the country. The Pentagon now estimates the Taliban control 81 of the country's 419 district centers. Peace talks in Qatar, meanwhile, have failed to make significant progress. The Pentagon said earlier on Tuesday that the US withdrawal would not necessarily signify the end of NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, but referred further queries to NATO. The withdraw of US-led NATO forces has raised concerns that the country could erupt in full-scale civil war, potentially providing al Qaeda space in which to rebuild and plan new attacks on US and other targets. A United Nations report in January said there were as many as 500 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and that the Taliban maintained a close relationship with the Islamist extremist group. The Taliban denies al Qaeda has a presence in Afghanistan. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected on Wednesday to meet his Germany counterpart at the Pentagon. Germany, which had the second largest contingent of troops after the United States in Afghanistan, announced on Tuesday that it had concluded its withdrawal from Afghanistan. It was unclear if the pace of the US withdrawal would still allow first for a planned evacuation of thousands of vulnerable Afghan interpreters and their families, something that had been expected before the US pullout.

US military days away from completing Afghan withdrawal: Sources

An opposition senator filed a formal criminal complaint at the Supreme Court on Monday against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for his role in a COVID-19 vaccine deal that is under investigation for alleged irregularities. 
 
Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing in the deal to buy vaccines developed by India's Bharat Biotech, saying on Monday that he was not aware of any irregularities. A health ministry whistleblower had&nbsp;said he personally alerted the president to being pressured by his superiors to buy the shots. 
 
In a video released by his office, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues said he had filed a request for the Supreme Court to probe the president 'on account of the serious allegations' and because Bolsonaro 'did not take any action after being notified of the existence of a giant corruption scheme in the health ministry'. 
 
The president's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
The Bharat contract is being probed by federal prosecutors and lawmakers to see why the government struck a speedy agreement with an intermediary for the company after COVID-19 vaccine offers from Pfizer Inc at a lower price were ignored. 
 
Brazilian federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into a contract worth 1.6 billion reais ($320 million) for 20 million doses of Bharat Biotech's vaccine. Prosecutors cited comparatively high prices, quick talks and pending regulatory approvals as red flags for the contract signed in February. 
 
Rodrigues, who represents the opposition Rede Sustentabilidade party, is a senior member of a Senate committee probing the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. 
 
More than 500,000 people have died from the virus in Brazil, and Bolsonaro has seen his popularity fade after playing down its severity, shunning lockdowns and touting unproven miracle cures. 
 
It remains to be seen if Rodrigues' request will be accepted by the Supreme Court, but the seriousness of the allegations is likely to pose a headache for the president ahead of next year's election where is almost certain to seek re-election. 
 
(With inputs from agencies)

An opposition senator filed a formal criminal complaint at the Supreme Court on Monday against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for his role in a COVID-19 vaccine deal that is under investigation for alleged irregularities.

An opposition senator filed a formal criminal complaint at the Supreme Court on Monday against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for his role in a COVID-19 vaccine deal that is under investigation for alleged irregularities. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing in the deal to buy vaccines developed by India's Bharat Biotech, saying on Monday that he was not aware of any irregularities. A health ministry whistleblower had said he personally alerted the president to being pressured by his superiors to buy the shots. In a video released by his office, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues said he had filed a request for the Supreme Court to probe the president 'on account of the serious allegations' and because Bolsonaro 'did not take any action after being notified of the existence of a giant corruption scheme in the health ministry'. The president's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Bharat contract is being probed by federal prosecutors and lawmakers to see why the government struck a speedy agreement with an intermediary for the company after COVID-19 vaccine offers from Pfizer Inc at a lower price were ignored. Brazilian federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into a contract worth 1.6 billion reais ($320 million) for 20 million doses of Bharat Biotech's vaccine. Prosecutors cited comparatively high prices, quick talks and pending regulatory approvals as red flags for the contract signed in February. Rodrigues, who represents the opposition Rede Sustentabilidade party, is a senior member of a Senate committee probing the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 500,000 people have died from the virus in Brazil, and Bolsonaro has seen his popularity fade after playing down its severity, shunning lockdowns and touting unproven miracle cures. It remains to be seen if Rodrigues' request will be accepted by the Supreme Court, but the seriousness of the allegations is likely to pose a headache for the president ahead of next year's election where is almost certain to seek re-election. (With inputs from agencies)

Brazil senator files criminal complaint against Bolsonaro over vaccine deal with India's Bharat Biotech

Australia said it has teamed up with the United States and Canada to launch an interactive map of deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals that are expected to be in hot demand as the world moves to cleaner forms of energy. 
 
The map contains the world’s largest dataset of minerals, such cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements and has more than 7,000 mineral samples from over 60 countries, which could help identify new areas of critical minerals. 
 
The data can be used by governments to identify options to diversify their critical minerals sources and by companies to better target their exploration strategies, Keith Pitt, the minister for resources, water and northern Australia, said in a statement. 
 
"While Australia is known across the world for its rich gold and iron ore deposits, our country also has an abundance of critical minerals, which are key to everything from iPhones to fighter jets," he added. 
 
China is the dominant supplier of rare earths, which are used in electric vehicle batteries, a wide range of consumer products as well as satellites and lasers. Western governments have been keen to diversify procurement amid trade and political tensions with Beijing. 
 
The United States said this month, it would work with allies to secure the minerals needed for electric vehicle batteries and process them domestically. 
 
The dataset was compiled by Geoscience Australia, the Geological Survey of Canada and the United States Geological Survey. 
 
(With inputs from agencies)

Australia said it has teamed up with the United States and Canada to launch an interactive map of deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals that are expected to be in hot demand as the world moves to cleaner forms of energy.

Australia said it has teamed up with the United States and Canada to launch an interactive map of deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals that are expected to be in hot demand as the world moves to cleaner forms of energy. The map contains the world’s largest dataset of minerals, such cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements and has more than 7,000 mineral samples from over 60 countries, which could help identify new areas of critical minerals. The data can be used by governments to identify options to diversify their critical minerals sources and by companies to better target their exploration strategies, Keith Pitt, the minister for resources, water and northern Australia, said in a statement. "While Australia is known across the world for its rich gold and iron ore deposits, our country also has an abundance of critical minerals, which are key to everything from iPhones to fighter jets," he added. China is the dominant supplier of rare earths, which are used in electric vehicle batteries, a wide range of consumer products as well as satellites and lasers. Western governments have been keen to diversify procurement amid trade and political tensions with Beijing. The United States said this month, it would work with allies to secure the minerals needed for electric vehicle batteries and process them domestically. The dataset was compiled by Geoscience Australia, the Geological Survey of Canada and the United States Geological Survey. (With inputs from agencies)

Australia, US and Canada launch interactive map for critical minerals

Multiple users complained about an outage affecting Alphabet Inc's search engine Google as well as its streaming and email services, according to outage monitoring website Downdetector. 
 
Platforms including Google, YouTube and Gmail were down on Monday evening, with users complaining of difficulty in logging in and accessing the website in parts of North America, according to Downdetector. 
 
More than a thousand users were having difficulties with the search engine at one point, the outage monitoring website showed, and users were also facing issues with YouTube TV and Google Drive. 
 
The issue affecting the platforms was not immediately clear. 
 
Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters; request for comment after business hours. 
 
Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from a series of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform.

Multiple users complained about an outage affecting Alphabet Inc's search engine Google as well as its streaming and email services, according to outage monitoring website Downdetector.

Multiple users complained about an outage affecting Alphabet Inc's search engine Google as well as its streaming and email services, according to outage monitoring website Downdetector. Platforms including Google, YouTube and Gmail were down on Monday evening, with users complaining of difficulty in logging in and accessing the website in parts of North America, according to Downdetector. More than a thousand users were having difficulties with the search engine at one point, the outage monitoring website showed, and users were also facing issues with YouTube TV and Google Drive. The issue affecting the platforms was not immediately clear. Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters; request for comment after business hours. Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from a series of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform.

Google services down for some users: Web tracker

Google took down two Google Maps documents on Monday that had listed the names and addresses of hundreds of Thai activists, who were accused by royalists of opposing the monarchy, the technology company said. 
 
Thai royalist activist Songklod 'Pukem' Chuenchoopol said he and a team of 80 volunteers had created the maps and planned to report everyone named on them to police on accusations of insulting the monarchy. 
 
A spokesperson for Alphabet's Google said by email 'the issue is now fixed', and noted: "We have clear policies about what's acceptable for user generated My Maps content. We remove user generated maps that violate our policies." 
 
A version of one of the maps included the names and addresses of nearly 500 people, many of them students, together with their photos in university or high school uniforms. It had received over 350,000 views. 
 
The faces of those named had been covered by black squares with the number 112, in reference to the article under the country's criminal code, which makes insulting or defaming the monarchy punishable by up to 15 years in prison. 
 
Neither map could be accessed on late Monday. 
 
Songklod said that he and the team of volunteers sought to highlight those they accused of breaking that law. 
 
"When each of us sees something offensive posted on social media, we put it on the map," he said. Describing it as a 'psychological' warfare operation, Songklod said the aim was to dissuade people from online criticism of the monarchy. 
 
Youth-led protests that began last year brought unprecedented criticism of the monarchy and calls for its reform both on the streets and online. 
 
The government did not immediately respond to comment on the removal of the Google Maps or the content they contained. 
 
Songklod, 54, a retired army captain and prominent right-wing activist, said he considered the operation targeting opponents of the monarchy a 'massive success' despite the removal of the maps. 
 
The royalist activist said the content in them had come from public research. 
 
Human rights groups and critics of the establishment said the maps included the private data and addresses of hundreds of people and could put them at risk of violence. 
 
"I started to get panicked messages from young people in Thailand who had been doxxed in a royalist document on Google Maps accusing them of being anti-monarchy," said Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a Scotland-based critic of the monarchy and one of the earliest to highlight the existence of the maps. 
 
"It’s clear that young Thai people who just want democracy are facing worsening risks."

(With inputs from agencies)

Google took down two Google Maps documents on Monday that had listed the names and addresses of hundreds of Thai activists, who were accused by royalists of opposing the monarchy, the technology company said.

Google took down two Google Maps documents on Monday that had listed the names and addresses of hundreds of Thai activists, who were accused by royalists of opposing the monarchy, the technology company said. Thai royalist activist Songklod 'Pukem' Chuenchoopol said he and a team of 80 volunteers had created the maps and planned to report everyone named on them to police on accusations of insulting the monarchy. A spokesperson for Alphabet's Google said by email 'the issue is now fixed', and noted: "We have clear policies about what's acceptable for user generated My Maps content. We remove user generated maps that violate our policies." A version of one of the maps included the names and addresses of nearly 500 people, many of them students, together with their photos in university or high school uniforms. It had received over 350,000 views. The faces of those named had been covered by black squares with the number 112, in reference to the article under the country's criminal code, which makes insulting or defaming the monarchy punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Neither map could be accessed on late Monday. Songklod said that he and the team of volunteers sought to highlight those they accused of breaking that law. "When each of us sees something offensive posted on social media, we put it on the map," he said. Describing it as a 'psychological' warfare operation, Songklod said the aim was to dissuade people from online criticism of the monarchy. Youth-led protests that began last year brought unprecedented criticism of the monarchy and calls for its reform both on the streets and online. The government did not immediately respond to comment on the removal of the Google Maps or the content they contained. Songklod, 54, a retired army captain and prominent right-wing activist, said he considered the operation targeting opponents of the monarchy a 'massive success' despite the removal of the maps. The royalist activist said the content in them had come from public research. Human rights groups and critics of the establishment said the maps included the private data and addresses of hundreds of people and could put them at risk of violence. "I started to get panicked messages from young people in Thailand who had been doxxed in a royalist document on Google Maps accusing them of being anti-monarchy," said Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a Scotland-based critic of the monarchy and one of the earliest to highlight the existence of the maps. "It’s clear that young Thai people who just want democracy are facing worsening risks." (With inputs from agencies)

Google takes down maps targeting hundreds of Thais accused of opposing king

Uber Technologies Inc will let employees work half their hours from wherever they want as part of its revamped return-to-office strategy, the transport app company plans to announce on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. 
 
In one of the most flexible policies offered yet by a big US&nbsp;tech company as the COVID-19 pandemic eases, Uber plans to say that those working in offices need to spend at least 50% of their time there. 
 
But unlike many other companies the policy does not mean at least three days per week in the office, the source said. Instead, workers can show up five days one week and zero the next. 
 
The plan is a reversal from April when Uber said that from September 'employees can work from home up to two days a week, but with a clear expectation that they also come into the office three days a week'. 
 
When working remotely, employees can be wherever, including at home, with family or even more exotic destinations. They will be encouraged to try working away from their regular home for four weeks a year, the source said. 
 
The company on Tuesday also is expected to say it will begin allowing more employees to work remotely all the time. 
 
Online news outlet Insider first reported details of the plan on Monday.

Uber Technologies Inc will let employees work half their hours from wherever they want as part of its revamped return-to-office strategy, the transport app company plans to announce on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Uber Technologies Inc will let employees work half their hours from wherever they want as part of its revamped return-to-office strategy, the transport app company plans to announce on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. In one of the most flexible policies offered yet by a big US tech company as the COVID-19 pandemic eases, Uber plans to say that those working in offices need to spend at least 50% of their time there. But unlike many other companies the policy does not mean at least three days per week in the office, the source said. Instead, workers can show up five days one week and zero the next. The plan is a reversal from April when Uber said that from September 'employees can work from home up to two days a week, but with a clear expectation that they also come into the office three days a week'. When working remotely, employees can be wherever, including at home, with family or even more exotic destinations. They will be encouraged to try working away from their regular home for four weeks a year, the source said. The company on Tuesday also is expected to say it will begin allowing more employees to work remotely all the time. Online news outlet Insider first reported details of the plan on Monday.

Uber to let office staff work up to half their time from anywhere: Source

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