Briefly

UNITED STATES

Appeals court rejects immediate WeChat ban

A US appeals court on Monday rejected a Justice Department appeal to immediately ban WeChat, a messaging, social media and mobile payment app owned by Chinese company Tencent, in the country. According to judges for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the government had not demonstrated that it would "suffer an imminent, irreparable injury during the pendency of this appeal, which is being expedited". On Friday, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler from the District Court for the Northern District of California also denied the government's motion to stay the preliminary injunction on banning WeChat. To fight for the legal rights of all WeChat users in the country, the US WeChat Users Alliance sued the government over the ban. The lawsuit opened in court on Sept 17.

SYRIA

Airstrike kills dozens of opposition fighters

An airstrike on a rebel training camp in northwestern Syria on Monday killed more than 50 Turkish-backed fighters and wounded nearly as many, in one of the heaviest blows to the opposition's strongest groups. Youssef Hammoud, a spokesman for the Syrian opposition, said the airstrike targeted a military training camp for Faylaq al-Sham in Idlib. The camp is the largest run by the Turkish-backed armed factions in the opposition. Monday's strike was the deadliest in Idlib since the Turkish-Russian-brokered truce there came into effect earlier this year.

JAPAN

ANA to shrink its fleet to help rein in costs

Japan's ANA Holdings on Tuesday said it will retire more than a tenth of its mostly Boeing fleet and delay two aircraft orders to help rein in costs and survive a collapse in air travel caused by coronavirus travel restrictions. Forecasting a record operating loss of 505 billion yen ($4.82 billion) for the year to March 31, Japan's biggest airline said it will also temporarily transfer more than 400 workers to other companies and ask those remaining to accept pay cuts or unpaid leave. ANA, like other airlines, is burning through cash to keep jets flying albeit with too few passengers. Though demand for domestic flights has recovered to about half of last year's level, helped by government-subsidized travel, the airline is flying only a fraction of its usual international schedule.

Xinhua - Agencies