Briefly

MIDDLE EAST

Hamas warns over West Bank annexation

Israel's planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank would be a "declaration of war", Gaza's rulers Hamas said on Thursday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aims to table annexation plans from July 1, despite opposition from the Palestinians and much of the international community. The Hamas movement and Israel have fought three conflicts in recent years, with the latest one in 2014 killing 2,251 Palestinians and 74 people on the Israeli side.

UNITED STATES

Stimulus checks sent to 1 million dead people

The US Treasury sent checks designed to help stimulate the economy devastated by COVID19 to more than one million dead people, according to a government watchdog report on Thursday. The independent Government Accountability Office, or GAO, said that, since the Treasury began sending out cash to taxpayers in April to counter massive job losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, 160.4 million economic impact payments worth $269 billion have been made. However, by April 30, when 120 million payments had been completed, payments worth $1.4 billion had been sent to 1.1 million dead people, according to the GAO. It was not clear how many of those were due to mistakes in the Treasury's systems and how many were deliberate fraudulent claims.

Xinhua - Agencies