Briefly

UNITED STATES

1st black woman sworn in as top court justice

Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in on Thursday to formally become an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, making her the nation's first black woman to serve in that role. It came a day after 83-year-old Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, who had served in the Supreme Court since 1994 and announced his retirement from the court earlier this year, said he would step down from the Supreme Court bench on Thursday.

SRI LANKA

Inflation hits record 54.6 percent in June

Sri Lanka's inflation hit a ninth consecutive record in June, official data showed on Friday, rising to 54.6 percent a day after the International Monetary Fund asked the nation to rein in galloping prices. It was the first time the increase in the Colombo Consumer Price Index crossed the psychologically important 50 percent mark, according to the census and statistics department. The CCPI has been setting new monthly highs since October, when year-on-year inflation stood at just 7.6 percent. In May, it reached 39.1 percent.

INDIA

Some single-use plastic items banned

India banned some single-use or disposable plastic products on Friday as part of a federal plan to phase out the ubiquitous material in the nation of nearly 1.4 billion people. For the first stage, it has identified 19 plastic items, ranging from plastic cups to straws and ice cream sticks. Some disposable plastic bags will also be phased out and replaced with thicker ones. Thousands of other plastic products－like bottles for water or soda, or bags for chips－are not covered by the ban.

Xinhua - Agencies