This is VOA news. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday he said was aimed at reining in social media platforms although analysts doubt it will survive legal scrutiny.
The president said his action is meant to "protect and uphold the free speech rights of the American people."
"The choices that Twitter makes when it chooses to suppress, edit, blacklist, shadow, ban are editorial decisions, pure and simple. They're editorial decisions. In those moments, Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform and they become an editor with a viewpoint ...."
The move comes after Twitter added a warning phrase to two of Trump's tweets declining vote-by-mail efforts. The warning tells users to "get the facts about mail-in ballots."
The president had earlier threatened to shut down social media platforms - something legal experts doubt could be done without an act of Congress.
Roughly 2.1 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that companies are still slashing jobs as states continue the reopening process. AP's Shelley Adler reports.
While the layoffs continue to slow, almost 41 million Americans have lost their jobs since the virus hit.
"This is representing a falling trajectory but still elevated new claims for unemployment benefits. I'd say it's part of the group of readings. They're indicating some benefit now, these diminishing stay-at-home restrictions."
Mark Hamrick is the senior economic analyst with Bankrate.com.
"We're still in a situation where the economy is seeing dire straits. The estimates for GDP in this current second quarter of the year running somewhere between an annualized decline of 30 and 40 percent. That's unprecedented."
Shelley Adler, Washington.
Britain's government is facing questions over how closely people would abide by its new test and trace service, which launched on Thursday. Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock says he trusts the public will do their "civic duty." Adam Reed of Reuters reports.
England brought in a new track and trace system on Thursday aimed at easing lockdown measures that have brought life to a standstill in recent months.
Contacts of those who test positive for COVID-19 will be asked to isolate for 14 days even if they have no symptoms.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock says he trusts the public to abide by the voluntary guidelines.
"The more they follow the instructions from the NHS, the safer we'll all be and the easier we'll be able to lift the broader lockdown measures - and I think that is a huge motivation for people to do the right thing. And I think the vast majority of people will."
Trust is a difficult issue for the government at the moment though - ministers including Hancock have backed a senior adviser to the prime minister who drove a long distance with his family during lockdown.
Britain is poised to start reopening non-essential retail shops and schools, and could possibly allow more social contact soon for millions of people who have been mostly stuck at home since March.
That's Reuters Adam Reed.
Search teams on Thursday recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage of a Pakistani airliner that crashed last week. We get more from Reuters Emer McCarthy.
The Airbus A320 came down into a crowded residential district of Karachi. Only two people survived.
Pakistani officials and Airbus investigators are collecting evidence at the site as they try to determine the cause of the country's worst airline disaster in years.
That's Reuters Emer McCarthy.
For more on these stories and the rest of the day's news, visit voanews.com. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd.
/1 
