AFP

A high-level US delegation will travel to the Solomon Islands to mark the 80th anniversary of the World War II Battle of Guadalcanal, months after the country signed a controversial security pact with China, the State Department announced Monday.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and other senior diplomats and military leaders will visit the islands’ capital Honiara from August 6-8 and attend memorial events organized with Japan, now a close US ally.

The visitors will include Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Australia, whose father, late president John F. Kennedy, was famously wounded in the Solomon Islands in a Japanese attack at sea in the wake of the decisive battle. 

“These events will recognize the service and sacrifice of those who fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, including US and Allied forces, the people of Solomon Islands and the people of Japan,” a State Department statement said.

It said the US delegation will also “highlight the enduring relationship between the United States and Solomon Islands,” including the recent decision to reopen a US embassy in Honiara.

The Solomons in April signed a secretive security deal with China, defying warnings voiced by the United States and Australia which fear that a rising Beijing will exert its military clout farther into the Pacific.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, however, recently insisted that the Solomon Islands will not host a foreign military base for fear of becoming a target.

Sherman’s father was a Marine who was seriously injured in the Battle of Guadalcanal, a major offensive over six months in 1942 and 1943 that triggered a Japanese withdrawal and marked the start of major Allied operations in the Pacific.

Walmart cut its profit outlook Monday as surging inflation prompts shoppers to cut back on higher-margin items as they contend with increased prices for gasoline, food and other staples.

The world’s biggest retailer now expects a double-digit decline in operating income for both the second quarter and full year after previously projecting the potential for a slight increase for the second quarter and a decrease of about one percent for the year.

Not all of the latest figures were downgrades to Walmart’s forecast, however.

The company now expects comparable sales growth of six percent for US stores in the second quarter, a slight upgrade from its prior outlook, reflecting heavy sales of food and consumables.

But this shift has come at the expense of other categories of merchandise, with the chain flagging apparel as a particularly weak domain in which it has cut prices to unload merchandise.

“The increasing levels of food and fuel inflation are affecting how customers spend, and while we’ve made good progress clearing hardline categories, apparel in Walmart US is requiring more markdown dollars,” said Chief Executive Doug McMillon.

“We’re now anticipating more pressure on general merchandise in the back half.”

Walmart’s announcement reflects the reality that profit margins for groceries are “far lower” compared with other goods, said analyst Neil Saunders of GlobalData Retail.

The big chain has dealt with higher labor and freight costs during the pandemic, but has “not passed these costs on in-full, which has an impact on its profitability,” Saunders said. 

“We believe this is a trend playing out more widely: Most retailers are not struggling to grow their top lines, but they are struggling to maintain the high levels of profitability that were commonplace over the past few years.”

Shares of Walmart sank 8.8 percent to $120.38 in after-hours trading.

US President Joe Biden said Monday he feels “great” after getting over most of his Covid-19 symptoms and hopes to be fully back at work this week.

“I’m feeling great,” Biden told reporters at the end of a meeting with staff and business leaders on microchip manufacturing, where he appeared by video link.

In a slightly croaky voice, Biden said he’d had two full nights of sleep in a row, adding with a smile that “as a matter of fact my dog had to wake me up this morning.”

Biden, who has isolated at the White House since testing positive for the coronavirus last Thursday, said he hoped to be working in person again “by the end of this week.”

The president has been carrying out his full duties, but has observed a lighter schedule during his recovery.

Earlier, the official White House doctor said that the 79-year-old’s condition is much improved, although he continues to receive treatment for the potentially deadly virus.

“His symptoms have now almost completely resolved,” Biden’s physician Kevin O’Connor said in a memorandum to the White House press secretary. “He only notes some residual nasal congestion and minimal hoarseness.”

Biden’s lungs remain clear and his pulse, blood pressure and respiratory rate are all normal, the doctor said.

The president continues to take the antiviral therapeutic Paxlovid and “is experiencing no shortness of breath,” the memorandum said.

Biden is the oldest person ever in the US presidency but his physician says he is generally in good health. He has been fully vaccinated and received two booster shots against the coronavirus.

US actor Paul Sorvino, famous for his role in the gangster classic “Goodfellas” and the father of actress Mira Sorvino, has died at the age of 83, his family said Monday. 

“I am completely devastated. The love of my life & the most wonderful man who has ever lived is gone. I am heartbroken,” his widow Dee Dee Sorvino wrote on her Facebook page. 

Born in April 1939 in New York, Paul Sorvino was best known for his role as Paul Cicero in “Goodfellas,” directed by Martin Scorsese and released in 1990, alongside Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta. 

The following year, he distinguished himself in the television series “Law and Order,” where he played a policeman. In 1995, he took on the role of Henry Kissinger in Oliver Stone’s film “Nixon.”

“My father the great Paul Sorvino has passed,” his daughter Mira Sorvino, who won an Oscar in 1996 for her role in Woody Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite,” said on Twitter. 

“My heart is rent asunder — a life of love and joy and wisdom with him is over,” she said. 

Paul Sorvino played a wide variety of supporting roles in movies or in television series, but he was a multi-faceted artist, with a particular love of sculpture and opera. 

“Most people think I’m either a gangster or a cop or something, but the reality is I’m a sculptor, a painter, a best-selling author, many, many things — a poet, an opera singer, but none of them is gangster, but, you know, obviously I sort of have a knack for playing these things,” he said in a 2014 interview in the Orlando Weekly. 

Joni Mitchell delivered her first full set in more than 20 years this weekend, surprising attendees at the Newport Folk Festival alongside country star Brandi Carlile.

The show followed Mitchell’s stage cameo earlier this year, when she joined other artists as they performed a moving tribute to her life’s work at the MusiCares pre-Grammy gala.

Both moments marked rare public appearances for the trailblazing Mitchell, who in 2015 suffered a brain aneurysm that left her temporarily unable to speak, the aftermath of which has involved extensive physical therapy.

Mitchell and Carlile sang duets including the 78-year-old’s “A Case of You” and “Both Sides Now,” while the Canadian-born folk icon delighted the crowd by playing the lengthy solo from “Just Like This Train” on an electric guitar.

Mitchell last appeared at Newport, an annual festival in Rhode Island, in 1969. 

Sunday’s 13-song set also featured her classic environmentalist anthem “Big Yellow Taxi” and “The Circle Game” along with renditions of “Summertime,” “Love Potion No. 9” and “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.”

The revolutionary singer-songwriter earlier this year was honored as MusiCares’ Person of the Year at the charity gala that precedes the Grammys, where she gave a brief performance.

The next night she accepted the Grammy for Best Historical Album, appearing in a red leather beret, sunglasses and floral pants, her flowing blonde hair in pigtails.

Born in a small town in western Canada, Mitchell had her start playing small clubs and eventually moved to Los Angeles, where she became a pivotal figure in the 1960s Laurel Canyon music scene and beyond.

She is considered one of her generation’s most iconic singer-songwriters, giving rise to the phenomenon of the solitary and thoughtful musician who pours out emotion on stage.

Last summer her seminal album “Blue” charted number one on iTunes as it hit its fiftieth anniversary — outperforming even pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour.”

Voicing her own astonishment over the milestone on the MusiCares red carpet, Mitchell earlier this year explained her album’s enduring popularity and recent resurgence: “Maybe people want to get a little bit deeper.”

Flights were halted at Love Field airport in Dallas, Texas, on Monday after a woman fired several shots into the air inside a terminal, police said.

The 37-year-old woman was shot and wounded by a police officer after she fired into the ceiling with a handgun, Police Chief Eddie Garcia said.

Garcia told reporters the woman was dropped off at the airport, went into a restroom, emerged wearing different clothing and opened fire.

A police officer in the area shot the woman in the “lower extremities” and she was arrested and taken to hospital, the police chief said.

No one else was injured.

The shooting sparked panicked scenes at the airport as passengers fled for safety.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a “ground stop,” temporarily halting flights at the airport.

California firefighters were making slow progress Monday battling a raging wildfire near Yosemite National Park that will force some residents to evacuate with “just the shirts on their back,” officials said.

The latest blaze — which has already forced thousands to evacuate — comes as much of the United States remain in the grip of a sweltering heat wave.

The Oak Fire in Mariposa County has burned 16,791 acres (6.795 hectares) and is so far 10 percent contained, Cal Fire, the state fire department, said Monday.

“What we’re seeing on this fire is very indicative of what we’ve seen in fires throughout California, in the West over the last two years,” Jon Heggie, a Cal Fire battalion chief, told CNN.

“These fires are burning with just such a velocity and intensity it makes it extremely challenging and extremely dangerous for both the public and the firefighters,” Heggie said.

“It’s moving so quickly it’s not giving people a lot of time and they sometimes are just going to have to evacuate with just the shirts on their back,” he said.

The Oak Fire has forced the evacuation of several thousand people so far, officials said, and the hot and dry conditions and steep, rugged terrain are complicating firefighting efforts.

More than 2,000 firefighters backed by 17 helicopters have been deployed against the Oak Fire, which broke out on Friday near the vast Yosemite National Park in central California.

– ‘Direct result’ of climate change –

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday declared a state of emergency in Mariposa County, citing “conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property.”

In recent years, California and other parts of the western United States have been ravaged by huge and fast-moving wildfires, driven by years of drought and a warming climate.

“What I can tell you is this is a direct result of what is climate change,” Heggie told CNN.

“You can’t have a 10-year drought in California and expect things to be the same,” he said. “We’re now paying the price for that 10-year drought.

“That drought is what drives what we are calling megafires.”

Evidence of global warming could be seen elsewhere in the country, as 60 million Americans were under a heat advisory on Monday.

Temperatures of 100 or more degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) are forecast across parts of eastern Kansas and Oklahoma into southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.

Not even the usually cool Pacific Northwest will escape the far-reaching heat, with temperatures forecast to reach record highs in some areas.

Cities have opened cooling stations and increased outreach to at-risk communities such as the homeless and those without air conditioning.

Various regions of the globe have been hit by extreme heat waves in recent months, such as Western Europe in July and India in March to April, incidents that scientists say are an unmistakable sign of a warming climate.

The extreme weather prompted former vice president Al Gore, a tireless climate advocate, to issue a stark warning on Sunday about “inaction” by US lawmakers.

Asked whether he believes US President Joe Biden should declare a climate emergency, which would grant him additional policy powers, Gore was blunt.

“Mother Nature has already declared it a global emergency,” Gore told ABC.