North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will be holding a campaign rally in North Carolina on July 17 — the day that former special counsel Robert Mueller is expected to testify before Congress.

Trump’s reelection campaign has announced he will host a “Keep America Great” rally at Williams Arena in Greenville that evening.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Beware the phishing attempts.

An election security official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday warned top state election officials nationwide to safeguard against fraudulent emails targeting state and local election workers.

The emails appear as if they come from a legitimate source and contain links that, if clicked, can open up election data systems to manipulation or attacks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Days after the U.S. Supreme Court halted the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday started the process of printing the questionnaire without the controversial query.

Trump administration attorneys notified parties in lawsuits challenging the question that the printing of the hundreds of millions of documents for the 2020 counts would be starting, said Kristen Clarke, executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The same military jurors who acquitted a decorated Navy SEAL of murder in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive under his care in Iraq in 2017 will return to court Wednesday to decide whether he should serve any jail time for the single charge he was convicted of: posing with the 17-year-old militant’s corpse.

The final step comes after the verdict Tuesday was met with an outpouring of emotion as the jury also cleared Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of attempted murder in the shootings of two civilians and all other charges.

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked a Trump administration policy that would keep thousands of asylum-seekers locked up while they pursue their cases, saying the Constitution demands that such migrants have a chance to be released from custody.

WASHINGTON, July 2 (Xinhua) -- International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Tuesday that she is honored to have been nominated for the presidency of the European Central Bank (ECB), and has decided to temporarily step down from the IMF leadership during the nomination period.

WASHINGTON, July 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Department of State said in a statement on Tuesday that it has identified Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Husain Ali Hazzima, a Hezbollah operative, as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).

BLA is an armed separatist group that targets security forces and civilians, mainly in ethnic Baloch areas of Pakistan, according to the statement.

A faction of BLA has claimed responsibility for the attack at a hotel in Gwadar, Pakistan in May and said the target was Chinese and other foreign investors staying at the hotel.

2 July 2019; AFP: US President Donald Trump warned Monday that Iran is "playing with fire" after Tehran said it exceeded a limit on enriched uranium reserves under a 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by Washington.

Israel urged European states to sanction Iran, while Russia voiced regret but said the move was a consequence of US pressure, which has pushed the deal towards collapse.

2 July 2019; DW: US lawmakers from both parties are objecting to a move by US President Donald Trump to partially ease restrictions on US companies selling technology to Chinese telecom manufacturer Huawei. The concession arose from a trade war truce agreed to with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit.

2 July 2019; DW: The United Nations criticized Italy on Monday for its hostility towards refugee rescue ships. The comments came amid raised tensions between Berlin and Rome regarding the detention of German Sea Watch captain Carola Rackete.

UK spokeswoman Stephane Dujarric said in a daily press briefing that "no vessel or ship master should be at risk of being fined for coming to the aid of boats in distress, where loss of life is imminent."