North America

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 24 (APP): The United Nations is boosting support to Pakistani authorities dealing with the devastating floods in the most affected provinces of Balochistan and Sindh, a UN spokesman said Wednesday.

Responding to a question at the regular noon briefing at UN Headquarters in New York, Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that the UN team, led by Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Julien Harneis, has mobilized $7 million to respond to the floods.

UNITED NATIONS, August 24. /TASS/: Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vasily Nebenzya on Wednesday expressed regret that the UN Security Council allowed Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to speak by video link in violation of the council’s rules.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor expressed frustration over the lack of accountability for crimes committed during the Darfur conflict, telling the UN Security Council that survivors in Sudan need “action, not words.”

Karim Khan addressed the council by video during a visit to Sudan, describing trips to Darfur, where the UN says 300,000 people were killed and two and a half million fled their homes during the conflict that began in 2003.

OTTAWA, Aug 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The leaders of Canada and Germany signed a green hydrogen deal on Tuesday, laying a path for a transatlantic supply chain as Europe seeks to lessen its dependence on Russian energy.

“It’s a vote of confidence for Canada as a leader in clean energy,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a joint press conference with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

OTTAWA, Aug 24 (Reuters) - China warned it will take "forceful measures" if Canada interferes in Taiwan, a week after it emerged that a delegation of Canadian parliamentarians was planning to visit the island later this year to explore trade opportunities.

China claims Taiwan as its territory under its "one-China principle" and objects to foreign politicians visiting the island. Democratically governed Taiwan rejects China's claims.

WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The United States has responded to Iran's comments on the European Union's "final" text for revival of Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday.

"We received Iran’s comments on the EU’s proposed final text through the EU. Our review of those comments has now concluded. We have responded to the EU today," Price said.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday rebuked Israel's government for what he called its protection of a top former official wanted in Mexico on accusations he manipulated a probe into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students.

Mexico last year urged Israel to facilitate the extradition of Tomas Zeron, the former head of Mexico's criminal investigation agency, who Mexican officials say fled to Israel in 2020 to evade a probe into his handling of the missing students case. 

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Top U.S. health officials have known for years that the country's Strategic National Stockpile did not have enough doses of a smallpox vaccine that is now key to the monkeypox fight, according to a report of Politico.

The United States never had the money to purchase the millions of doses that experts felt were necessary, said the report, citing three former senior officials and a current official working on the monkeypox response.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials in the Trump White House tried to pressure U.S. health experts into reauthorizing a discredited COVID-19 treatment, according to a congressional investigation that provides new evidence of that administration’s efforts to override Food and Drug Administration decisions early in the pandemic.

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — A federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked the federal government from enforcing a legal interpretation that would require hospitals in the state to provide abortion services if the life of the mother is at risk.

Texas sued Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Xavier Becerra last month, arguing that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a federal law commonly referred to as EMTALA, doesn’t require doctors to provide abortions if doing so would violate a state law.