North America

09 July 2022; MEMO: Russia, on Friday, vetoed a bid to extend UN Security Council approval for 12 months of UN aid deliveries to some 4 million people in opposition-controlled north-west Syria from Turkiye, Reuters reports.

The resolution, drafted by Ireland and Norway, received 13 votes in favour, while China abstained. A resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain or France to be adopted.

WASHINGTON, Jul 09 (APP): United States President Joe Biden on Saturday congratulated Muslims in the US and around the world as they celebrated Eid ul-Azha amid soaring inflation and worsening impacts of climate change.

“Jill (the First Lady) and I send our warmest greetings to Muslims across the United States and around the world celebrating Eid ul-Azha,” he said in a statement issued on Saturday.

NEW YORK, July 9. /TASS/: US billionaire Elon Musk has terminated his deal to purchase Twitter social network, CNBC television channel reported.

According to CNBC, "Musk wants to end his deal to buy Twitter, according to a letter sent by a lawyer on his behalf to the company’s chief legal officer."

A copy of the letter was published on the official website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In the letter, attorney Mike Ringler charged that "Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations."

MEXICO CITY, July 8 (Reuters) - A video claiming to be from Mexico's powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) circulated on social media on Friday, urging that fighting be kept between criminal groups and avoid innocents.

Two Jesuit priests and a tour guide were killed last month in a suspected run-in with a wanted drug trafficker in the border state of Chihuahua, a crime that shocked Mexicans and drew condemnation from Pope Francis. 

LANGLEY, Va., July 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday thanked staff at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency for warning the world about Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to invade Ukraine, and hailed what he called the "quiet bravery" of America's spies.

Marking the CIA's 75th anniversary, Biden said he had been involved with the agency for 52 of those years, first as a junior senator on a 1975 committee set up to investigate mind control experiments and other abuses by the agency.

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury on Friday said it was moving to terminate a 1979 tax treaty with Hungary in the wake of Budapest's decision to block the European Union's implementation of a new, 15% global minimum tax.

A Treasury spokesperson said that since Hungary lowered its corporate tax rate to 9% - less than half the 21% U.S. rate - the tax treaty unilaterally benefits Hungary.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The federal government hasn’t done enough to protect a rare species of whale from lethal entanglement in lobster fishing gear, and new rules are needed to protect the species from extinction, a judge has ruled.

The government has violated both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act by failing to protect the North Atlantic right whale, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled on Friday. The whales number less than 340 in the world and have been declining rapidly in population in recent years.

NEW YORK (AP) — As Donald Trump considers another White House run, polls show he’s the most popular figure in the Republican Party. But it wasn’t always that way.

Competing at one point against a dozen rivals for the presidential nomination in 2016, Trump won only about one-third of the vote in key early states. He even lost in Iowa, which kicks off the nomination process.

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) — Bobby Shapiro ran down Central Avenue in socks, moving toward the street corner where gunfire had erupted just moments before. At first, he only wanted to confirm that what he was hearing was real — a mass shooting at a July 4 parade in Highland Park.

Any sense of disbelief vanished with the sight of bone fragments, blood and pieces of flesh lying in the street where a parade was marching just minutes before. Then he saw the bodies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two weeks after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, Kremlin-backed rebels assaulted a nursing home in the eastern region of Luhansk. Dozens of elderly and disabled patients, many of them bedridden, were trapped inside without water or electricity.

The March 11 assault set off a fire that spread throughout the facility, suffocating people who couldn’t move. A small number of patients and staff escaped and fled into a nearby forest, finally getting assistance after walking for 5 kilometers (3 miles).