North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — It would have been something never quite before seen in America — a defeated president, Donald Trump, standing at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2001, with a mob of supporters, some armed, contesting the election outcome.

Trump intended to go there that day. His allies had been planning for the moment, envisioning the president delivering a speech outside the building or even entering the House chamber amid objections to Congress certifying the 2020 election results for Democrat Joe Biden.

WASHINGTON, Jul 08 (APP): Prominent Kashmiri leader Ghulam Nabi Fai, has paid tributes to Sardar Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan, a former prime minister of Azad Kashmir, calling him a “preeminent” leader who strived to uphold the human and political rights of the people of the disputed State.

OTTAWA, July 8. /TASS/: Canada’s government imposed sanctions on TASS news agency and on Russian broadcasters - Channel One, RT, NTV and the VGTRK media holding, according to regulations published on the website of the Canadian foreign ministry on Friday.

The list includes Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova and dozens of Russian journalists.

Zakharova has already stated that she is not surprised, but that she thought she had been "on them for a long time".

UNITED NATIONS, July 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations Security Council will continue negotiating Friday on extending authorization of aid transfers across Syria’s border, one day after a scheduled vote was scrapped following disagreement between Russia and the West.

Moscow is seeking a six-month extension, with the possibility to renew, while Western nations want a full year for the transfers, which are being conducted without approval from Damascus.

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said he will visit the Japanese embassy in Washington to sign a condolence book after Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was gunned down on Friday.

He also said he tried to call Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who he called "a very solid guy," adding "Japan is a very, very stable ally."

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden was due to discuss tariffs on Chinese imports with advisers on Friday, but it was unclear when he would make a decision on whether to remove some duties to try to fight inflation, two people familiar with the deliberations said.

The White House meeting is one of several in recent weeks as Biden struggles to balance competing desires to use every lever possible to ease inflation and to maintain pressure on China to try to win concessions on Beijing's state-driven economic policies.

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 benefits of the tax treaty unilaterally benefit Hungary and no longer benefit the United States.

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden signed a new weapons package worth up to $400 million for Ukraine on Friday, including four additional high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) and more ammunition.

The new U.S. aid is meant to bolster Ukraine as it confronts heavy pounding by Russian artillery.

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court decision overturning the right to an abortion was an exercise in "raw political power" and signed an executive order on Friday to help protect access to services to terminate pregnancies.

Biden, a Democrat, has been under pressure from his own party to take action after the landmark decision last month to overturn Roe v Wade, which upended roughly 50 years of protections for women's reproductive rights.

UNITED NATIONS, July 7 (Xinhua) -- A new UN report released Thursday warns that intersecting global crises are threatening the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and rescue efforts are needed in this regard.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 reveals that the convergence of increased fighting, the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, and the long-term climate crisis, could push an additional 75 to 95 million people into extreme poverty this year - compared with pre-pandemic projections - and jeopardize the SDG blueprint for more resilient, peaceful and equal societies.