North America

UNITED NATIONS, July 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — : The United Nations Security Council votes on Thursday on extending its authorisation of aid transfers across Syria’s border without approval from Damascus, with Russia seeking a six-month prolongation while Western nations want a full year.

The UN resolution permitting aid deliveries across the Syrian-Turkish border at Bab al-Hawa has been in effect since 2014, but is set to expire on Sunday.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A year has passed since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his private home where an elite security team was supposed to protect him. Not only have authorities failed to identify and arrest all those who masterminded and financed the killing, but Haiti has gone into a freefall as violence soars and the economy tumbles.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week and while layoffs remain low, it was the fifth consecutive week that claims topped the 230,000 mark and the most in almost six months.

Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 2 rose to 235,000, up 4,000 from the previous week and the most since mid-January, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications generally track with the number of layoffs. Until early June, claims hadn’t eclipsed 220,000 since January and have often been below 200,000 this year.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Derek Chauvin will learn his sentence Thursday for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, with a deal in place that would extend the former Minneapolis police officer’s time behind bars while shifting him to possibly more favorable conditions in a federal prison.

Chauvin agreed to a sentence of 20 to 25 years in his December plea to a federal charge in Floyd’s killing. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson will make the final decision, with prosecutors seeking the full 25 on the grounds that Chauvin’s actions were cold-blooded and needless.

CHICAGO (AP) — Two of the victims of a July Fourth parade massacre in a Chicago suburb left behind a 2-year-old son. Another was staying with family in Illinois after he was injured in car wreck.

For some, it was a tradition. They were avid travelers, members of their synagogue and professionals. But in a hail of gunfire they became victims in the nation’s latest horrific mass shooting.

The victims were Kevin McCarthy, 37; Irina McCarthy, 35; Katherine Goldstein, 64; Stephen Straus, 88; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69.

06 July 2022; MEMO: The United States, on Wednesday, imposed sanctions on a network of Hong Kong, Emirati and other companies that it accused of helping to deliver and sell Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products to East Asia, applying pressure on Tehran as Washington seeks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Reuters reports.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 06 (APP): Pakistan has called for an urgent “plan of action” to grapple with poverty and huger that have been made more acute by the current geo-political tensions, especially for the peoples facing war and occupation for decades.

WASHINGTON, July 6. /TASS/: A call made by the United States to bar Russia from all sports tournaments worldwide is politically motivated and is an example of unfair competition, the Russian Embassy in the United States said in a statement.

The US Department of State said in a statement on Tuesday that the United States and its partners had urged to suspend the membership of the national sports federations of Russia and Belarus within all international federations. According to the statement, such announcement was made in view of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.

LAKE MEAD (Nevada/Arizona, US), July 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Millions of gallons of Colorado River water hurtle through the Hoover Dam every day, generating electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes.
 
But the mega drought affecting the western United States is sending reservoir levels plummeting towards deadpool — the point at which the dam can no longer produce power.
 

WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a network of Hong Kong, Emirati and other companies that it accused of helping to deliver and sell Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products to East Asia, applying pressure on Tehran as Washington seeks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement the network of people and entities used a web of Gulf-based front companies to facilitate the delivery and sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in products from Iranian companies to East Asia.