North America

LOS ANGELES, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The White House said Tuesday it will start distributing the monkeypox vaccines across the country to address the spread of the virus, focusing on people most at risk and communities with the highest numbers of cases.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will immediately send 56,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine to areas with high transmission. An additional 240,000 doses will be distributed over the next few weeks, with even more to come this summer and fall.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy shrank at a 1.6% annual pace in the first three months of the year even though consumers and businesses kept spending at a decent pace, the government reported Wednesday in a slight downgrade from its previous estimate for January-March quarter.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A multinational task force designed to seize Russian oligarchs’ wealth has blocked and frozen $30 billion in sanctioned individuals’ property and funds in its first 100 days in operation, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday.

That’s on top of the yachts, other vessels and luxury real estate that have been impounded as well as $300 billion in Russian Central Bank funds that have been immobilized, the department said.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Victims have been found with no identification documents at all and in one case a stolen ID. Remote villages lack phone service to reach family members and determine the whereabouts of missing migrants. Fingerprint data has to be shared and matched by different governments.

More than a day after the discovery of a stifling trailer in San Antonio where 51 migrants who died were abandoned in the sweltering heat, few identities of the victims have been made public, illustrating the challenges authorities face in tracing people who cross borders clandestinely.

DENVER (AP) — Republicans in Colorado rejected two prominent candidates whose political profiles were centered on election falsehoods in a fresh reminder that fealty to former President Donald Trump’s lies about mass voter fraud is no guarantee of success with conservative voters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump rebuffed his own security’s warnings about armed protesters in the Jan. 6 rally crowd and made desperate attempts to join his supporters as they marched to the Capitol, according to dramatic new testimony before the House committee investigating the 2021 insurrection.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump learned his attorney general had publicly rejected his election fraud claims, he heaved his lunch at the wall with such force that the porcelain plate shattered and ketchup streamed down.

On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, consumed by crowd size concerns, he directed staff in profane terms to remove metal detectors he thought would slow down supporters who’d amassed in Washington for a speech. Never mind that some were armed — they weren’t there to hurt him, he said.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 28 (APP): Some 284 million people between the age of 15 and 24 used drugs worldwide in 2020, a 26% increase over the previous decade, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed in a new report.

The report, titled World Drug Report 2022, pointed out that “young people are using more drugs, with use levels today in many countries higher than with the previous generation.”

Globally, 11.2 million people were estimated to inject drugs, around half of whom were living with hepatitis C; 1.4 million with HIV, and 1.2 million with both.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 28 (NNN-XINHUA) – A Chinese envoy, yesterday voiced deep concern, over the deteriorating situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, and called on the international community to take urgent and decisive actions, to prevent the Palestinian-Israeli issue from being totally derailed.

WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on more than 100 targets and banned new imports of Russian gold, acting on commitments made by the Group of Seven leaders this week to further punish Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on 70 entities, many of which it said are critical to Russia's defense industrial base, as well as 29 people in an effort to hinder Russia's ability to develop and deploy weapons and technology.