USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host Sweden’s prime minister at the White House on Wednesday in a show of solidarity as the United States presses for the Nordic nation’s entry into NATO, a bid stalled by objections from two members of the Western military alliance.

Biden and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson plan to “review our growing security cooperation and reaffirm their view that Sweden should join NATO as soon as possible,” the White House said a statement Saturday. The leaders also will discuss the war in Ukraine and China.

(AP) --- It’s three years until the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, but festivities are already starting.

The anniversary push will formally launch July 4 with an event during a Major League Baseball game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The organization spearheading the celebration, known as America250, will start recruiting people to share their stories of what the country means to them.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis have asked that a trial involving Disney be postponed until the middle of 2025, well after the GOP presidential nomination race wraps up and voters have picked a winner in the November 2024 general election.

In a Tallahassee federal court filing Tuesday, attorneys for the Florida governor, who is seeking the Republican nomination, and his appointees to a board that governs Disney World outlined a proposed schedule that requests an Aug. 4, 2025, trial date.

30 June 2023; MEMO: The US State Department, on Thursday, condemned the burning of a copy of the Quran in Sweden but said it demonstrates, by the issue of a permit, the support for freedom of expression, Anadolu Agency reports.

State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said at his press briefing that the US is "deeply concerned by the act," but supports freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly as elements of democracy.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 30 (APP): Following days of riots and protests across France over the police shooting of a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said in Geneva that it was time for the country to reckon with its history of racism in policing.

In a statement released in Geneva on Friday, OHCHR Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani expressed concern over the death of 17-year-old Nahel, on Tuesday, after he was shot dead driving away from a traffic stop in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre.

WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump, a longtime admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday Putin has been "somewhat weakened" by an aborted mutiny and that now is the time for the United States to try to broker a negotiated peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.

"I want people to stop dying over this ridiculous war," Trump told Reuters in a telephone interview.

PHILADELPHIA, June 30 (Reuters) - Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents-rights advocacy group that has rapidly expanded since its founding little more than two years ago, flexed its political muscles on Friday as top rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination addressed its national conference in Philadelphia.

"2024 is going to be the year when the parents across this country finally fight back," said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the closest challenger to front-runner Donald Trump, told the hotel ballroom crowd.

UNITED NATIONS, June 30 (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously voted to end a decade-long peacekeeping mission in Mali after the West African country's military junta abruptly asked the 13,000-strong force to leave - a move the United States said was engineered by Russia's Wagner mercenary group.

NEW YORK, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States has witnessed five mass shootings each Independence Day on average over the past decade - more than on any other day of the year, reported USA Today on Thursday.

In that time, there have been more than 50 shootings in which four or more people were hit by gunfire on July Fourth, according to an analysis of Gun Violence Archive data by researcher James Alan Fox of Northeastern University in Boston.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United Nations’ scientific, educational and cultural organization has agreed to readmit the United States as a member.

UNESCO’s governing board voted 132-10 on Friday to accept the U.S. proposal to rejoin the Paris-based agency. America’s membership will become official once Secretary of State Antony Blinken or a designee formally accepts the invitation, according to Biden administration officials.