USA

UNITED NATIONS, June 28 (NNN-XINHUA) — The United Nations verified 27,180 grave violations against children in armed conflict in 2022, affecting 18,890 children in 24 situations and one regional arrangement it monitored, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Of the 27,180 grave violations, 24,300 were committed in 2022 and 2,880 were committed earlier but verified in 2022. Of the 18,890 children affected, 13,469 were boys, 4,638 were girls, and 783 were sex unknown, shows the UN secretary-general’s annual report on children and armed conflict.

June 27 (Reuters) - Georgia's top election official, Brad Raffensperger, is scheduled on Wednesday to answer questions from federal investigators examining former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, a spokesperson for Raffensperger's office said.

Raffensperger, Georgia's Republican secretary of state, will likely be asked about a phone call he received from Trump in January 2021, in which Trump was recorded asking Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to reverse President Joe Biden's victory in the state.

WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - Solid majorities of Americans support providing weaponry to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia and believe that such aid demonstrates to China and other U.S. rivals a will to protect U.S. interests and allies, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey.

The two-day poll that was concluded on Tuesday charted a sharp rise in backing for arming Ukraine, with 65% of the respondents approving of the shipments compared with 46% in a May poll.

June 28 (Reuters) - U.S. technology company Extreme Networks Inc said last year it had suspended all business activities in Russia to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine "living under attack."

But Reuters has found that, as the publicly-traded U.S. firm was unwinding its Russia operations, its most senior manager in the region did not stop doing business there.

NEW YORK, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States' addiction to sanctions has gotten out of control and is hurting itself, reported The Washington Post earlier this month.

The Treasury Department estimated in late 2021 that it had sanctions on 9,421 organizations and individuals, a roughly 900 percent increase over the past 20 years. In 2022, the Treasury Department added 2,549 new designations while delisting only 225. That means nearly 12,000 entities were under U.S. sanctions as of the beginning of this year, said the report.

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. Marine veteran pleaded not guilty Wednesday to revised charges in the fatal chokehold of a man who was behaving erratically on a New York City subway train.

Daniel Penny, 24, pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the May 1 death of Jordan Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who was shouting and begging for money when Penny pinned him to the floor of the moving subway car with the help of two other passengers and held him in a chokehold for more than three minutes.

REPRESA, California (AP) — The graduates lined up, brushing off their gowns and adjusting classmates’ tassels and stoles. As the graduation march played, the 85 men appeared to hoots and cheers from their families. They marched to the stage – one surrounded by barbed wire fence and constructed by fellow prisoners.

For these were no ordinary graduates. Their black commencement garb almost hid their aqua and navy-blue prison uniforms as they received college degrees, high school diplomas and vocational certificates earned while they served time.

WASHINGTON, Jun 27 (APP): The White House has condemned the online harassment of Sabrina Siddiqui, an American journalist of Pakistani origin who asked India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his Hindu nationalist government’s human rights record when he visited the White House last week.

June 26 (Reuters) - Anti-corruption authorities in the United States and Sweden are reviewing a complaint alleging that the Swedish affiliate of a U.S. company pledged to pay tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks if a son of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan helped it secure a dominant market position in the country.

The proposed plan was detailed in communications and business documents seen by Reuters, as well as by a person familiar with the matter. Reuters is reporting this plan and the resulting preliminary probes for the first time.

WASHINGTON, June 27 (Reuters) - A new report detailing intelligence failures leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol said government agencies responsible for anticipating trouble downplayed the threat - even as the building was being stormed in an attempt to stop Congress' certification of Joe Biden as the 46th president.