USA

UNITED NATIONS, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution to extend the authorization for the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) for six months, till Dec. 31, 2023.

Resolution 2687, which won the unanimous support of the 15-member council, requests ATMIS to prioritize three activities: maintaining enabling support for peace and security in Somalia to ensure a sustainable transition, supporting Somali-led operations against Al-Shabaab, and preparing for its smooth drawdown and exit from Somalia as planned.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An audio recording from a meeting in which former President Donald Trump discusses a “highly confidential” document with an interviewer appears to undermine his later claim that he didn’t have such documents, only magazine and newspaper clippings.

The recording, from a July 2021 interview Trump gave at his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort for people working on the memoir of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, is a critical piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over the mishandling of classified information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of different electronic cigarette devices sold in the U.S. has nearly tripled to over 9,000 since 2020, driven almost entirely by a wave of unauthorized disposable vapes from China, according to tightly controlled sales data obtained by The Associated Press.

The surge stands in stark contrast to regulators’ own figures, which tout the rejection of some 99% of company requests to sell new e-cigarettes while authorizing only a few meant for adult smokers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department’s watchdog said Tuesday that a “combination of negligence and misconduct” enabled financier Jeffrey Epstein to take his own life at a federal jail in New York City while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz cited the federal Bureau of Prisons’ failure to assign Epstein a cellmate after his previous one left and problems with surveillance cameras as factors in Epstein’s death.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that North Carolina’s top court did not overstep its bounds in striking down a congressional districting plan as excessively partisan under state law.

The justices by a 6-3 vote rejected the broadest view of a case that could have transformed elections for Congress and president.

North Carolina Republicans had asked the court to leave state legislatures virtually unchecked by their state courts when dealing with federal elections.

26 June 2023; MEMO: The United States informed Israel yesterday it will halt all funding towards scientific and technological research cooperation projects taking place in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Syrian Golan Heights.

The decision reverses a policy imposed by the Trump administration in 2020 that enabled US taxpayer funding to be used for science and technology projects in the settlements for the first time since 1967.

27 June 2023; MEMO: The United States will test Palestinian-Americans' freedom of travel in Israel next month as part of preparations for proposed US visa exemptions for Israelis, an official briefed on the preparations said on Monday, Reuters reports.

Israel has satisfied some conditions for the US Visa Waver Program (VWP), to which it hopes to be admitted by October.

HOLLIS, N.H. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will hold dueling campaign events Tuesday in New Hampshire after some squabbling over the close timing of the appearances.

DeSantis, who released an immigration and border security policy proposal on Monday, was set to appear at a town hall event in Hollis, while Trump, the leading GOP presidential candidate, was scheduled to speak at a lunch in Concord hosted by a Republican women’s club and attend the opening of his campaign’s state office in Manchester.

MIAMI (AP) — A valet for Donald Trump is set to be arraigned Tuesday on charges that he helped the former president hide classified documents that the Justice Department wanted back.

Walt Nauta was charged earlier this month alongside Trump in a 38-count indictment filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. Though Trump has already entered a not guilty plea to the charges, a judge postponed the arraignment for Nauta to give him time to find a Florida-based lawyer.

WASHINGTON (AP) — On the surface, the turmoil in Russia would seem like something for the U.S. to celebrate: a powerful mercenary group engaging in a short-lived clash with Russia’s military at the very moment that Ukraine is trying to gain momentum in a critical counteroffensive.