USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is, on many counts, a curious choice for President Joe Biden to honor with a state visit.

Since Russia’s Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine 16 months ago, India has boosted its economy by purchasing increasing quantities of cheap Russian oil.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An effort to disbar conservative attorney John Eastman, who devised ways to keep former President Donald Trump in the White House after his defeat in the 2020 election, will begin Tuesday in Los Angeles.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Virginia legislative primary season marked by hard-fought campaigns in both parties will come to a close Tuesday, as voters pick their party’s nominee for dozens of seats, including some swing districts that will help determine the balance of power in the General Assembly.

Both parties and both chambers have competitive contests on the ballot in the primary election. An unusually high number of sitting officeholders are also facing serious challenges in an election season upended by new political maps.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom says there’s no chance “on God’s green earth” he’s running for president in 2024, but he wants to make clear that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running, is “weak” and “undisciplined” and “will be crushed by Donald Trump.”

DeSantis, meanwhile, likes to mock Newsom’s apparent “fixation” on Florida while insisting that the Democratic governor’s “leftist government” is destroying California.

DETROIT (AP) — Americans across the country this weekend celebrated Juneteenth, marking the relatively new national holiday with cookouts, parades and other gatherings as they commemorated the end of slavery after the Civil War.

Willowbrook, Ill (AP) —A spate of weekend mass shootings and violence across the U.S. killed at least six people, including a Pennsylvania state trooper, and left dozens injured.

The shootings follow a surge in homicides and other violence over the past several years that experts say accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. They happened in suburban Chicago, Washington state, central Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Southern California and Baltimore.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ramps up his reelection effort this week with four fundraisers in the San Francisco area, as his campaign builds up its coffers and lays strategic foundations for 2024.

In the back half of June, Biden’s campaign will have over 20 fundraisers involving the president, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, according to a person involved in Biden’s travel plans who insisted on anonymity to discuss the schedule.

NEW YORK (AP) — Lashing out after his arraignment on federal charges last week, Donald Trump took aim at President Joe Biden and Democrats with language that seemed to evoke another era: He was being persecuted, he said, by “Marxists” and “communists.”

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 18 (APP):  The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has called on everyone to work together to build a more respectful and civil world, and for effective action to end hate speech.

WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - For over 40 years, a landmark agreement between the United States and China has yielded cooperation across a range of scientific and technical fields, a powerful sign that the rivals could set aside their disputes and work together.

Now with bilateral relations in their worst state in decades, a debate is underway within the U.S. government about whether to let the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement (STA) expire later this year, three officials familiar with the discussions said.