USA

NEW YORK (AP) — The head of the nation’s financial watchdog is having second thoughts about how useful fines are in deterring illegal behavior in the financial industry, saying some companies have gotten so big that the money makes little difference.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Rohit Chopra signaled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to deploy an array of tools that could limit the ability of a bank or financial firm to conduct business if they violate the law.

ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder has begun testifying before a congressional committee investigating the NFL team’s history of workplace misconduct.

A spokesperson for the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform confirmed Snyder began giving his deposition Thursday morning virtually and in private. The hearing is not public.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping held the fifth conversation of their presidencies on Thursday, speaking for more than two hours as they chart the future of their complicated relationship at a time of simmering economic and geopolitical tensions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — What started as a $4 trillion effort during President Joe Biden’s first months in office to rebuild America’s public infrastructure and family support systems has ended up a much slimmer, but not unsubstantial, compromise package of inflation-fighting health care, climate change and deficit reduction strategies that appears headed toward quick votes in Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy shrank from April through June for a second straight quarter, contracting at a 0.9% annual pace and raising fears that the nation may be approaching a recession.

The decline that the Commerce Department reported Thursday in the gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of the economy — followed a 1.6% annual drop from January through March. Consecutive quarters of falling GDP constitute one informal, though not definitive, indicator of a recession.

27 July 2022; MEMO: An Israel-based pharmaceutical company has announced a $4.35 billion nationwide settlement to resolve thousands of lawsuits filed against it for its alleged major role in the US's opioid epidemic, which has killed over 500,000 overdose deaths throughout the past two decades.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 27 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned an attack on the peacekeepers serving in the Stablization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), which took place during violent demonstrations at the mission’s base on Tuesday.

Two Indian police officers and a Moroccan ‘blue helmet’ were killed, and an Egyptian police officer injured.

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (NNN-TELESUR) — A report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says Colombia’s next government must prioritize bringing down illegal armed groups and criminal gangs.

According to a communiqué issued by the OHCHR, “the predominantly military response of the State has failed to stop the expansion of the groups, and the scarce presence of civilian institutions has aggravated the situation.”  

WASHINGTON (AP) — The intensifying rivalry between former President Donald Trump and his once fiercely loyal vice president, Mike Pence, was put on stark display Tuesday as the two gave dueling speeches in Washington on the future of the Republican Party.

Trump, in his first return to Washington since Democrat Joe Biden ousted him from the White House, repeated the false election fraud claims that sparked the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, while Pence, in a separate address, implored the party to move on from Trump’s defeat.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional candidate whose compelling personal story of military valor and unfathomable loss helped him win former President Donald Trump’s support has connections to right-wing extremists, including a campaign consultant who was a member of the Proud Boys.